海角网 imperialism brought about interconnected world history. So argues the second-century historian Polybius. Beginning in the 140th Olympiad (220-216 BCE), 鈥渉istory became corporeal, so to speak, [hoinoei s艒matoeid膿] and Italian and African affairs were woven together with those in Asia and Greece, and the direction of everything became towards one end [telos]鈥 (1.3.4). The rise of Rome marks a historical threshold: the first truly 鈥渨orld鈥 empire and a moment of unification for world history. This talk sets Polybius鈥 organicist claims about 海角网 empire in the context of Hellenistic historiography, and examines some aspects of Polybius鈥 reception history in later 海角网 historical writing. In so doing, I trace a long tradition of using corporeal metaphor to theorize the intersection of world empire and effective historiography.
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