Appian’s Roman History, Volume I

Name: Appian’s Roman History, Volume I
Author: Appian of Alexandria

Ancient Greek with Horace White’s English translation

Appian’s Roman History, Volume IBook VI · Sections 60–61

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Book VI · Sections 60–61

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Ancient Greek

p. 232

πολὺ ἡγήσατο Λυσιτανῶν καὶ ἔκτεινε πολλοὺς Ῥωμαίων καὶ ἔργα μέγιστα ἐπεδείξατο. ἀλλὰ τάδε μὲν ὕστερον γενόμενα ὕστερον λέξω. τότε δὲ ὁ Γάλβας, Λευκόλλου φιλοχρηματώτερος ὤν, ὀλίγα μέν τινα τῆς λείας τῇ στρατιᾷ διεδίδου, καὶ ὀλίγα τοῖς φίλοις, τὰ λοιπὰ δὲ ἐσφετερίζετο, καίτοι πλουσιώτατος ὢν ὁμοῦ τι Ῥωμαίων· ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ἐν τῇ εἰρήνῃ φασὶν αὐτὸν διαλιπεῖν ψευδόμενόν τε καὶ ἐπιορκοῦντα διὰ κέρδη. μισούμενος δὲ καὶ κατηγορούμενος διέφευγε διὰ τὸν πλοῦτον,

οὐ πολὺ δὲ ὕστερον, ὅσοι διέφυγον ἐκ τῆς Λευκόλλου καὶ Γάλβα παρανομήσεως, ἁλισθέντες ἐς μυρίους τὴν Τυρδιτανίαν κατέτρεχον. καὶ αὐτοῖς ἀπὸ Ῥώμης ἐπελθὼν Γάιος Οὐετίλιος, ἄγων τέ τινα στρατὸν ἄλλον καὶ τοὺς ἐν Ἰβηρίᾳ προσλαβών, ἅπαντας ἔχων ἐς μυρίους, ἐπέπεσε προνομεύουσι, καὶ πολλοὺς ἀνελὼν συνέωσε τοὺς λοιποὺς ἔς τι χωρίον, οἷ κινδυνεύειν τε μένοντας ἐχρῆν ὑπὸ λιμοῦ καὶ ἀπιόντας ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων· ὧδε γὰρ εἶχε δυσχωρίας. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο πρέσβεις ἐς τὸν Οὐετίλιον ἔπεμπον σὺν ἱκετηρίαις, γῆν ἐς συνοικισμὸν αἰτοῦντες ὡς ἀπὸ τοῦδε ἐσόμενοι Ῥωμαίων ἐς πάντα κατήκοοι. ὁ δὲ ὑπισχνεῖτο δώσειν, καὶ συνετίθετο ἤδη. Οὐρίατθος δʼ ὁ ἐκ τῆς Γάλβα παρανομίας ἐκφυγών, τότε συνὼν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 233

who not long afterward became the leader of the Lusitanians and killed many Romans and performed the greatest exploits, which I shall relate hereafter. Galba, being even more greedy than Lucullus, distributed a little of the plunder to the army and a little to his friends and kept the rest himself, although he was already one of the richest of the Romans. Not even in time of peace, they say, did he abstain from lying and perjury in order to get gain. Although generally hated, and called to account for his rascalities, he escaped punishment by means of his wealth.

Not long afterward those who had escaped the villany of Lucullus and Galba, having collected together to the number of 10,000, overran Turditania. Gaius Vetilius marched against them, bringing a new army from Rome and taking also the soldiers already in Spain, so that he had about 10,000 men. He fell upon their foragers, killed many of them, and forced the rest into a place where, if they stayed, they were in danger of famine, and if they came out would fall into the hands of the Romans. Being in these straits they sent messengers to Vetilius with olive-branches asking land for a dwelling-place, and agreeing from that time on to obey the Romans in all things. He promised to give them the land, and an agreement was nearly made to that effect when Viriathus, who had escaped the perfidy of Galba and was then among them, reminded them

About This Reading Edition

Appian’s Roman History asked readers of the Roman Empire to reckon with how conquest, ambition, and civil conflict created their world; its questions about political power, cultural encounter, civic division, and the human cost of expansion remain urgent today. This approximately page-aligned parallel-text edition pairs the Ancient Greek text with Horace White’s English translation, following the 1912 facing leaves while omitting translator’s notes, figures, fragment attributions, marginalia, and unnumbered appendices.

Historical Text and Translation

Appian, a Greek-speaking Roman historian from Alexandria, wrote in the second century CE and arranged Rome’s expansion by the peoples and regions it conquered rather than as one continuous chronology—a strikingly original design. Much of his twenty-four-book work is lost, making the surviving books and fragments especially valuable.

About Horace White

Horace White was an American journalist, editor, and financial writer rather than a university professor. He led the Chicago Tribune and later the New York Evening Post, yet his Greek scholarship produced the fluent two-volume Appian translation of 1899 that became the English text of the original Loeb edition in 1912.

Rights

Appian’s ancient work, Ludwig Mendelssohn’s 1879 Greek edition, Horace White’s 1899/1912 English translation, and the Eulogikon Greek Preface are in the public domain in the United States. The Perseus digital transcriptions are reused under CC BY-SA 4.0; their attribution and share-alike terms continue to apply.