# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/polybius
# Generated: 2026-09-01T12:41:35.195Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/polybius"
name: "Polybius"
slug: "polybius"
description: "Greek historian whose front-row seat to Rome's conquest of the Mediterranean produced the only surviving chronicle of that pivot — and whose notes on checks, balances, and mixed government landed centuries later in the hands of Montesquieu, Locke, and the men writing the American Constitution."
tagline: "Ancient Greek historian"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Gipsmodelle_Wiener_Historismus_Hofburg-Keller_2012_33_Alois_D%C3%BCll%2C_Polybios.jpg"
gender: "male"
category:
  name: "Writers"
  slug: "writers"
profileType:
  name: "Writer / Author"
  slug: "writer"
birthDate: "-200"
deathDate: "-120"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           64.73
  momentum:             0
  historical:           24.801756
  currentAttention:     8.861111111111112
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  60
  trendDirection:       "FALLING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Academics"
    slug: "academics"
  - name: "Writer / Author"
    slug: "writer-author"
  - name: "History"
    slug: "history"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Ancient History"
    slug: "ancient-history"
sources:
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q131169"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius"
    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Polybius"
    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "بوليبيوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%BE%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "پولیبیوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polibi"
    title: "Polibi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%B0%D0%BB%D1%96%D0%B1%D1%96%D0%B9"
    title: "Палібій"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%B9"
    title: "Полибий"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8"
    title: "পলিবিয়াস"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybios"
    title: "Polybios"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polibije"
    title: "Polibije"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polibi"
    title: "Polibi"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybios"
    title: "Polybios"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cy.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius"
    title: "Polybius"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyb"
    title: "Polyb"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybios"
    title: "Polybios"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8D%CE%B2%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82"
    title: "Πολύβιος"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polibio"
    title: "Polibio"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polibio"
    title: "Polibio"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybios"
    title: "Polybios"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polibio"
    title: "Polibio"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%BE%D9%88%D9%84%DB%8C%D8%A8%DB%8C%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "پولیبیوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybios"
    title: "Polybios"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybe"
    title: "Polybe"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polaibias"
    title: "Polaibias"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikiquote.org/wiki/Polibi"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://cs.wikiquote.org/wiki/Polybios"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://el.wikiquote.org/wiki/%CE%A0%CE%BF%CE%BB%CF%8D%CE%B2%CE%B9%CE%BF%CF%82"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Polybius"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://es.wikiquote.org/wiki/Polibio"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Polybius lived through the middle Hellenistic period, roughly 200 to 118 BC, and set out to write a universal history explaining how Rome came to dominate the Mediterranean world. His Histories covered 264 to 146 BC in granular detail — Italy, Iberia, Greece, Macedonia, Syria, Egypt, Africa — documenting the Punic Wars, the Macedonian Wars, and the mechanics of imperial expansion. What survived is the only substantial Hellenistic historical work we have, but it carried more than narrative: Polybius analyzed constitutional evolution, articulated the theory of mixed government, and described separation of powers and the role of popular assemblies in ways that would directly shape Enlightenment political thought. He was also a close friend and mentor to Scipio Aemilianus, the Roman general, and that relationship gave him access and left a mark on Roman strategy. The distant blueprint made it to Philadelphia.