He often made use of his relations with the great men in Rome to benefit his countrymen; but the way in which he submitted to, and boasted of, the illustrious protection somewhat approaches fawning servility.

His literary activity breathes throughout the same spirit as his practical action.

It was the task of his life to write the history of the union of the Mediterranean states under the hegemony of Rome.

From the first Punic war down to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth his work embraces the fortunes of all the civilized states--namely Greece, Macedonia, Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, Carthage, and Italy--and exhibits in causal connection the mode in which they came under the Roman protectorate; in so far he describes it as his object to demonstrate the fitness and reasonableness of the Roman hegemony.
In design as in execution, this history stands in clear and distinct contrast with the contemporary Roman as well as with the contemporary Greek historiography.

In Rome history still remained wholly at the stage of chronicle; there existed doubtless important historical materials, but what was called historical composition was restricted--with the exception of the very respectable but purely individual writings of Cato, which at any rate did not reach beyond the rudiments of research and narration--partly to nursery tales, partly to collections of notices.