Abstrakt
Pavel Oliva was not established worldwide as a famous Polybian scholar, but he deserves credit as the author of the first complete Czech translation of Polybius' Histories. This paper devoted to Polybius' unpreserved monograph which - to the best of my knowledge - has not yet become a subject of a special study thus seems a suitable contribution to be dedicated to Pavel Oliva's memory.
The only evidence that Polybius' monograph on the Numantine War even existed comes from Cicero's famous letter to Lucceius. The accuracy of this piece of information has recently been questioned, so the first task is to find out whether the doubts are justified. Further, the implications for what we know about the late years of Polybius' life are to be discussed. And finally, the context of Cicero's words, referring also to Callisthenes of Olynthus and Timaeus of Tauromenium, will be looked into, in order to establish whether or not it offers some clues on the chronology of their works.