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Polybius is one of the most remarkable ancient historians, excelling as source, theorist and writer. Book 8 shows many sides of this extraordinary author: the superb narrator, recounting the tragic end of the potentate Achaeus and Hannibal's diverting capture of Tarentum with the aid of wild boar; the technical writer on Archimedes' sensational machines for destroying Roman ships; the zestful polemicist, railing against Theopompus' diatribe on the friends of Philip II; the thinker about history and the interconnection of world events. This edition, the first of its kind, includes a new text of Book 8 and an introduction to the book and Polybius as a whole. The commentary provides a wealth of historical and archaeological material and will enable readers to understand Polybius' Hellenistic Greek and appreciate his expression and artistry. It will help intermediate and advanced students, as well as scholars, enjoy Polybius as a writer.
Thanks to the rich findings of Swiss archaeological practice, Tacitus’ narrative for the violent encounter between the Vitellian army and the Helvetians in 69 c.e. (Hist. 1.67–9) can fruitfully be embedded in different material contexts from the late first century b.c.e. and the early first century c.e. (funerary practice, numismatic finds, military architecture, consumption, social relations). The resulting picture is that of the Helvetian civitas as a political community endowed with autonomy and state-like capacities within the Roman empire: militaria are the index of local militarism rather than auxiliary service. This model might be applied more widely within the western provinces and the Roman empire in general.
Herodotus' Histories are the primary source for the conflict between Greece and the enormous Persian Empire in the fifth century BC. Book VII begins after the defeat of the first Persian invasion by Athens at the Battle of Marathon and covers the Persian decision to launch the second invasion through to the first encounter of its army with a small but determined Greek force at Thermopylai. After fierce resistance, the Greeks are outflanked and surrounded, and the rearguard is massacred. The story of the battle passed rapidly into legend and has exercised a profound and lasting influence on the imagination across the world. Book VII merges many of the central themes of the Histories and is arguably Herodotus' most sustained engagement with Greek epic, whilst also rich in ethnographic and geographical detail. This edition provides all the linguistic help and historical background required by students to read and appreciate it.