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 VII · Sections 11–12

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 154 of 315

Book VII · Sections 11–12

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Ancient Greek

p. 322

ἱερῶν καταφέροντες, ἃ ἐκ πολέμων ἄλλων κόσμος αὐτοῖς περιέκειτο· δικτάτορά τε, ὡς ἐν κινδύνῳ, Φάβιον εἵλοντο Μάξιμον.

Ἀννίβας δέ, θεοῦ παράγοντος αὐτόν, ἐπὶ τὸν Ἰόνιον αὖθις ἐτράπη, καὶ τὴν παράλιον ὁδεύων ἐπόρθει, λείαν τε περιήλαυνε πολλήν. Σερουίλιος δʼ ὕπατος ἀντιπαριὼν αὐτῷ κατῇρεν ἐς Ἀρίμινον, ἀπέχων Ἀννίβου μίαν ἡμέραν· ἔνθα τὴν στρατιὰν συνεῖχε καὶ τοὺς ἔτι φίλους Κελτῶν ἀπεθάρρυνεν, ἕως ἀφικόμενος Φάβιος Μάξιμος ὁ δικτάτωρ Σερουίλιον μὲν ἐς Ῥώμην ἔπεμπεν ὡς οὔτε ὕπατον οὔτε στρατηγὸν ἔτι ὄντα δικτάτορος ᾑρημένου, αὐτὸς δὲ τῷ Ἀννίβᾳ παρακολουθῶν ἐς μὲν χεῖρας οὐκ ᾔει, πολλάκις ἐκείνου προκαλουμένου, πολιορκεῖν δʼ οὐδένα εἴα, παραφυλάσσων καὶ ἐπικείμενος. ὁ δέ, τῆς χώρας ἐξαναλωμένης, τροφῶν ἠπόρει, καὶ αὐτὴν αὖθις περιιὼν ἑκάστης ἡμέρας ἐξέτασσε, προκαλούμενος ἐς μάχην. Φάβιος δʼ οὐ συνεπλέκετο, καταγιγνώσκοντος αὐτοῦ Μινουκίου Ῥούφου, ὃς ἵππαρχος μὲν ἦν αὐτῷ, ἔγραφε δʼ ἐς Ῥώμην τοῖς φίλοις ὡς ὀκνοίη Φάβιος ὑπὸ δειλίας. διαδραμόντος δʼ ἐς Ῥώμην ἐπὶ θυσίας τινὰς τοῦ Φαβίου, ὁ Μινούκιος ἡγούμενος τοῦ στρατοῦ συνεπλέκη τινὰ μάχην τῷ Ἀννίβᾳ, καὶ δόξας πλέον ἔχειν θρασύτερον ἐς Ῥώμην ἐπέστελλε τῇ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 323

those that had been hung there as trophies of former wars, and, as was customary in times of great danger, they chose a dictator, Fabius Maximus being selected.

But divine Providence turned Hannibal away toward the Adriatic, where he ravaged the sea-coast and gathered vast plunder. The consul Servilius, marching parallel with him, came to Ariminum, being distant from Hannibal by one day’s march. He retained his army there in order to hearten those Gauls who were still friendly to Rome. When Fabius Maximus, the dictator, arrived, he sent to Rome Servilius, who could be no longer either consul or general after a dictator had been chosen. Fabius followed Hannibal closely, but did not come to an engagement with him, although often challenged. He kept careful watch on his enemy’s movements, and lay near him and prevented him from besieging any town. After the country was exhausted Hannibal began to be short of provisions. So he traversed it again, drawing his army up each day and offering battle. Fabius would not come to an engagement, although his master of horse, Minucius Rufus, disapproved of his policy, and wrote to his friends in Rome that Fabius held back on account of cowardice. As Fabius had occasion to go to Rome to perform certain sacrifices, the command of the army fell to Minucius, and he had a sort of a fight with Hannibal, and as he thought he had the best of it he grew bolder and wrote to the

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.