Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/427

P L P L 411 tannery (14,400). The trade derives its importance from the four fairs that are held at Poltava. The chief of these, in July (noticed above), is visited by 30,000 to 40,000 people. In 1881 the population was 41,050. Poltava is mentioned in Russian annals in 1174, under the name of Ltava, but does not again appear in history until 1430, when, together with Glinsk, it was given by Gcdymin to the Tartar prince .Leksada. Under Bogdan Khmyelnitzkii it was the chief town of the Poltava "regiment." Peter I. defeated Charles XII. in the immediate neighbourhood on June 27, 1709. POLY^ENUS, a Macedonian, lived at Home as a rhetorician and pleader in the 2d century. When the Parthian War (162-165 A.D.) broke out, Polyaenus, too old to share in the campaign, dedicated to the emperors Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus a work, still extant, called Strateyica or Strateyemata, an historical collection of stratagems and maxims of strategy written in Greek and strung together in the form of anecdotes. It is not strictly confined to warlike stratagems, but includes also examples of wisdom, courage, and cunning drawn from civil and political life. The work is uncritically and negligently written, but is nevertheless important on account of the extracts it has preserved from histories now lost. It is divided into eight books, and originally contained nine hundred anecdotes, of which eight hundred and thirty-three are extant. Polyaenus intended to write a history of the Parthian War, but there is no evidence that he did so. His works on Macedonia, on Thebes, and on tactics (if indeed this be not identical with the Strategical) are lost. His Strategics seems to have been highly esteemed by the Roman emperors and to have been handed down by them as a sort of heir loom. From Rome it passed to Constantinople ; at the end of the 9th century it was diligently studied by Leo VI., who himself wrote a work on tactics ; and in the middle of the 10th century Constantino Porphyrogenitus mentioned it as one of the most valuable books in the imperial library! It was used by Stobseus, Suidas, and the anonymous author of the work Trep! airiaruv (Mythographi Grseci, ed.Westermann, p. 323). It is arranged as follows : bks. i., ii. , iii. , stratagems occurring in Greek history, from the mythical times of Dionysus and Hercules onward; bk. iv., stratagems of the Macedonian kings and successors of Alexander the Great ; bk, v. , stratagems occurring in the history of Sicily and the Greek islands and colonies ; bk. vi., stratagems of whole peoples (Carthaginians, Lacedaemonians, Argives, &c.), together with some of individuals (Philopremen, Pyrrhus, Hannibal, &c. ) ; bk. vii. , stratagems of the barbarians (Medes, Persians, Egyptians, Thracians, Scythians, Celts) ; bk. viii., stratagems of Romans and women. This distri bution is not, however, observed very strictly. Of the negligence or haste with which the work was written there are many instances : e.g. , he confounds Dionysius the elder and Dionysius the younger, Mithradates satrap of Artaxerxes and Mithradates the Great, Scipio the elder and Scipio the younger ; he mixes np the stratagems of Ca>sar and Pompey ; he brings into immediate connexion events which were totally distinct ; he narrates some events twice over, with variations according to the different authors from whom he draws. Though he usually abridges, he occasionally amplifies arbitrarily the narratives of his authorities. He never mentions his authorities, but amongst authors still extant he used Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus, Plutarch, Frontinus, and Suetonius ; amongst authors of whom only fragments now remain he drew upon Ctesias, Ephorus, Timams, Phylarchus, and perhaps Aristagoras, Dinon, Heraclides, Megasthenes, and Nicolaus Damascenus. His style is clear, but monotonous and inelegant. He heaps up participles and falls alternately into the opposite faults of accumulating and totally omitting conjunctions. A glaring instance of these faults is to be found in bk. iii. 9, 33. In the forms of his words he generally follows Attic usage. His work was first printed in a Latin translation by Justus Vulteius (Basel, 1549); the Greek text was firsr edited by Casaubon (Leyden, 1589), but mainly from a very inferior MS. Korais in bis edition (Paris, 1809) corrected the text in many places. The best edition is that of Wijlfflin (Teubner, 18(10), whose preface may be consulted with advantage. POLYANTHUS. See PRIMROSE. POLYBIUS, the historian, was a native of Megalo polis in Arcadia, the youngest of Greek cities (Paus. viii. 9), but one which played an honourable part in the last days of Greek freedom as a staunch member of the Achaean league. Polybius s father Lycortas was the intimate friend of Philopoemen, himself also a citizen of Megalopolis, and on the death of the latter, in 182 B.C., succeeded him as leader of the league. The date of Polybius s birth can only be fixed approximately. He tells us himself that in 181 he had not yet reached the age (? 30 years, Polyb., xxix. 9) at which an Achaean was legally capable of holding office (xxiv. 6). We learn from Cicero (Ad Fam., v. 12) that he outlived the Nu- mantine war, which ended in 132, and from Lucian (Macrob., 22) that he died at the age of eighty-two. We may therefore follow the majority of authorities in placing his birth between 214 and 204 B.C. Little is known of his early life. As the son of Lycortas he was naturally brought into close contact with the leading men of the Achaean league. With the foremost of them, Philopoemen, he seems to have been on intimate terms. Plutarch (ei Trpecr/3., 12) describes him as sitting at the feet of the great Achaean soldier, of whom Polybius himself always writes in terms of affectionate admiration; and after Philopoe- men s tragic death in Messenia (182) he was entrusted with the honourable duty of conveying home the urn in which his ashes had been deposited (Plut., Phil., 21). The next year (181) witnessed what seems to have been his first entry into political life. Together with his father Lycortas and the younger Aratus, he was appointed, in spite of his youth, a member of the embassy which was to visit Ptolemy Epiphanes, king of Egypt, a mission, however, which the sudden death of Ptolemy brought to a premature end (xxv. 7). The next twelve years of his life are a blank, but in 169 he reappears as a trusted adviser of the Achaeans at a difficult crisis in the history of the league. In 171 war had broken out between Rome and the Macedonian king Perseus, and the Achaean statesmen were divided as to the policy to be pursued : to side with Macedon would have been suicidal ; Lycortas himself was in favour of neutrality, but there were good reasons for fearing that the Roman senate would regard neutrality as indicating a secret leaning towards Macedon, and indeed both Lycortas and Polybius himself had already incurred suspicion at Rome on this ground. Polybius therefore declared for an open alliance with Rome, and his views were adopted. It was decided to send an Achaean force to cooperate with the Roman general. Polybius was selected to command the cavalry, and v/as at once despatched to the Roman camp to announce the decision of the league (xxviii. 10 sq.). The Roman consul declined the proffered assistance, but Polybius accompanied him throughout the campaign, and thus gained his first insight into the military system of Rome. On his return home he was able to render an important service to his countrymen by checking the unauthorized attempt of a Roman officer to raise troops in Achaia (xxviii. 13). In the next year (168) both Lycortas and Polybius were on the point of starting at the head of 1200 Achseans to take service in Egypt against the Syrians, when an intimation from the Roman com mander that armed interference was undesirable put a stop to the expedition (xxix. 23). The success of Rome in the war with Perseus was now assured, and it is possible that the readiness of Lycortas and Polybius to serve abroad was partly due to a belief that the fate of Macedon must soon be shared by Achaia, If this was so, the belief was but too well founded. The final defeat of Perseus was rapidly followed by the arrival in Achaia of Roman commissioners charged with the duty of securely establishing Roman interests there. As a result of their proceedings 1000 of the principal Achaeans were arrested and carried off to Italy. Polybius was among the number, but, while his companions were condemned to a tedious incarceration in the country towns of Italy, he obtained permission to reside in Rome. This privilege he owed

to the influence of ^Emilius Paullus, and his two sons