Third, Polybius is maybe the most unsparingly pragmatic of every old student of history, embracing an interestingly harmonious way to deal with verifiable learning and diplomacy. Besides the fact that he saw the investigation of 'sober minded' or political history as a fundamental essential for any hopeful legislator however he would later contend all history specialists, before taking up their pens, ought to have insight in government, and ideally in taking up arms. Pouring contempt on his more steady partners, who simply 'invest energy in libraries and procure a lot of conceptual book-learning,' he reminds his perusers that any serious endeavor of political history should be contained 'three branches,' or lines of exertion.
The first is the investigation of works of history and the gathering of the material they contain; the second is the examination and planning of inland and waterfront elements, for example, urban areas, fight locales, streams and harbors; the third is commonsense political experience.
There was an extraordinary 'clarity' in specific antiquarians' exposition — like Thucydides or Xenophon, for example — Polybius recommended, that was 'no doubt found exclusively in essayists who have taken up the composition of history in the wake of acquiring direct involvement with public life,' before hesitantly surrendering that while 'all things considered, any one individual will have been involved and dynamic in all things,' an antiquarian ought to preferably still look to have 'individual experience of the main everyday issues, those that influence the biggest quantities of individuals' 'The recurrence,' he added, 'with which we experience this sort of distinctiveness in Homer demonstrates that it's anything but a unimaginable objective.'