home to Arkadia. When the war resumed, Polubios came to Carthage and after its destruc-
tion in 146 BCE he went on a voyage of discovery through the Pillars of He ̄rakle ̄s (Gibraltar),
up the coast of Portugal and back along the African coast as far as the river Lixos (in
Morocco), attempting to locate Mount Atlas more accurately than had yet been done. Later
Polubios visited Asia Minor. He was also at Alexandria and probably Buzantion. He may
have visited Scipio’s camp at Numantia in 133 BCE. Polubios died at the age of 82 after a
fall from a horse.
Works: (1) Histories in 40 books beginning chronologically where T left off (264
BCE) and concentrating on the swift ascendance of Rome as a world power; lost works:
(2) biography of Philopoimen; (3) On Tactics, a history of the Numantine War; (4) on living
conditions in the equatorial region.
Contribution: Polubios expanded the role of geography within historiography by
reducing the traditional use of geographical digressions and assigning a separate section of
his Histories to geography. The idea probably came from E, whose Books 4–5 were
exclusively geographical. Polubios concentrated his geographical descriptions and discus-
sions in Histories Book 34, surviving only as paraphrases in S, P and Athe ̄naios
Deipnosophists; it contained a geographical survey of the entire oikoumene ̄ and a detailed
description (khorographia) of Europe and Africa. Polubios’ pragmatic attitude towards geog-
raphy made him less interested in scientific and theoretical discussions of geography and
topography and more in information aimed at increasing his readers’ knowledge of remote
and little known regions. Much of the book comprised attacks on previous geographers,
discussions of theory, practical details concerning distances and topography. Like his con-
temporary, K M, Polubios emphasized the role of H in geographical
tradition, drew geographical information from the Iliad and Odyssey and dealt at length with
locating Odysseus’ wanderings. Polubios wrote of latitudinal climatic zones and their influ-
ence on the character of their human inhabitants and on animals and plants. He divided
the globe into six zones unlike Strabo ̄n who preferred P A’s five-
zone division. Polubios used astronomical methods to measure the length of the oikou-
mene ̄ and a system of triangulation to describe the main outlines of Italy (2.14.4–6). He
did not make a serious contribution to the scientific study of geography but recorded topo-
graphical details as well as assembling and comparing distances.
F.W. Walbank, “The geography of Polybius,” C&M 9 (1948) 155–182; P. Pédech, “La géographie de
Polybe: Structure et contenu du livre XXXIV des Histoires,” LEC 24 (1956) 3–24; Walbank v.3
(1979).
Daniela Dueck
Polubos (420 – 350 BCE)
Greek physician, son of Apollo ̄nios, credited by A (HA 3.3 [512b–513a]) with the
description of blood vessels preserved also in the H O N M
11 (and On the nature of bones 9). He argues that all vessels originate in the head. A later
biographical tradition (Vita Hp. Bruss. 1; Hipp., Letter 27) considers him H’ pupil
and son-in-law; Polubos remained at Ko ̄s, heading the school after Hippokrate ̄s. Accord-
ingly, Polubos was credited with the authorship of Hippokratic works (On the Nature of Man
partly, Nature of the Child, On Birth in the Eighth Month): see G 4.653, 18A.8 K., CMG
5.9.1, p. 8; pseudo-P Plac. 5.18. But he was probably connected with Hippokrate ̄s
only later, because the “Aristotelian” doxography in the L 19.2– 18
POLUBOS