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 75–76

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Book VI · Sections 75–76

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Ancient Greek

p. 256

παρέδωκεν ὡς ὑπηκόοις χρῆσθαι. ὁ δὲ ὅπλα τε αὐτοὺς ἀφείλετο ἅπαντα, καὶ γῆν ἔδωκεν ἱκανήν, ἵνα μὴ λῃστεύοιεν ἐξ ἀπορίας.

ἐπάνεισι δʼ ἐς τὸν Ἀρουακῶν καὶ Νομαντίνων πόλεμον ἡ γραφή, οὓς Οὐρίατθος μὲν ἠρέθισεν ἐς ἀπόστασιν, Καικίλιος δʼ αὐτοῖς Μέτελλος ἀπὸ Ῥώμης ἐπιπεμφθεὶς μετὰ πλέονος στρατοῦ Ἀρουακοὺς μὲν ἐχειρώσατο, σὺν ἐκπλήξει καὶ τάχει θερίζουσιν ἐμπίπτων, Τερμεντία δʼ αὐτῷ καὶ Νομαντία ἔτι ἔλειπον. ἦν δʼ ἡ Νομαντία ποταμοῖς δύο καὶ φάραγξιν ἀπόκρημνος, ὗλαί τε αὐτῇ πυκναὶ περιέκειντο, καὶ μία κάθοδος ἦν ἐς τὸ πεδίον, ἣ τάφρων ἐπεπλήρωτο καὶ στηλῶν. αὐτοὶ δʼ ἦσαν ἄριστοι μὲν ἱππεῖς τε καὶ πεζοί, πάντες δʼ ἀμφὶ τοὺς ὀκτακισχιλίους. καὶ τοσοίδε ὄντες ὅμως ὑπʼ ἀρετῆς ἐς μέγα ἠνώχλησαν τὰ Ῥωμαίων. Μέτελλος μὲν δὴ μετὰ χειμῶνα τὴν στρατιὰν Κοΐντῳ Πομπηίῳ [Αὔλῳ] διαδόχῳ τῆς στρατηγίας οἱ γενομένῳ παρέδωκε, τρισμυρίους πεζοὺς καὶ δισχιλίους ἱππέας ἄριστα γεγυμνασμένους, ὁ δὲ Πομπήιος τῇ Νομαντίᾳ παραστρατοπεδεύων ᾤχετό ποι, καὶ ἱππέας αὐτοῦ μεταθέοντας αὐτὸν οἱ Νομαντῖνοι καταβάντες ἔκτειναν. ἐπανελθὼν οὖν παρέτασσεν ἐς τὸ πεδίον, καὶ οἱ Νομαντῖνοι καταβάντες ὑπεχώρουν κατʼ ὀλίγον οἷα φεύγοντες, μέχρι ταῖς στήλαις καὶ φάραγξιν ὁ Πομπήιος

καὶ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 257

sufficient land, so that they should not be driven to robbery by want. In this way the Viriathic war came to an end.

Our history returns to the war against the Arevaci and the Numantines, whom Viriathus stirred up to revolt. Caecilius Metellus was sent against them from Rome with a larger army and he subdued the Arevaci, falling upon them suddenly while they were gathering their crops. There still remained the two towns of Termantia and Numantia to engage his attention. Numantia was difficult of access by reason of two rivers and the ravines and dense woods that surrounded it. There was only one road to the open country and that had been blocked by ditches and palisades. The Numantines were first-rate soldiers, both horse and foot, there being about 8000 altogether. Although small in numbers, yet they gave the Romans great trouble by their bravery. At the end of winter Metellus surrendered to his successor, Quintus Pompeius Aulus, the command of the army, consisting of 30,000 foot and 2000 horse, admirably trained. While encamped against Numantia, Pompeius had occasion to go away somewhere. The Numantines made a sally against a body of his horse that was ranging after him and destroyed them. When he returned he drew up his army in the plain. The Numantines came down to meet him, but retired slowly as though intending flight, until they had drawn Pompeius to the ditches and palisades.

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.