Histos 12 (2018) lxxiii–lxxvi ISSN: 2046-5963 Copyright © 2018 Emma Nicholson 17 July 2018 REVIEW A NEW COMMENTARY ON POLYBIUS I David D. Phillips, Polybius Book 1: A Commentary. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Michigan Classical Press, 2016. Pp. 269. Hardback, $64.00. ISBN 978-0-9799713-7-2. olybius and his Histories have received much attention over the past two decades. Scholarship has shifted towards the investigation of the literary, didactic, and cultural-political aspects of this historian’s work, 1 and at least four new edited volumes have appeared in the last six years. 2 Moreover, there has been a gradual re-evaluation and even, in some quarters, unalloyed appreciation of Polybius’ style, and it is no longer considered as unreadable or ‘destitute of artistic skill’ as Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Strachan-Davidson once proclaimed—a condemnation of Polybius that has lingered unchallenged for centuries. 3 However, despite this surge of attention, there has not yet been a new commentary on Polybius’ text in Anglophone scholarship since Frank Walbank’s definitive A Historical Commentary on Polybius in three volumes, the last published in 1979. Moreover, while an essential work, Walbank’s commentary is more useful to historical and historiographical investigation rather than to a full understanding of Polybius’ language and style, and there has been little assistance in this regard since the classic works of Strachan-Davidson and Capes at the end of the nineteenth century. 4 David P. Phillip’s commentary on Polybius Book 1 is therefore a long-awaited contribution to Polybian scholarship, as it focuses on the historian’s language and style and opens up this diicult text to those in need of more direction. It will not (nor does it aim to) supersede Walbank’s historical commentary, as it does not cover historical or historiographical points in significant detail. References to scholarly material are also kept to a minimum as discussion focuses more on aiding understanding and translation than on conducting broader investigations. As a volume whose primary purpose is to introduce the 1 Cf. Davidson (1991); Eckstein (1995); Golan (1995); Champion (2004); B. McGing (2010); Maier (2012); Miltsios (2013); Moreno Leoni (2017); Wiater (2016); and Nicholson (2018). 2 Gibson and Harrison (2012); Smith and Yarrow (2012); Grieb and Koehn (2013); and most recently Miltsios and Tamiolaki (2018). 3 Cf. D. Hal. Comp. 4; Strachan-Davidson (1888) xiii. For this revision of opinion, see McGing (2010) 221 and Waterfield (2010) xxxvii. 4 Strachan-Davidson (1888); Capes (1888). P