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Change and Resilience Through History: Polybius and the Rise of Rome

Module description

The Mediterranean was a tumult of change in the third and second centuries BC as Rome rose to power and Carthage, Macedon, Greece, and the Seleucid and Ptolemaic kingdoms were all defeated or affected by internal decline. Polybius’ Histories provides a first-hand record of this changing world and aims to explain not only how and why Rome was able to establish dominance, but also how his readers might learn to handle changes of fortune with dignity; in other words, how to face adversity and cultivate resilience. In this module, you will explore how this ancient historian interpreted and presented Rome’s conquest of the Mediterranean

Module aims - intentions of the module

• to investigate Polybius’ Histories as a response to the rise of Rome in the third and second centuries BC.
• to explore how historians, ancient and modern, engage with transition and crisis.
• to explore how Polybius interpreted, wrote about, and reacted to the historical past and change, and how his difficult life and experiences as a Greek under Roman rule influenced his worldview, his construction of the Histories, and his focus on changes of fortune.
• to consider how the writing of history might be an act of resilience and change, and whether resilience can be learnt through the reading of history.
• to reflect on the ways that modern historians, politicians, and we ourselves, think about and respond to change and adversity.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate command and critical understanding of the key aspects of Polybius and his Histories, and the history of Rome’s rise to power in the Mediterranean during the second century BC.
• 2. Demonstrate knowledge and a critical appreciation of the methods and factors involved in the writing of Polybius’ Histories.
• 3. Demonstrate knowledge of the changes facing the Greeks in the second century BC, critical awareness of Polybius’ strategies to mitigate crisis, and assessment of these approaches within both ancient and modern contexts.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 4. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills which can be applied to the analysis of ancient texts.
• 5. Develop advanced academic and library skills specific to Classics and Ancient History as well as a critical ability in evaluating published literature.
• 6. Demonstrate advanced appreciation of the issues involved in using historiographical texts as evidence, and relate texts to their socio-historical context.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Demonstrate the ability to think critically and independently on a range of crucial issues and to construct an interesting and consistent argument.
• 8. Demonstrate independence of mind and initiative; intellectual integrity and maturity; an ability to evaluate the work of others, including peers.
• 9. Demonstrate the ability to articulate ideas clearly, engage in public debate and respond critically to observations and objections.

Syllabus plan

While the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• Historians and Change
• Polybius in Context: Witness to and Survivor of World Transformation
• Communicating Change: Polybius’ Didactic Intentions
• Framing Change: Universal and Specialised Histories
• Predicting Change: Patterns in History
• Accommodating Change: Contingency in Polybius’ Histories
• Changes for the Worse: Polybius and Decline
• Polybius as Agent of Change
• Resilience in and through history

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Primary literature:

• Polybius, The Histories, vols. 1-6, transl. W.R. Paton, revised by W.F. Walbank and C. Habicht, 2011-12, Loeb Classical Library.
• Polybius, The Histories, transl. R. Waterfield, Oxford World Classics, 2010.

Secondary literature:

• Champion, C. (2004) Cultural Politics in Polybius's Histories, Cambridge University Press. 
• Eckstein, A. (1995) Moral Vision in the Histories of Polybius, University of California Press.
• Gibson, B. & T. Harrison (2013) Polybius and his World, Oxford University Press. 
• Loehr, R. (2024) Emotion and Historiography in Polybius’ Histories, Routledge.
• McGing, B. (2010) Polybius’ Histories, Oxford University Press. 
• Moore, D. W. (2020) Polybius: Experience and the Lessons of History, Brill.
• Nicholson, E. (2022) “Polybius (1), Greek historian, c. 200-c.118 BCE” Oxford Classical Dictionary.
• Nicholson, E. (2023) Philip V of Macedon in Polybius’ Histories: Politics, History, and Fiction, Oxford University Press.
• Walbank, F. W. (2002) Polybius, Rome and the Hellenistic World, Cambridge University Press.

Key words search

Polybius, change, resilience, Greek historiography, Hellenistic history, Rome