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 II · Fragment V

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 21 of 315

Book II · Fragment V

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Ancient Greek

p. 46

ἀνάξιον ποιεῖν τῆς πατρίδος, μηδʼ ἐξ ἐπιτάγματος ἀλλʼ ἑκουσίους ἐᾶν γίγνεσθαι τὰς συνθήκας, αἰδούμενόν τε τὴν πατρίδα, καὶ τὸ τῶν προγόνων ἀξίωμα τιμῶντα τῶν ἐς αὐτὸν οὐχ ἁμαρτόντων. ὁ δὲ τοσοῦτον αὐτοῖς ἀπεκρίνατο, τριῶν ἄλλων ἡμερῶν ἥκειν βουλευσαμένους τι κάλλιον. οἱ μὲν δὴ τοὺς ἱερέας ἔπεμπον, ταῖς ἱεραῖς ἐσθῆσιν ἐσταλμένους, ταὐτὰ τοῦ Μαρκίου δεησομένους· ὁ δὲ καὶ τούτοις ἔφη δεῖν ἢ τὰ κελευόμενα ποιεῖν, ἢ μηδʼ αὖ ἀφικνεῖσθαι πρὸς αὐτόν. ἐς οὖν πολιορκίαν καθίσταντο, καὶ τὸ τεῖχος ἐπλήρουν λίθων καὶ βελῶν ὡς ἄνωθεν ἀμυνούμενοι Μάρκιον.

Οὐαλερία δʼ ἡ Ποπλικόλα θυγάτηρ πολλὰς ἀγομένη γυναῖκας ἐπί τε τὴν μητέρα τοῦ Μαρκίου Οὐετουρίαν καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν γυναῖκα Οὐολουμνίαν, πένθιμα ἠμφιεσμέναι πᾶσαι, καὶ τὰ παιδία ταῖς ἱκεσίαις ἐπιφέρουσαι, συνεξελθεῖν αὑταῖς πρὸς Μάρκιον ἠξίουν αὐτάς, καὶ δεηθῆναι φείσασθαι σφῶν τε αὐτῶν καὶ τῆς πατρίδος. αἱ μὲν δὴ τῆς βουλῆς ἐπιτρεπούσης ἐξῄεσαν, μόναι γυναῖκες, ἐς ἐχθρῶν στρατόπεδον· ὁ δὲ Μάρκιος θαυμάζων τῆς εὐτολμίας τὴν πόλιν, οἷα Ῥωμαίων ἐστὶ καὶ τὰ γύναια, προσιούσαις ἀπήντα, καὶ τὰς ῥάβδους καθῄρει καὶ τοὺς πελέκεας διὰ τὴν μητέρα, προσδραμών τε ἠσπάζετο, καὶ ἦγεν ἐπὶ τὸ συνέδριον τῶν Οὐολούσκων, καὶ λέγειν ἐκέλευσεν ὅ τι χρῄζοι.

ἡ δὲ συνηδικῆσθαι μὲν ἐξελαυνομένῳ τῆς πόλεως, μήτηρ οὖσα, ἔφη, ὁρᾶν δʼ ὅτι Ῥωμαῖοι πολλὰ πρὸς αὐτοῦ πεπόνθασιν ἤδη καὶ τίσιν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book II

p. 47

country, and to allow a treaty to be made, not by his command, but of their own free will, for he should regard the honor of his country and the principles of his ancestors, who had never done him any wrong. He replied merely that he would give them three days more in order that they might think better of it. Then the Romans sent their priests to him wearing their sacred vestments to add their entreaties. To these he said that either they must obey his commands or they need not come to him again. Then the Romans prepared for a siege and brought stones and missiles upon the walls to fight off Marcius from above.

Now Valeria, the daughter of Publicola, brought a company of women to Veturia, the mother of Marcius, and to Volumnia his wife. All these, clad in mourning garments and bringing their children to join in the supplication, implored that they would go out with them to meet Marcius, and beseech him to spare them and their country. The Senate allowed these women to go alone to the camp of the enemy. Marcius admiring the high courage of the city, where even the women were inspired by it, advanced to meet them, sending away the rods and axes of the lictors, out of respect for his mother. He ran forward and embraced her, brought her into the council of the Volsci, and told her to tell what she wanted.

She said that, being his mother, she was as much wronged as he in his banishment from the city; that she saw that the Romans had already suffered grievously at his hands, and had paid a

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.