It was used in warfare, probably to incite troops to battle and intimidate opponents, as Polybius recounts.
Even from the most ancient times Roman camps were constructed according to a certain ideal pattern, formally described in two main sources, the De Metatione Castrorum or De Munitionibus Castrorum by either Hyginus Gromaticus or Pseudo-Hyginus and the works of Polybius.
Some of the studies deal with the noted Hellenistic historian Polybius.
The Greek historian, Polybius (203-120 BC, author of The Histories), further described the real Queen Apega as a female ruler who ruled Sparta like a Hellenistic queen, similar to Cleopatra and Arsinoe, because she "received men at court alongside her husband."
Polybius Hist. III 25, 6 in occasion of a treaty stipulated by the fetials between Rome and Carthage; Livy VIII 9, 6 in the formula of the devotio of Decius Mus; Festus s.v. spolia opima, along with Plutarch Marcellus 8, Servius ad Aeneidem VI 860 on the same topic.
Polybius (23.10.4) mentions that Emathia was earliest called Paeonia and Strabo (frg 7.38) that Paeonia was extended to Pieria and Pelagonia.
Valois took from it numerous previously unedited fragments of earlier historians, which he published in 1634: Polybii, Diodori Siculi, Nicolai Damasceni, Dionysii Halicarnassii, Appiani, Alexandri, Dionis et Ioannis antiocheni excerpta.
The ancient Greek design was described in the 4th century BC by Aeneas Tacticus and the 3rd century BC by the historian Polybius.
According to the Bauer-Danker Lexicon, the noun ίδιωτής in ancient Greek meant "civilian" (ref Josephus Bell 2 178), "private citizen" (ref sb 3924 9 25), "private soldier as opposed to officer," (Polybius 1.69), "relatively unskilled, not clever," (Herodotus 2,81 and 7 199).
The maritime part of Mygdonia formed a district called Amphaxitis, a distinction which first occurs in Polybius, who divides all the great plain at the head of the Thermaic gulf into Amphaxitis and Bottiaea, and which is found three centuries later in Ptolemy.
Writing in the 2nd century BC, Polybius (The Histories; 5.83) described their inferiority in battle against the larger Indian elephants used by the Seleucid kings.
He conducted extensive research involving the ancient historians Polybius and Flavius Josephus, and made literary contributions to the Pauly-Wissowa- Realencyclopädie der Classischen Altertumswissenschaft.
The eighth book, called Castrametation of the Romans, reconstructs a Roman encampment after the description by Polybius, followed by a military city and monumental bridge supposedly built by the Emperor Trajan.