The Hellenistic World and Rome
marked the end of Greek freedom, the death of the Greek city-state, and
the beginning of a new age.^7 As regards the Hellenisation of the East, there
was something in this, even though that Hellenisation neither began with
Alexander nor depended entirely on his conquests.^8 But that was not in any
case an aspect of history in which Polybius took much interest. As regards
mainland Greece, Hellas proper, it is nonsense.
For Polybius, as is absolutely clear, Greek history from the fifth century
to his own time was a continuum, in which there had been many disasters
but no violent break. This perspective, as we shall see, stretched back to in-
clude some mythical founders and lawgivers, like Lycurgus in Sparta, and
it of course reached to the poems of Homer. But the later archaic period,
on the evidence of the surviving text, did not play a large part in Polybius’
consciousness; nor did the monarchies of the Near East, except by way of
general allusions to the Persian Empire. His real historical starting point, or
boundary, was Xerxes’ invasion of ..From that point Polybius’ use of
earlier history embodies an awareness of a continuous and still relevant story,
all of which was of importance for the present. For instance, when he has
narrated the Roman defeat of the Gauls in the Po Valley in the s..,he
turns immediately to Greek examples of the successful repulse of barbari-
ans. One of them, once again, is Xerxes’ invasion; the other is the defeat of
those Gauls who invaded Greece and reached Delphi in ..,adefeat
celebrated throughout the Hellenistic world^9 (he omits to say that the vic-
tory was gained by the Aetolians, of whom he did not approve). His motives
for making these allusions are, as usual, stated with great clarity:
For indeed I consider that the writers who chronicled and handed
down to us the story of the Persian invasion of Greece and the attack of
the Gauls on Delphi have made no small contributions to the struggle
of the Hellenes for their common liberty. For there is no one whom
hosts of men or abundance of arms or vast resources could frighten
into abandoning his last hope, that is to fight to the end for his native
land,ifhe...boreinmindhowmanymyriadsofmen,what deter-
mined courage and what armaments were brought to nought by the
resolve and power of those who faced the danger with intelligence and
coolness.(,,–). See, e.g., N. G. L. Hammond,A History of Greece to BC, nd ed. (), .
. See, e.g., F. Millar, ‘‘The Phoenician Cities: A Case-Study of Hellenisation,’’Proc.
Camb. Philol. Soc. (): – ( chapter in the present volume).
. For this, see G. Nachtergael,Les Galates en Grèce et les Sôtéria de Delphes().