X.] POLYBIUS. 209
midst of events such as these, entailing as they did far-reaching
consequences, it was impossible for an acute observer to hold fast
by a restricted view of the course of history. And the extent of
the area which was affected by these conquests could not fail to
suggest an intelligent study of the countries which were the scene
of this extraordinary revolution.
For the work of illustrating history by means of geography
Polybius was well prepared by his extensive travels. Travels
The principal scene of these was Western Europe in Western
and the neighbouring parts of Africa. In one pas- ur°Pe-
sage of his History he speaks of having undertaken dangerous
and laborious journeys in Libya, Spain, and Gaul, and along the
shores of the ocean that bordered them; and his object in doing
so, he says, was that he might remove the ignorance of those
lands, which up to that time had prevailed among his country-
men1. He was, in fact, the first writer who availed himself of
the knowledge obtained through the conquests of the Romans in
the West. Elsewhere he mentions that he had followed Hanni-
bal's route across the Alps. "I speak with confidence on these
points," he says, " because I have questioned persons actually
engaged on the facts, and have inspected the country, and gone
over the Alpine pass myself, in order to inform myself of the
truth and see with my own eyes3." We learn also from Pliny,
(though, strange to say, on his authority alone) that he was com-
missioned by Scipio during the third Punic War to command an
exploring expedition along the west coast of Africa, and various
details of his observations in those parts are recorded8. The
results of those journeys are apparent, both in the descriptions of
countries and places which serve to illustrate his History, and
in the extracts from his geographical treatise, now lost, which
have been preserved for us by Strabo. His knowledge of the
Iberian peninsula is especially noticeable, and we find not only
that he was acquainted with the rivers in that country which.'flaw
1 Polyb. 3. 59. 7, 8.
* Ibid.> 3. 48. 12.
3 Pliny, If. N.9 5. 9, 10; Scipione Aemiliano res in Africa gerente Polybius
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