ABSTRACT
The final chapter addresses Polybius’ strategies to arouse emotion in his audience and reviews how Polybius included affects in his history and their effects on history. Polybius guides his readers to particular emotional responses through internal evaluators of the historical events. Using rhetorical techniques, Polybius argues for the appropriateness of pity as a response to the Achaean War between the Greeks and Romans in 146 bce, a war with contemporary significance for Polybius and his immediate audience. In comparison with his criticism of Phylarchus, for Polybius emotions played an important role in human decision-making, justifying and prompting individuals’ actions, explaining why states change from worse to better, linking the outbreak of wars to past events, and guiding the readers to develop a correct and ethical sense of emotional behavior. This chapter concludes by evaluating the effectiveness of emotion in Polybius’ historiography.
