This paper examines the historic theories of Polybius and the different way in which his ideas were accepted and rejected
by those around him. Polybius was
considered to be the first advocate of
universal history and is considered to be the original founder of this kind of thinking. It explains how Polybius heavily criticized those historians around him and in the past, particularly Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon. He was ambitious and enthusiastic to point out the faults of all of his predecessors and peers. He accused them often romancing their work by providing false information and padding the account with rhetoric. Furthermore, Polybius looked down on them for their acceptance of fate or destiny.