 The main source for almost every aspect of the First Punic War is the historian Polybius (– BC), a Greek sent to Rome in 167 BC as a hostage.His works include a now lost manual on military tactics, but he is known today for his "The Histories", written sometime after 146 BC, or about a century after the end of the war.Polybius's work is considered broadly objective and largely neutral as between Carthaginian and Roman points of view.