How Did Polybius Show The Perceptiveness Of Rome's Mixed Government

Polybius was a renowned Greek historian, known for his historical objectivity and unbiased truth, notable for his work The Histories that described the rise of the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean world. He was born around 200 BC in the city of Megalpolis and was the son of Lycortas, a leader of the Achaean League. When Lycortas was killed, Polybius was taken as a hostage in Rome. However, Polybius’ cleverness and political perceptiveness managed him to be acquainted with Scipio Aemilianus, the leading general at that time. His friendship with Scipio allowed him to travel around the world, seeing pivotal landscapes, interviewing veterans, and visiting archives to later aid him in keeping his objectivity as he wrote about Rome’s history. Given

In this particular chapter, Polybius contributes how the Romans were able to rise to power was due to the system of government that was in place. He goes into in-depth analysis of the flaws each system of government had in the past, from kingship, aristocracy, and democracy, as well as pointing out their strong points. He stated that “For it is plain that we must regard as the best constitution that which partakes of all three elements (kingship, aristocracy, and democracy)” (Polybius, VI. 3). He concluded with the idea of a mixed government, where each part of the government will serve as a check of balance to one another. The kingship (or monarchy) would be represented by the consuls, the aristocracy by Senate, and democracy be represented by the assemblies. By complementing one another, this would ensure that the government would work efficiently without having any party rising to sole power. The effectiveness of this government was so overwhelming, even Polybius admitted that this led to “nearly the whole world fell under the power of Rome in somewhat less than 53 years – an event certainly without precedent” (Polybius, VI.

Time after time again, the Roman Empire managed to defeat its enemy and subjugate conquered citizens. However, a unique feature of Roman’s conquest was to allow these citizens to eventually assimilate into the Roman honorary citizens themselves. Polybius was one of those honorary citizens. In order to reap the benefits of being a Roman citizen, Polybius would most likely have tried to be in favor with them, especially in his historical writing of the Roman Empire’s upbringing. Because of this factor, it is entirely unknown if The Histories reflected his true feelings about