Polybius by F.W. Walbank (review)

REVIEWS 179 (a) TheoreticalIssues, (b) Comparative Perspectives, and (c) Dimensions of CollectiveViolencein the United States.With occasional exceptions, sections (a) and (c) are despicable. Havingwitnessed the Detroit riotsand a considerablepart of the disturbances at Berkeley and Stanford,I cansaythat on major problems of fact-let aloneinterpretation-the authorsare simplywrong.A notablevictorovermystrictures isHugh DavisGraham,whomakes some striking theoretical comments aboutthehistoryof violence in America.How canwe explainthe paradoxthat Americans havebeensucha rowdybunchwhile at the sametime their politicalinstitutions havebeensostable? Graham'sanswer: '... our capitalistic, federalstructure hashistorically pitted our racial,ethnic, andeconomic groups against oneanother ratherthanagainst thestate...' (p. 209) Historiansare likely to learn the mostfrom part (b] aboutother societies. Here are localized case studiesabout communitiesin Mexico, East Africa, Burma.The articleon EastAfrica offersa provocative explanation of why 'sociallydivisiveformsof collective violence'are morecommonin chiefdoms than in tribal societies. (p. I69•. A startlingpieceon the BenaBenaof New Guinea shows how a culturecan systematically teachcrueltyto its fledgeling members. The s},½^ would find no followingthere.They haveno pets.If their abuseof animalsis scandalous, their tortureof eachotheris worse.On largeraidsthey kill everybody theycapture.Any unmarriedfemaleiseligiblefor rape.A man is permittedto kill hiswife guiltyof certainoffenses by publiclystuffingher vaginawith red-hot stones. The articlesin part (b) are mainlyby anthropologists. A historian mustbe gratefulfor theircomparative data,but hecanalsobesho.cked bytheircrosssectional approach. Some of these writersseem notonlyreconciled to theirlack of anytime-dimension but evenproudof it: 'Butbecause the system existed, forwhatever evolutionary, historical, or psycho-biological reasons, children were trainedfor it because suchtrainingwasnecessary for survival'(p. 184). Those evolutionary reasons wouldseemto be crucialto the picture. RAY GINGER Universityo[ Calgary Polybius. v.w. WALBANK. SatherClassical Lectures vol. 42. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London,Universityof CaliforniaPress,I972. Pp. x, 2oI. $8.5o. 'Who is there so dull and feeble as not to want to know how and with what kindof politicalsystem theRomans wereabletomaster nearlyall theinhabited world and bring it under one dominionin not quite fifty-threeyears-a phenomenon uniquein history?' The authorof thisspiritedchallenge wasthe third of the major Greek historians, but he has not receivedthe acclaimaccordedto hisgreatpredecessors, Herodotus and Thucydides. Neithera beguiling nor an impressive stylist, earnestly didactictowardhisreaders, captious and scathing towardotherwriters,dealingmoreover with a rathersicklyperiodof Grecianhistory,in whichthe main themewasthe riseof Rometo dominance overthe Hellenistic world,Polybius madelittle appealto philhellenes, prores- 180 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW sional or amateur. On the whole, he seemsto be a historian'shistorian. If the recognition of hisqualityhasincreased in recenttimes,muchof the creditgoes to Professor Walbank, who has been writing on Polybiantopicsfor the past forty years.A considerable numberof scholarly essays, an invaluablehistorical commentary- theseare now cappedby Walbank's'generalbookabouthisparticular author,' basedon the SatherLecturesgivenat Berkeleyin •97•. The bookis a serviceable introductionto Polybius, but it goesbeyondthat. There is studyin somedepth of the traditionalquestions aboutthe man and his work: his relationshipto previouswriters, his treatment of sources, his wholeconcept of history, hishandlingof chronology andgeography, thetheory of the mixed (or balanced)constitution and the relatedtheoryof anacyclosis (cyclicalrevolution),and finallythe complexproblemo.fPolybius' attitudeto Rome. Particularlywelcomeis the clearaccountof what he meantby hishallmark 'pragmatichistory'-political and military historyof the writer's own time basedon his own experience. This corresponded to Polybius' peculiar qualifications for his task,asa Greeksoldier-politician who enjoyedprivileged access to the Roman rulingclass. Walbank draws attention to a contradictionbetweenPolybius''picture of Romeas an aggressive powerwith Machiavellian intentions' and hisdetailed narrativewhichseems to present the Romansashavingwar (and henceempire ) thrustuponthem.This contradiction(or schizophrenia) may, however, havebeenendemicin Romanpolicyitselfand evenin the Romans'owninterpretationof their history.Walbank has interesting observations on the last quarterof Polybius' work in which the criticalperiodleadingto the destruction of Carthageand Corinth (•46 Be) wasdescribed. Here the a•ng Greek historian isseen asanapologist forRomanruthlessness, reneguing onthehumanitarian viewshe had advancedin an earlier time. Walbank neverseeks to gloss over Polybianambiguities and inconsistencies. He has,in general,provideda well-balanced studyof hisauthor. G.V. SUMNER Universityof Toronto The Disputeo[ the New World: The Historyo[ a Polemic,•75o-•9oo. ANTONELLO GERm. Revisedand enlarged editiontranslated by JEWElry •tOYLE. Pittsburg ,Universityof PittsburgPress,•973. PP.xviii, 700. $•9.95. Ant0nello Gerbi isa historian ofideas andsocial thought whoought tobemuch betterknownin North Americathanheis.Perhaps thistranslation of hische[d 'muvrewill providea turningpoint.An Italian bornin i9o4, he firstpublished studies of eighteenth-century FrenchandGermanpoliticalthought(I928, •932). Moving to Lima, Peru,prior to World War n, he thenwrotebookson economic conditions in Peru (• 941) andon thesocial impactof road-building in Peruvianhistory(i944). Meanwhile...