1608 Rare Latin Vellum Book - Polybius - Roman Republic's Histories - Megalopolitani Historiarum.

 

Author : Polybius.
Title : Polybii Megalopolitani historiarum libri V. priores. Nic. Perotto Sipontino interprete. Epitome sequentium librorum, usque ad XVII. ex Wolfgangi Musculi interpretatione. Nova editio.
Language : Text in Latin.
Publisher : Genevae, Excudebat Jacobus Stoer, 1608.
Size : 5 " X 3 ". 
Pages : 760 pages + index.
Binding : Very good full vellum binding (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed)  under a removable protective mylar cover .
Content : Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare foxing and staining, name of a previous owner on first endpaper). 

Estimate : (USD 400 - USD 600)

The book : Rare and very nice 17th century edition of Polybius’ Histories - they were originally written in 40 volumes, only the first five of which are extant in their entirety. The bulk of the work was passed down through collections of excerpts kept in libraries in the Byzantine Empire. Polybius, a historian from the Greek city of Megalopolis in Arcadia, was taken as a hostage to Rome after the Roman defeat of the Achaean League in Achaean War, and there he began to write an account of the rise of Rome to a world power.

The author : Polybius (c. 208 – c. 125 BC) was a Greek historian of the Hellenistic period noted for his work The Histories, which covered the period of 264–146 BC in detail. The work describes the rise of the Roman Republic to the status of dominance in the ancient Mediterranean world. It includes his eyewitness account of the Sack of Carthage and Corinth in 146 BC, and the Roman annexation of mainland Greece after the Achaean War.