Quotes About Polybius

If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.

T]here can be no doubt that we should take the best system of government to be the one that combines [kingship, aristocracy, and democracy]. This is not just a matter of theory: we have actual experience of such a system in the Spartan constitution, which Lycurgus founded along these lines.

How much should a Stoic grieve? In proper grief, Seneca tells Polybius, our reason "will maintain a mean which will copy neither indifference nor madness, and will keep us in the state that is the mark of an affectionate, and not an unbalanced, mind.

Nor are the earth, water, and other elements, examined by ARISTOTLE, and HIPPOCRATES, more like to those, which at present lie under our observation, than the men, described by POLYBIUS and TACITUS, are to those, who now govern the world.

it was in defeat more than victory that Polybius saw the essence of Rome's greatness. It

Among them was Polybius, who would spend the next twenty years of his life there

The study of history is Ã¢â'¬Â¦ the only method of learning to bear with dignity the vicissitudes of Fortune. —Polybius (200–118 BCE)

If history is deprived of the Truth, we are left with nothing but an idle, unprofitable tale.

The New Testament was not written by historians with the critical spirit of a Thucydides or a Polybius, but by men moved by the fervor of faith. Under these circumstances, it is understandable that it contains discrepancies, some non historical legends, and polemics.

According to Polybius, Cato once remarked that one sign of the deterioration of the Republic was that pretty boys now cost more than fields, jars of pickled fish more than ploughmen.

The most important upshot of this,' Polybius concludes, 'is that the younger generation is inspired to endure all suffering for the common good, in the hope of winning the glory that belongs to the brave.

It was, Polybius argued, such balances across the political system that produced the internal stability on which Roman external success was built.