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 88–89

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English Page · Branch 133 of 315

Book VI · Sections 88–89

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Ancient Greek

p. 278

μὲν οὖν ὑποχωροῦσιν αὐτοῖς ἀμέτρως εἵπετο, καὶ φεύγουσιν ἐς τὸν λόφον συνανεπήδα, ἔνθα τῆς ἐνέδρας ἐκφανείσης ἐκέλευε τοὺς ἱππέας μήτε διώκειν μήτε ἐπιχειρεῖν ἔτι, ἀλλʼ ἐν προβολῇ τὰ δόρατα θεμένους ἑστάναι καὶ ἐπιόντας ἀμύνεσθαι μόνον. ὁ δὲ Σκιπίων εὐθὺ ἀνατρέχοντος αὐτοῦ παρὰ τὸ πρόσταγμα δείσας εἵπετο κατὰ σπουδήν, καὶ ὡς ηὗρε τὴν ἐνέδραν, ἐς δύο διεῖλε τοὺς ἱππέας, καὶ προσέταξεν αὐτῶν ἑκατέροις παρὰ μέρος ἐμπηδᾶν τοῖς πολεμίοις, καὶ ἀκοντίσαντας ὁμοῦ πάντας εὐθὺς ἀναχωρεῖν, οὐκ ἐς τὸν αὐτὸν τόπον, ἀλλʼ ἀεὶ κατʼ ὀλίγον προστιθέντας ὀπίσω καὶ ὑποχωροῦντας. οὕτω μὲν τοὺς ἱππέας ἐς τὸ πεδίον περιέσωσεν· ἀναζευγνύοντι δʼ αὐτῷ καὶ ἀναχωροῦντι ποταμὸς ἦν ἐν μέσῳ δύσπορός τε καὶ ἰλυώδης, καὶ παρʼ αὐτὸν ἐνήδρευον οἱ πολέμιοι. ὁ δὲ μαθὼν ἐξέκλινε τῆς ὁδοῦ, καὶ μακροτέραν ἦγε καὶ δυσενέδρευτον, νυκτός τε ὁδεύων διὰ τὸ δίψος καὶ φρέατα ὀρύσσων, ὧν τὰ πλέονα πικρὰ ηὑρίσκετο. τοὺς μὲν οὖν ἄνδρας ἐπιμόχθως περιέσωσεν, ἵπποι δέ τινες αὐτοῦ καὶ ὑποζύγια ὑπὸ τῆς δίψης ἀπώλοντο.

καὶ Καυκαίους δὲ παροδεύων, ἐς οὓς παρεσπόνδησε Λεύκολλος, ἐκήρυξε Καυκαίους ἐπὶ τὰ ἑαυτῶν ἀκινδύνως κατέρχεσθαι. καὶ παρῆλθεν ἐς τὴν Νομαντίνην χειμάσων, ἔνθα αὐτῷ καὶ Ἰογόρθας ἐκ Λιβύης ἀφίκετο, ὁ Μασσανάσσου υἱωνός, ἄγων ἐλέφαντας δυοκαίδεκα καὶ τοὺς συντασσομένους αὐτοῖς τοξότας τε καὶ σφενδονήτας. ἀεὶ δέ τι δῃῶν, καὶ τὰ περικείμενα πορθῶν, ἔλαθε περὶ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 279

When he discovered the ambush he ordered his troops not to pursue or attack the enemy further, but to stand on the defensive with their spears presented to the enemy and merely ward off their attack. Straightway Scipio, seeing that Rufus had exceeded his orders, and fearing for his safety, followed with all haste. When he discovered the ambush he divided his horse into two bodies and ordered them to charge the enemy on either side alternately, hurling their javelins all together and then retiring, not to the same spot from which they had advanced, but a little further back each time. In this way the horsemen were brought in safety to the plain. As he was shifting quarters and retiring again, he had to cross a river which was difficult to ford by reason of its muddy banks, and here the enemy had laid an ambush for him. Having learned this fact, he turned aside and took a route that was longer, and where there was no water supply. Here he marched by night on account of the heat and thirst, and dug wells which yielded for the most part only bitter water. He saved his men with extreme difficulty, but some of his horses and pack animals perished of thirst.

While passing through the territory of the Caucaei, whose treaty with the Romans Lucullus had violated, he made proclamation that they might return in safety to their own homes. Thence he came again to the Numantine territory and went into winter quarters. Here Jugurtha, the grandson of Masinissa, joined him with twelve elephants and the body of archers and slingers who usually accompanied them in war. While Scipio was constantly ravaging and plundering the neighboring country, the enemy

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.