Editing Polybius (section)

===Sources===
Polybius held that historians should, if possible, only chronicle events whose participants the historian was able to interview,<ref>Farrington, Scott Thomas (February 2015). [https://scholar.dickinson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1130&context=faculty_publications "A Likely Story: Rhetoric and the Determination of Truth in Polybius's Histories."] ''Histos'' 9: 29-66. (p. 40): ''"Polybius begins his history proper with the 140th Olympiad because accounts of the remote past amount to hearsay and do not allow for safe judgements'' (διαλήψεις) ''and assertions'' (ἀποφάσεις) ''regarding the course of events.... he can relate events he saw himself, or he can use the testimony of eyewitnesses. ([footnote 34:]'' Pol. ''4.2.2:'' ἐξ οὗ συμβαίνει τοῖς μὲν αὐτοὺς ἡμᾶς παραγεγονέναι, τὰ δὲ παρὰ τῶν ἑωρακότων ἀκηκοέναι.'')"'' [archive URLs: [https://web.archive.org/web/20201022204148/https://scholar.dickinson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1130&context=faculty_publications 1] (full text), [https://web.archive.org/web/20201212104900/https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications/96/ 2] (abstract & journal citation)]</ref> and was among the first to champion the notion of [[Journalism ethics and standards|factual integrity]] in historical writing. In the twelfth volume of his ''Histories'', Polybius defines the historian's job as the analysis of documentation, the review of relevant geographical information, and political experience. In Polybius's time, the profession of a historian required political experience (which aided in differentiating between fact and fiction) and familiarity with the geography surrounding one's subject matter to supply an accurate version of events.

Polybius himself exemplified these principles as he was well travelled and possessed political and military experience. He consulted and used written sources providing essential material for the period between 264 BC to 220 BC, including, for instance, treaty documents between Rome and Carthage in the [[First Punic War]], the history of the Greek historian [[Phylarchus]], and the ''Memoirs'' of the Achaean politician, [[Aratus of Sicyon]]. When addressing events after 220 BC, he continued to examine treaty documents, the writings of Greek and Roman historians and statesmen, eye-witness accounts and Macedonian court informants to acquire credible sources of information, although rarely did he name his sources (see, exceptionally,.