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 31–32

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English Page · Branch 169 of 315

Book VII · Sections 31–32

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Ancient Greek

p. 352

Ἀργύριππα δʼ ἐστὶ πόλις ἐν τῇ Δαυνίᾳ, ἣν Διομήδης ὁ Ἀργεῖος λέγεται κτίσαι. καί τις ἔκγονος εἶναι τοῦ Διομήδους νομιζόμενος, Δάσιος, ἀνὴρ εὐμετάβολός τε τὸ φρόνημα καὶ οὐ Διομήδους ἄξιος, Ῥωμαίων περὶ Κάννας τὴν μεγάλην ἧτταν ἡττημένων ἀπέστησε τὴν πατρίδα πρὸς τοὺς Λίβυας ἀπὸ Ῥωμαίων. τότε δʼ αὖ δυσπραγοῦντος Ἀννίβου ἔλαθεν ἐς Ῥώμην διιππεύσας, καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν βουλὴν ἐπαχθεὶς ἔφη δύνασθαι τὸ ἁμάρτημα ἰάσασθαι καὶ μεταβαλεῖν αὖθις ἐς Ῥωμαίους τὴν πόλιν. οἱ δʼ ὀλίγου μὲν αὐτὸν καὶ διέφθειραν, ἐξέβαλον δʼ εὐθὺς ἐκ τῆς πόλεως. ὁ δὲ καὶ τούσδε καὶ τὸν Ἀννίβαν δεδιὼς ἠλᾶτο ἀνὰ τὴν χώραν, καὶ ὁ μὲν Ἀννίβας αὐτοῦ τὴν γυναῖκα καὶ τὰ τέκνα ζῶντας ἔκαυσε, τὰ δὲ Ἀργύριππα ἑτέρων ἐνδόντων εἷλε Φάβιος Μάξιμος νυκτός, καὶ κτείνας ὅσους ηὗρε Λιβύων, φρουρὰν ἐπέστησε τῇ πόλει.

Τάραντα δὲ φρουρουμένην ὑπὸ Ῥωμαιων Κονωνεὺς ὧδε προύδωκεν. κυνηγετεῖν εἴθιστο ὁ Κονωνεύς, καὶ φέρων ἀεί τι τῷ φρουράρχῳ Λιουίῳ συνήθης ἐκ τοῦδε ἐγεγένητο. ὡς δὲ ἐν πολεμουμένῃ χώρᾳ, νυκτὸς ἔφη δεῖν κυνηγετεῖν καὶ νυκτὸς φέρειν τὰ λαμβανόμενα. νυκτὸς οὖν αὐτῷ τῶν πυλῶν ἀνοιγομένων, συνθέμενος Ἀννίβᾳ καὶ στρατιώτας λαβών, τοὺς μὲν ἔκρυψεν ἐν λόχμῃ τινὶ πλησίον, τοὺς δʼ ἐπακολουθεῖν ἐκέλευσεν ἑαυτῷ διʼ ὀλίγου, τοὺς δὲ σὺν αὐτῷ προσιέναι,

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 353

There is a city called Arpi in Daunia which is said to have been founded by Diomedes, the Argive. Here a certain Dasius, said to have been a descendant of Diomedes, a very fickle-minded person, quite unworthy of such descent, after the terrible defeat of the Romans at Cannae drew his people over to the Carthaginian side. But now when Hannibal’s power began to wane he rode secretly to Rome, and being introduced to the Senate, said that he could bring the city back to the Roman allegiance and thus atone for his error. The Romans very nearly killed him and drove him from the city forthwith. Then, being in equal fear of them and of Hannibal, he became a wanderer through the country. Hannibal burned his wife and children alive. Arpi was betrayed by a portion of the inhabitants to Fabius Maximus, who captured it by night, and having put to death all the Carthaginians he found there, he established a Roman garrison in the city.

Tarentum, which was held by a Roman garrison, was betrayed by Cononeus in the following manner. Being in the habit of hunting and always bringing a present of game to Livius, the prefect of the guard, he became very familiar with him. As war was raging in the country he said that it was necessary to hunt and bring back his game by night. For this reason the gates were opened to him by night. He made an arrangement with Hannibal in pursuance of which he took a body of soldiers, some of whom he concealed in a thicket near the town; others he ordered to follow himself at no great

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.