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statementVerified

Loeb Polybius prints a Carthaginian war machine of mercenaries and subject peoples

Printed mercenary-machine is not a 218 BCE payroll scan. In the causal graph this event strengthens Institutional Corruption, a driver that strengthens Political corruption index — a worsening welfare path.

Sources: [1][2]

Read the full account

A fused money-and-war office is an opacity path of medium confidence: who was owed, who was expendable.

Context

Not a unique embezzlement verdict. A received coalition-army as later told.

Hannibal is not the sole author of every later object, law, or museum label that uses the name. Shared work with courts, excavators, printers, spouses, officials, and later states does not erase a documented role, and it does not make an ancient person the signer of a twentieth-century statute.

Why it matters

Printed mercenary-machine is not a 218 BCE payroll scan.

Who was responsible

Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.

  • Hannibal

    Person

    Direct responsibility

    responsibility level 0.32 · verified

    Named Carthaginian general as heading of later annalistic epic. Polybius, Livy, and later staff colleges publish the instrument.

What changed

Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.

    1. FactLoeb Polybius prints a Carthaginian war machine of mercenaries and subject peoples
    2. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
    3. strengthensIndicators (3)Political corruption index
    Worsening path

    impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 1 August 1922 · verified

    Printed mercenary-machine is not a 218 BCE payroll scan.

Evidence

The sources behind this fact and its verification state.

Verified2 sources on file
  1. 1.Livius.org — HannibalLivius.org / Jona Lendering · High credibility · verified
  2. 2.Harvard / Loeb — Polybius, The HistoriesHarvard University Press · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish

Polybius English describes hired and subject contingents.

Not established: a unique Factrail-original body count, or a recovered 216 BCE civil-registry file.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, and museums are not converted into extra lifetime acts. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself. Confidence is stated on the impact path. A later English edition is not a recovered autograph. If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here. Confidence is stated on the impact path.

Causal path

How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.

  1. ActorHannibal
  2. contributed toFactLoeb Polybius prints a Carthaginian war machine of mercenaries and subject peoples
  3. strengthensDriverInstitutional Corruption
  4. strengthensIndicatorPolitical corruption index

Cite this page

Factrail. (2026). Loeb Polybius prints a Carthaginian war machine of mercenaries and subject peoples. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ha-institutional-mercenary-machine

https://factrail.ai/facts/ha-institutional-mercenary-machine

Accessed 16 October 2026.

By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed

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