The issue of leadership is crucial to Polybius' desire to explain the rise of Rome over almost the entire known world and provide benefit and utility to readers who may have to assume positions of responsibility. This book focuses on descriptions of leadership behaviors in theHistories, aiming to identify regularly recurring patterns, motifs, and themes in the relevant passages, which could, precisely because of their persistence, heighten our sensitivity to the subtleties of Polybius' treatment of the subject. Given that the interest in leadership permeates Polybius' work and engages with his main thematic concerns, this study brings the reader face-to-face with questions of power and control, identity and nationality, the role of fortune, narrative strategies, thereby providing a basis for reading theHistories more generally. At the same time, a major concern throughout the book is with the ways Polybius' representation of leadership seems to have been influenced by literary depictions of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Polybius' interplay with his literary context and tradition deepens our understanding of what he is trying to accomplish in the narrative and how he is interacting with the expectations of his audiences.
Nikos Miltsios, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Towards the middle of his account of the First Punic War, Polybius describes how the Spartan Xanthippus helps the Carthaginians to recover their self-confidence after two successive defeats at sea and on land, and to win a major victory over the Romans and their hitherto invincible leader, M. Atilius Regulus (1.32–35). Xanthippus arrives at a critical juncture, when the Carthaginians are faced with not only the Romans who are preparing to besiege them, but also with the Numidian attacks and the problems caused by the mass of inhabitants of the countryside who have flocked to the city. Thanks to his experience, Xanthippus realizes that the Carthaginians’ failures are due to the fact that their leaders choose to fight in places where they cannot make use of their cavalry and elephants, and when he assumes command of the army himself, he routs the enemy and takes Regulus captive. Polybius, commenting on the events, observes that in this case the verse of Euripides, “one wise counsel conquers many hands” (ἓν σοφὸν βούλευμα τὰς πολλὰς χέρας νικᾷ),1 was confirmed, since one man destroyed an army thought to be invincible and extremely efficient in war (1.35.4–5).
Polybius expresses his belief that a single man can affect the course of history by his behavior on other occasions, too. At 8.3.3, for example, at the opening of his description of the Roman siege of Syracuse, he repeats the observation he made concerning the Xanthippus episode, noting that the would-be conquerors did not reckon with the power of Archimedes or foresee that “in some cases the genius of one man accomplishes much more than any number of hands” (μία ψυχὴ τῆς ἁπάσης ἐστὶ πολυχειρίας ἐν ἐνίοις καιροῖς ἀνυστικωτέρα). The Romans, indeed, remain encamped around the city for eight months, unable to conquer it because all their efforts are countered by Archimedes’ defensive machines, leading Polybius to exclaim in admiration, in the same spirit as his previous comment, “Such a great and marvellous thing does the genius of one man show itself to be when properly applied to certain matters” (εἷς ἀνὴρ καὶ μία ψυχὴ δεόντως ἡρμοσμένη πρὸς ἔνια τῶν πραγμάτων μέγα τι χρῆμα φαίνεται γίνεσθαι καὶ θαυμάσιον, 8.7.7). He makes yet another similar statement on the great things that can be achieved by the right man at 9.22.6, when describing the many problems that Hannibal caused the Romans: “Such a great and wonderful product of nature is a man with a mind properly fitted by its original constitution to execute any project within human power” (οὕτως μέγα τι φύεται χρῆμα καὶ θαυμάσιον ἀνὴρ καὶ ψυχὴ δεόντως ἁρμοσθεῖσα κατὰ τὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς σύστασιν πρὸς ὅ,τι ἂν ὁρμήσῃ τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων ἔργων). At 39.4.1–2, moreover, commenting on the concord that arose among the Aetolians after the death of Lyciscus, Polybius notes that human nature is so powerful (τηλικαύτη τίς ἐστιν, ὡς ἔοικε
