DiotimosReading Desk

Diotimos Library · Greek Antiquity Collection · Bilingual Edition

Appian of Alexandria

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I

Ancient Greek with Horace White’s English translation

Appian’s Roman History, Volume IBook III · Fragments II–IV

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 28 of 315

Book III · Fragments II–IV

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 62

Μάλλιος Τορκουάτος ὁ ὕπατος τοιοῦτος ἦν τὴν ἀρετήν. τούτῳ πατὴρ ἐγεγένητο μικρολόγος καὶ ἀμελὴς ἐς αὐτόν. καὶ ἐν ἀγροῖς αὐτὸν εἶχε, μετὰ τῶν θεραπόντων ἐργαζόμενόν τε καὶ τρεφόμενον. γραψαμένου δὲ αὐτὸν ἐπὶ πολλοῖς ἀδικήμασι Πομπωνίου δημάρχου, καὶ μέλλοντος ἐρεῖν τι καὶ περὶ τῆς ἐς τὸν παῖδα κακώσεως, ὁ παῖς ὅδε Μάλλιος ἧκεν, ἐπικρύπτων ξιφίδιον, ἐς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ δημάρχου, καὶ τυχεῖν ἠξίωσεν αὐτοῦ μόνου ὡς δή τι λέξων χρήσιμον ἐς τὴν δίκην. ὑποδεχθεὶς δὲ καὶ λέγειν ἀρχόμενος ἐπέκλεισε τὰς θύρας, καὶ τὸ ξίφος ἐπισπάσας ἠπείλει τῷ δημάρχῳ κτενεῖν αὐτόν, εἰ μὴ ὀμόσειεν ὅτι λύσει τῷ πατρὶ τὴν δίκην. καὶ ὁ μὲν ὤμοσε καὶ διέλυσεν, ἐκθέμενος τῷ δήμῳ τὸ συμβάν· ὁ δὲ Μάλλιος ἐξ ἐκείνου λαμπρὸς ἦν, ἐπαινούμενος ὅτι τοιόσδε ἐς τοιόνδε πατέρα ἐγεγένητο.

ὁ δὲ αὐτὸν εἰς μονομαχίαν προυκαλεῖτο, σκώπτων ἐς αὐτόν. ὁ δὲ τέως μὲν αὑτοῦ κατεῖχε, μετὰ δέ, οὐ φέρων ἔτι τὸ ἐρέθισμα, ἀντήλασε τὸν ἵππον.

ὅτι Σαυνῖται ἐς τὴν Φρεγελλανῶν ἐμβαλόντες ἐπόρθουν, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ Σαυνιτῶν καὶ Δαυνίων ὀγδοήκοντα κώμας καὶ μίαν εἷλον, καὶ ἄνδρας ἐξ αὐτῶν χιλίους καὶ δισμυρίους ἀνελόντες

62

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book III

p. 63

Such was the bravery of the consul Manlius Torquatus. He had a penurious father who did not care for him, but kept him at work with slaves in the fields and left him to partake of their fare. When the tribune Pomponius prosecuted him for numerous misdeeds and thought to mention among others his bad treatment of his son, young Manlius, concealing a dagger under his clothes, went to the house of the tribune and asked to see him privately as though he had something of importance to say about the trial. Being admitted, and just as he was beginning to speak, he fastened the door and threatened the tribune with instant death if he did not take an oath that he would withdraw the accusation against his father. The latter took the oath, dismissed the accusation, and explained the reason to the people. Manlius acquired great distinction from this affair, and was praised for being such a son to such a father.

With jeers he challenged him to single combat. The other [Manlius, the consul’s son] restrained himself for a while; but when he could no longer endure the provocation, he dashed on his horse against him.

While the Samnites were raiding and plundering the territory of Fregellae, the Romans captured eighty-one villages belonging to the Samnites and

63

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.