HISTORIAN

Polybius

208 BC - 126 BC

Photo of Polybius

Icon of person Polybius

Polybius (; ‹See Tfd›Greek: Πολύβιος, Polýbios; c. 200 – c. 118 BC) was a Greek historian of the middle Hellenistic period. He is noted for his work The Histories, a universal history documenting the rise of Rome in the Mediterranean in the third and second centuries BC. It covered the period of 264–146 BC, recording in detail events in Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt and Africa, and documented the Punic Wars and Macedonian Wars among many others. Polybius's Histories is important not only for being the only Hellenistic historical work to survive in any substantial form, but also for its analysis of constitutional change and the mixed constitution. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Polybius has received more than 1,782,436 page views. His biography is available in 69 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 68 in 2019). Polybius is the 8th most popular historian (up from 9th in 2019), the 44th most popular biography from Greece (down from 40th in 2019) and the 3rd most popular Greek Historian.

Polybius is most famous for his book The Histories, which is a description of the rise of Rome from the end of the Second Punic War to the defeat of Carthage in the Third Punic War.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.8M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 74.56

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 69

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.24

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.64

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among HISTORIANS

Among historians, Polybius ranks 8 out of 561. Before him are Josephus, Ibn Khaldun, Thucydides, Xenophon, Sima Qian, and Livy. After him are Tacitus, Suetonius, Alexis de Tocqueville, Diodorus Siculus, Hecataeus of Miletus, and Manetho.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 208 BC, Polybius ranks 1. After him are Emperor Kaika, and Agatharchides. Among people deceased in 126 BC, Polybius ranks 1. 

Others Born in 208 BC

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Others Deceased in 126 BC

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  • Photo of Polybius

    Polybius

    HISTORIAN

    208 BC - 126 BC

    HPI: 74.56

    Rank: 1

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In Greece

Among people born in Greece, Polybius ranks 44 out of 1,024. Before him are Themistocles (-524), Solon (-638), Myron (-500), Alcibiades (-450), Draco (-650), and Pyrrhus of Epirus (-318). After him are Theophrastus (-371), Aristarchus of Samos (-311), Praxiteles (-395), Constantine II of Greece (1940), Peisistratos (-600), and Menander (-342).

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Among HISTORIANS In Greece

Among historians born in Greece, Polybius ranks 3. Before him are Thucydides (-460), and Xenophon (-430). After him are Quintus Curtius Rufus (41), Callisthenes (-360), Theopompus (-400), Afet İnan (1908), Michael Glykas (1125), Philochorus (-340), Krste Misirkov (1874), Marsyas of Pella (-400), and Helene Ahrweiler (1926).

Greek born Historians

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