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Polybius (; , Polýbios; – BC) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world and included his eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage in 146 BC. Polybius is important for his analysis of the mixed constitution or the separation of powers in government, which was influential on Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Laws and the framers of the United States Constitution.
Polybius is a lunar impact crater in the southeast part of the Moon. It is located to the south-southeast of the larger crater Catharina, in the area framed by the Rupes Altai scarp. Some distance to the northeast is the Mare Nectaris, with the flooded craters Beaumont and Fracastorius.
The crater rim of Polybius appears slightly distended in the northeast, and has a cut through the northern wall. But the wall is otherwise moderately intact with only minor erosion. The interior floor is flat and almost featureless, with no central rise. To the south and east, a ray from Tycho cuts across the bowl-shaped Polybius A and Polybius B craterlets.
Polybius is an arcade game described in an urban legend, which is said to have induced various psychological effects on players. The story describes players suffering from amnesia, night terrors, and a tendency to stop playing all video games. Around a month after its supposed release in 1981, Polybius is said to have disappeared without a trace. There is no evidence that such a game has ever existed.
Polybius is thought to take its name from the Greek historian of the same name who was known for his assertion that historians should never report what they cannot verify through interviews with witnesses.
Gaius Iulius Polybius (fl. 1st century ) was a freedman of Emperor Claudius who was elevated to the secretariat during his reign. He assisted Claudius in his literary, judicial, and historical pursuits as a researcher before the emperor's accession and this became Polybius' official role in the imperial bureaucracy, with the title 'a studiis'. Suetonius, the biographer and secretary to the Emperor Hadrian, claims that Claudius was so appreciative of the help that Polybius was allowed to walk between the consuls when on official business.
When Polybius lost a brother in the early 40s CE, Seneca the Younger (then in exile) wrote his famous Ad Polybium in response. The intent seems to have been to gain Polybius' support for Seneca's recall to Rome. In the work, Polybius is praised for his loyalty to Claudius, but is also admonished that service to an emperor must come before grief. It had no effect on the freedman and Seneca remained in exile.
Disloyalty led Polybius to his downfall. He was executed for crimes against the state, proving that the freedmen were still in a position inferior to emperor, whatever their influence. Ancient historians claimed that Empress Messalina arranged for his death when she tired of him as a lover.
Polybius (c. 203 BC – 120 BC) was an ancient Greek historian.
Polybius is also the name of:
- Polybius of Tralles, a 2nd-century Christian bishop mentioned in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch
- Polybius (crab), a genus of swimming crabs
- Polybius (crater), a lunar impact crater
- Polybius (freedman) (fl. 1st century), freedman and later secretariat under the Roman Emperor Claudius
- Polybius (video game), a supposed video game featured in urban legend
- Polybius square, a cipher key technique
Usage examples of "polybius".
His wonderful system of telegraphy by means of torches, which he says he put in practice at the siege of Olympack, and which he describes as if it were his own invention, he had doubtless read in Polybius, and it seemed a good thing to introduce into his narrative.
We may learn from Polybius, Strabo, and Tacitus, that the profits of the fishery constituted the principal revenue of Byzantium.
From these institutions of peace and war Polybius has deduced the spirit and success of a people, incapable of fear, and impatient of repose.
Histiaeus and his bald slave gave way to Polybius and his cipher square, then came Caesar's letter to Cicero using an alphabet in which a was enciphered as d, b as e, c as f, and so forth.