Hellenistic History in a
Near Eastern Perspective:
The Book of Daniel
*The Background
As with so many aspects of Hellenistic history, it is best to begin with the
words of Polybius: ‘‘I shall bring the whole narrative of events to a conclu-
sion, narrating finally the expedition of Antiochus Epiphanes against Egypt,
the war with Perseus and the abolition of the Macedonian monarchy.’’ Poly-
bius is here developing his ‘‘second introduction,’’ in the first few chapters of
book , in which he goes on to explain that, after all, he has changed his mind
about the terminal date. It was not now to be, in modern terms, .., but
. For his secondary purpose would be to examine how the Romans had
used the power that they had gained, and the new terminal point would be
the destruction of Carthage and the disaster which happened in Greece in
the same year: ‘‘the withdrawal of the Macedonians from their alliance with
Rome and that of the Lacedaemonians from the Achaean League, and here-
upon the beginning and end of the general calamity that overtook Greece.’’^1
Artistically, it might be argued that it would have been better to keep to
the original plan, to cover the period (/–..) in which ‘‘in not quite
fifty-three years all parts of the inhabited world [oikoumenē] fell under the
single rule [archē]oftheRomans.’’^2 The period had been one of rapid evo-
*First published in P. Cartledge, P. Garnsey, and E. Gruen, eds.,Hellenistic Constructs: Essays
in Culture, History, and Historiography(Berkeley, ), –. I was very grateful to Martin
Goodman, Tessa Rajak, and Geza Vermes for various forms of help, guidance, and correction
in the preparation of this paper.
. The ‘‘second introduction’’ occupies bk. , –. The passages quoted, from the Loeb
translation, are , , –, and , , .
. Polybius , .