I'm re-reading the Greek historian Polybius, who wrote the definitive text on the rise of the Roman Republic, and I realized he's basically antiquity's George Plimpton: a traditionally educated aristocrat and literateur who found himself observing some of the wildest events of his day. - ThreadSky

patrickwyman.bsky.social • 1 day ago

I'm re-reading the Greek historian Polybius, who wrote the definitive text on the rise of the Roman Republic, and I realized he's basically antiquity's George Plimpton: a traditionally educated aristocrat and literateur who found himself observing some of the wildest events of his day.

Comments

desertdogster.bsky.social•1 day ago

The Lions accepted Plimpton.

It is a good thing that Polybius didn't have to deal with the lions then.

stillminty.bsky.social•1 day ago

I’d happily sit through a historiography course again. It was my favorite class in grad school.

knightrogenous.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Did he write about Hannibal (I think I read that so very long ago)?

patrickwyman.bsky.social•23 hours ago

Yes, he’s our key source for Hannibal.

knightrogenous.bsky.social•23 hours ago

It made a huge impression on me as a young man (all the gold rings from the Equestrians sent back to Carthage etc - Hannibal joking to Gisco about being out numbered)…still resonates.

tonyclarke1962.bsky.social•1 day ago

It always stuck me that polybius was the first critical thinker in text. You could argue he is the founder of universities. His writings were of thought rather than just narrative.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•1 day ago

It's a little frustrating that we are missing so much of Polybius, because it seems clear there his treatment is set up to evolve a bit and become more negative about the Romans, presumably as they push into Greece, but those parts are lost to us.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•1 day ago

The danger with Polybius, of course, is that he has all of these very appealing schematic systematizations, but he's frequently flattening his evidence to fit his models - and yet we have to rely on him anyway, because he's what we've got.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•1 day ago

His legion v. phalanx schematic, for instance, is pleasantly appealing, but describes accurately, like, 0.5/3 of the major legion-vs-phalanx battles.

Likewise, he vastly oversimplifies Carthage to make them work as an intellectual foil for the Roman Republic.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•1 day ago

That reminds me, we need to set up a time to record that follow-up on Carthage.

patrickwyman.bsky.social•1 day ago

You know so much more about all this than I do, but I'm struck by how little so many modern accounts of the Punic Wars actually add to Polybius's work. They're almost entirely glosses on him, and often not better than the original.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•1 day ago

The problem is it is hard to do much else: For the First Punic War, you have Polybius and little else of use. For the Second, you have Polybius and Livy and Livy is just warmed over Polybius - not really an independent source.

bretdevereaux.bsky.social•1 day ago

The best detailed treatment of both wars is Lazenby (First Punic War and Hannibal's War) but that really reveals how much it is just a gloss on Polybius - using other sources to fill in gaps or expose problems, but the core narrative is still Polybius, mostly.

bskylife.bsky.social•1 day ago

Now I'm wishing there was a Polybius account of him joining up with gladiator training for a week.

fwordleproblems.bsky.social•1 day ago

And, like, he doesn’t even GO here!

wellstonian.bsky.social•1 day ago

I read Plimpton’s history of fireworks, he LOVED blowing stuff up and had stories from being with the Grucci family in Monte Carlo the 1st time Americans won the gold medal at the international fireworks competition to setting the world record for largest firework at the time.