The ancient Greek historians (Harvard lectures) by J. B. Bury.

VI

POLYBIUS

203

a point of view diametrically opposed to that
which he had learned from Demetrius. Further,
he applied his new doctrine to the empire of
Rome. If, in the words which 1 quoted a few
moments ago, he had claimed Rome's successes
as a supreme illustration of the mysterious dealings
of Fortune, he now, with equal confidence, repudiated the theory that Fortune had anything
to do with the making of Rome's greatness. "It
was not by fortune, as some of the Greeks think,
nor causelessly, that the Romans succeeded; their
success was quite natural; it was due to their
training and discipline; they aimed at the hegemony
and government of the world, and they attained
their purpose."1
Thus it appears that Polybius, having originally
started with the conception of an extra - natural
power, directing the world and diverting the
course of events from its natural path, was led
by wider experience of life and deeper study of
history to reduce within narrower and narrower
bounds the intervention of this deus ex macliia,
until he finally reached the view that it was superfluous for the pragmatical historian. But it would
be rash to assert that he ultimately embraced a
theory of pure naturalism. All we can say is
that he came to entertain the view that nothing
happens without a natural cause, and the operation of Tyche or chance is, in general, an invalid
assumption.
I i. 63. 9.