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 73–74

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Book VI · Sections 73–74

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Ancient Greek

p. 252

πάντα περιεῖλε, τὴν δὲ πόλιν αὖθις οἰκεῖν ἔδωκεν ἐξ ἀέλπτου. τοσάδε μὲν δὴ Βροῦτος ἐργασάμενος ἐς Ῥώμην ἀπῄει. καὶ αὐτὰ ἐς τὴν Οὐριάτθου γραφὴν συνήγαγον, ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ χρόνῳ διὰ τὸν ἐκείνου ζῆλον ὑπὸ λῃστηρίων ἄλλων ἀρξάμενα γίγνεσθαι.

Οὐρίατθος δὲ Καιπίωνι περὶ συμβάσεων τοὺς πιστοτάτους αὑτῷ φίλους ἐπέπεμπεν, Αὔδακα καὶ Διτάλκωνα καὶ Μίνουρον, οἳ διαφθαρέντες ὑπὸ τοῦ Καιπίωνος δώροις τε μεγάλοις καὶ ὑποσχέσεσι πολλαῖς ὑπέστησαν αὐτῷ κτενεῖν τὸν Οὐρίατθον. καὶ ἔκτειναν ὧδε. ὀλιγοϋπνότατος ἦν διὰ φροντίδα καὶ πόνους ὁ Οὐρίατθος, καὶ τὰ πολλὰ ἔνοπλος ἀνεπαύετο, ἵνα ἐξεγρόμενος εὐθὺς ἐς πάντα ἕτοιμος εἴη. τοῖς οὖν φίλοις ἐξῆν καὶ νυκτερεύοντι ἐντυγχάνειν. ᾧ δὴ καὶ τότε ἔθει οἱ περὶ τὸν Αὔδακα φυλάξαντες αὐτόν, ἀρχομένου ὕπνου παρῆλθον ἐς τὴν σκηνὴν ὡς δή τινος ἐπείγοντος, καὶ κεντοῦσιν ὡπλισμένον ἐς τὴν σφαγήν· οὐ γὰρ ἦν ἄλλοθι. οὐδεμιᾶς δʼ αἰσθήσεως γενομένης διὰ τὴν τῆς πληγῆς εὐκαιρίαν, διέδρασαν ἐς Καιπίωνα καὶ τὰς δωρεὰς ᾔτουν. ὁ δʼ αὐτίκα μὲν αὐτοῖς ἔδωκεν ἀδεῶς ἔχειν ὅσα ἔχουσι, περὶ δὲ ὧν ᾔτουν, ἐς Ῥώμην αὐτοὺς ἔπεμπεν. οἱ δὲ θεραπευτῆρες Οὐριάτθου καὶ ἡ ἄλλη στρατιά, γενομένης ἡμέρας, ἀναπαύεσθαι νομίζοντες αὐτὸν ἐθαύμαζον διὰ τὴν ἀήθειαν, μέχρι τινὲς ἔμαθον ὅτι νεκρὸς κέοιτο ἔνοπλος. καὶ εὐθὺς ἦν οἰμωγή τε καὶ πένθος ἀνὰ τὸ στρατόπεδον, ἀλγούντων τε ἐπʼ ἐκείνῳ καὶ περὶ σφῶν δεδιότων,

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 253

town to dwell in, contrary to their expectation. Having accomplished these results, Brutus returned to Rome. I have united these events with the history of Viriathus, because they were undertaken by other guerilla bands at the same time, and in emulation of him.

Viriathus sent his most trusted friends Audax, Ditalco, and Minurus to Caepio to negotiate terms of peace. The latter bribed them by large gifts and promises to assassinate Viriathus, which they did in this way. Viriathus, on account of his excessive cares and labors, slept but little, and for the most part took rest in his armor so that when aroused he should be prepared for every emergency. For this reason it was permitted to his friends to visit him by night. Taking advantage of this custom, those who were associated with Audax in guarding him entered his tent as if on pressing business, just as he had fallen asleep, and killed him by stabbing him in the throat, which was the only part of his body not protected by armor. The nature of the wound was such that nobody suspected what had been done. The murderers fled to Caepio and asked for the rest of their pay. For the present he gave them permission to enjoy safely what they had already received; as for the rest of their demands he referred them to Rome. When daylight came the attendants of Viriathus and the remainder of the army thought he was still resting and wondered at his unusually long repose, until some of them discovered that he was lying dead in his armor. Straightway there was grief and lamentation throughout the camp, all of them mourning for him, fearing for their own safety, thinking what

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.