“ONE OF THE BEST TRANSLATIONS THAT HAS APPEARED IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE”: HAMPTON'S “ACCURATE AND ELEGANT” TRANSLATION OF POLYBIUS’ HISTORY

POLYBIUS. The General History of Polybius in Five Books. Translated from the Greek by Mr. Hampton. London: J. Dodsley, 1756, 1772. Two volumes bound as one. Thick quarto, modern three-quarter tan morocco, elaborately blind-tooled spine, raised bands, marbled boards.

First editions of both volumes of Hampton’s “accurate and elegant” translation (Brueggemmann) of one of “the greatest productions of ancient historical writing” (Peck, 1284), handsomely bound as one, with two folding maps.

After Greece became a province of the Roman Empire, Polybius composed this history of the period between 220-146 B.C. as an effort to console the Greeks, arguing that Rome rose to power due to excellent political and military institutions rather than Greece’s poor fortune. In other words, Polybius “appears to have invented the historical inevitability and the divine providential character of the rise of Rome. No doubt other Hellenistic historians had said similar things about other world powers, Athens included, but Polybius had a strong case, and it thrilled his readers. And he was detailed, thorough and truthful” (Levi, 444). “He is the first representative of that particular type of historical description, which does not merely recount the several facts and phenomena in chronological order but goes back to the causes of events, and sets forth their results” (Peck, 128). “Distinguished alike” while an Oxford student “for his scholarship and brutality” (DNB), James Hampton began translating Polybius as early as 1741, when he produced “A Fragment of the 6th Book.” Translations of the first five books and other fragments followed from 1756-61. “We look upon this accurate and elegant performance as one of the best translations that has appeared in the English language… Though it has been remarked that none translate but such as cannot write, yet Hampton is among the exceptions to this rule” (Brueggemann, 243). Gibbon declared that Hampton’s translation “preserved the admirable sense and improved the coarse original” (Allibone, 781). Volume I contains a translation of the first five books, the only ones preserved in a complete form out of the original work consisting of 40 books. Volume II presents extracts from books VI-XVII. Bound in between the two volumes is the first edition of Two Extracts from the sixth Book of the general history of Polybius (1764). With folding maps (one of Hannibal’s expedition, the other of Ancient Greece) bound in Volume I. Polybius first appeared in English in 1568. Moss II:530. Lowndes, 1909.

Scattered light foxing. A handsome, wide-margined copy in about-fine condition.