Poly'bius
（
*Polu/bios), historical.
1. Of Megalopolis, fought under Philopoemen at the battle of Mantineia against Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedaemon, B. C. 207. (
Plb. 11.15.5.)
It has been usually supposed that this Polybius was a relation of the historian, probably either his uncle or grandfather ; but this is opposed to the statement of the historian himself in one of the Vatican fragments (p. 418, ed. Mai), "that no one, as far as he knew, had borne the same name as his, up to his time." Now though Polybius, when he wrote the passage quoted above, might possibly have forgotten his namesake who fought at the battle of Mantineia, still he certainly would not have escaped his memory if any one of his family had borne this name.
It is, however, even improbable that he should have forgotten this namesake, especially since he was a native of Megalopolis, and we therefore think that the conjecture of Lucht in his edition of the Vatican Fragments is correct, that the true reading in 11.15, is
Πολύβῳ and not
Πολυβίῳ.
Further Information
Comp. Thirlwall,
Hist. of Greece, vol. viii. p. 273, note 2.)
