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 · Fragments VIII–IX

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Book II · Fragments VIII–IX

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Ancient Greek

p. 54

ἄνδρα ἀποστρεφόμενος ἐζημίωσε πεντήκοντα μυριάσιν, οὐκ ἐπικλασθεὶς οὐδʼ ὅτι πρὸ τῆς δίκης αὐτῷ παῖς ἐτεθνήκει. τὰ μὲν οὖν χρήματα οἱ φίλοι συνεισήνεγκαν, ἵνα μὴ ὑβρισθείη τὸ σῶμα τοῦ Καμίλλου· αὐτὸς δὲ βαρυθυμῶν ἐς τὴν Ἀρδεατῶν πόλιν μετῴκησεν, εὐξάμενος τὴν Ἀχίλλειον εὐχήν, ἐπιποθῆσαι Ῥωμαίους Κάμιλλον ἐν καιρῷ. καὶ ἀπήντησεν αὐτῷ καὶ τόδε οὐ πολὺ ὕστερον· Κελτῶν γὰρ τὴν πόλιν καταλαβόντων ὁ δῆμος ἐπὶ Κάμιλλον κατέφυγε καὶ δικτάτορα αὖθις εἵλετο, ὡς ἐν ταῖς Κελτικαῖς πράξεσι συγγέγραπται.

ὅτι Μάρκος Μάλλιος εὐπατρίδης, Κελτῶν ἐπελθόντων τῇ Ῥώμῃ, ταύτην περιέσωσε καὶ τιμῶν μεγίστων ἠξιώθη. ὕστερον δὲ πρεσβύτην πολλάκις ἐστρατευμένον ἀγόμενον ἐς δουλείαν ὑπὸ τοῦ δανειστοῦ γνωρίσας, ἀπέδωκε τὸ χρέος ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπὶ τῷδε εὐφημούμενος πᾶσιν ἠφίει τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ χρήσταις τὰ ὀφλήματα. προϊὼν δὲ τῇ δόξῃ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἄλλων ἀπεδίδου. καὶ ταῖς δημοκοπίαις ἐπαιρόμενος ἐβούλευσεν ἤδη χρεῶν ἀποκοπὰς κοινάς, ἢ τὸν δῆμον ἠξίου τοῖς δανείσασιν ἀποδοῦναι, τὴν γῆν ἐς τοῦτο ἀποδόμενον ἔτι οὖσαν ἀνέμητον.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book II

p. 55

time set against him, fined him heavily, having no pity for him although he had recently lost a son. His friends contributed the money in order that the person of Camillus might not be disgraced. In deep grief he went into exile in the city of Ardea, praying the prayer of Achilles that the time might come when the Romans would long for Camillus. And in fact this came to pass very soon, for when the Gauls captured the city, the people fled for succor to Camillus and again chose him Dictator, as has been told in my Gallic history.

When Marcus Manlius, the patrician, saved the city of Rome from a Gallic invasion, he received the highest honors. At a later period when he saw an old man, who had often fought for his country, reduced to servitude by a money lender, he paid the debt for him. Being highly commended for this act, he released all his own debtors from their obligations. His glory being much increased thereby, he paid the debts of many others. Being much elated by his popularity, he even proposed that all debts should be cancelled, or that the people should sell the lands that had not yet been distributed and apply the proceeds for the relief of debtors.

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.