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 38–40

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English Page · Branch 175 of 315

Book VII · Sections 38–40

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Ancient Greek

p. 364

τῶν δὲ οὐδὲ ἐς πεῖραν ἐλθεῖν ὑποστάντων, ἀπὸ δύο καὶ τριάκοντα σραδίων τῆς Ῥώμης ἐστρατοπέδευσεν ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἀνιῆνος ποταμοῦ.

καὶ ἡ πόλις ἐθορυβήθη θόρυβον οἷον οὐ πρότερον, οἰκεῖον μὲν οὐδὲν ἔχοντες ἱκανόν (ὃ γὰρ εἶχον, ἐν Καμπανίᾳ τότε ἦν), πολεμίου δὲ στρατοῦ τοσοῦδε σφίσιν ἐπιστάντος ἄφνω, καὶ στρατηγοῦ διʼ ἀρετὴν καὶ εὐτυχίαν ἀμάχου. ὅμως δὲ ἐκ τῶν παρόντων οἱ μὲν δυνάμενοι φέρειν ὅπλα τὰς πύλας ἐφύλασσον, οἱ δὲ γέροντες ἐς τὸ τεῖχος ἀνεπήδων, γύναια δὲ καὶ παιδία λίθους καὶ βέλη παρέφερον. οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῶν ἀγρῶν συνέθεον ἐς τὸ ἄστυ δρόμῳ. βοῆς δὲ παμμιγοῦς καὶ θρήνων καὶ εὐχῶν καὶ παρακελεύσεων πρὸς ἀλλήλους πάντα μεστὰ ἦν. εἰσὶ δʼ αὐτῶν οἳ τὴν γέφυραν τὴν ἐπὶ τοῦ Ἀνιῆνος ἐκδραμόντες ἔκοπτον. μικρὸν δέ τι πολίχνιον Ῥωμαῖοί ποτε ἐπιτειχίζοντες Αἰκανοῖς Ἄλβην ἀπὸ τῆς αὑτῶν μητροπόλεως ἐκάλεσαν· σὺν χρόνῳ δʼ ἐπισύροντες ἢ διαφθείροντες, ἢ ἐς τὴν Ἀλβανῶν σύγκρισιν, Ἀλβησέας αὐτοὺς καλοῦσιν. τούτων τότε τῶν Ἀλβησέων ἐς Ῥώμην δισχίλιοι δρόμῳ διέθεον, τοῦ κινδύνου μετασχεῖν, καὶ ἅμα ἀφικνοῦντο καὶ ὡπλίζοντο καὶ τὰς πύλας ἐφρούρουν. τοσῇδε προθυμίᾳ βραχὺ πολίχνιον ἐκ τοσῶνδε ἀποικιῶν ἐχρήσατο μόνη, οἷόν τι καὶ Ἀθηναίοις ἐς Μαραθῶνα μικρὰ πόλις ἡ Πλαταιέων ἔδραμε τοῦ τότε κινδύνου μετασχεῖν.

τῶν δὲ στρατηγῶν Ἄππιος μὲν Καπύῃ παρέμενε, κἀκεῖνος ἡγούμενος ἑλεῖν Καπύην, Φούλουιος δὲ Φλάκκος ἑτέραις ὁδοῖς ἐπειχθεὶς ἀλήκτῳ τάχει ἀντεστρατοπέδευσε τῷ Ἀννίβᾳ, μέσον ἔχων τὸν Ἀνιῆνα. τῷ δʼ Ἀννίβᾳ τῆν γέφυραν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 365

the risk of battle, he encamped at the river Anio, two and thirty stades from Rome.

The city was thrown into consternation as never before. They were without any suitable force (what they had being in Campania), and now this strong, hostile army came suddenly against them under a general of invincible bravery and good fortune. Nevertheless, for the present emergency those who were able to bear arms manned the gates, the old men mounted the walls, and the women and children brought stones and missiles, while those who were in the fields flocked in all haste to the city. Confused cries, lamentations, prayers, and mutual exhortations on every side filled the air. Some went out and cut down the bridge over the river Anio. The Romans had at one time fortified a small town among the Aequi, which they called Alba after the name of their mother city. Its inhabitants with the lapse of time, either because of carelessness of pronunciation or corruption of language, or to distinguish them from the Albanians, were called Albenses. Two thousand of these Albenses hastened to Rome to share the danger. As soon as they arrived they armed themselves and mounted guard at the gates. Such zeal did this one small town, out of many colonies, exhibit, just as the little city of Plataea came to the aid of the Athenians at Marathon and shared their danger.

Appius, one of the Roman generals, remained at Capua, believing that he could capture the place by him-self. Fulvius Flaccus, the other one, marched with untiring haste by other roads and encamped opposite Hannibal, with the river Anio flowing

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.