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 IPreface · Sections 4–6

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 4 of 315

Preface · Sections 4–6

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Ancient Greek

p. 8

βόρειον ὠκεανόν, Ἴστρος δὲ εἰς τὸν Εὔξεινον πόντον καταδιδοῖ. περάσαντες δέ πῃ καὶ τούσδε Κελτῶν τῶν ὑπὲρ Ῥῆνον ἄρχουσιν ἐνίων καὶ Γετῶν τῶν ὑπὲρ Ἴστρον, οὓς Δακοὺς καλοῦσιν. ὅροι μὲν οὗτοι κατ’ ἤπειρον, ὡς ἐγγύτατα ἐλθεῖν τοῦ ἀκριβοῦς· νῆσοι δὲ πᾶσαι, ὅσαι τῆς ἐντὸς θαλάσσης εἰσίν, αἵ τε Κυκλάδες καὶ Σποράδες ἢ Ἰάδες ἢ Ἐχινάδες ἢ Τυρρηνίδες ἢ Γυμνησίαι ἢ ὅσας ἄλλας ὀνομάζουσιν ἑτέρως περί τε Λιβύην καὶ τὸ Ἰόνιον ἢ Αἰγύπτιον ἢ Μυρτῷον ἢ Σικελικὸν ἢ ὅσα ἄλλα τῆσδε τῆς θαλάσσης ὀνόματα, ὅσαι τε ἐξαιρέτως ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ὀνομάζονται μεγάλαι νῆσοι, Κύπρος τε καὶ Κρήτη καὶ Ῥόδος καὶ Λέσβος καὶ Εὔβοια καὶ Σικελία καὶ Σαρδὼ καὶ Κύρνος καὶ εἴ τις ἄλλη μικροτέρα τε καὶ μείζων, ἅπαντα ταῦτ’ ἐστὶ Ῥωμαίοις ὑπήκοα.

καὶ τὸν βόρειον ὠκεανὸν ἐς τὴν Βρεττανίδα νῆσον περάσαντες, ἠπείρου μεγάλης μείζονα, τὸ κράτιστον αὐτῆς ἔχουσιν ὑπὲρ ἥμισυ, οὐδὲν τῆς ἄλλης δεόμενοι· οὐ γὰρ εὔφορος αὐτοῖς ἐστιν οὐδ’ ἣν ἔχουσι. τούτων τοσούτων καὶ τηλικούτων ἐθνῶν ὄντων τὸ μέγεθος, Ἰταλίαν μὲν αὐτὴν ἐπιμόχθως τε καὶ μόλις ἐν πεντακοσίοις ἔτεσι κατειργάσαντο βεβαίως.

καὶ τούτων τὰ ἡμίσεα βασιλεῦσιν ἐχρῶντο, τὰ δὲ λοιπὰ τοὺς βασιλέας ἐκβαλόντες καὶ ἐπομόσαντες οὐκ ἀνέξεσθαι βασιλέων ἀριστοκρατίᾳ τε ἐχρήσαντο ἀπὸ τοῦδε καὶ προστάταις [ἄρχουσιν] ἐτησίοις.

διακοσίοις δὲ μάλιστα ἑξῆς ἐπὶ τοῖς πεντακοσίοις ἐπὶ μέγα ἦλθεν ἡ ἀρχή, καὶ ξενικῆς τε δυνάμεως ἐκράτησαν ἀπείρου καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἐθνῶν τότε ὑπηγάγοντο.

Γάιός τε

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Preface

p. 9

ocean and the Danube into the Euxine. On the other side of these rivers, however, some of the Celts beyond the Rhine are under Roman sway, and beyond the Danube some of the Getae, who are called Dacians. These, with the nearest approach to accuracy, are the boundaries on the mainland.

All the islands of the sea also, the Cyclades, Sporades, Ionian isles, Echinades, the Tuscan isles, the Balearic isles, and all the rest in Libyan, Ionian, Egyptian, Myrtoan, Sicilian, and Mediterranean waters, by whatever names called; also those which the Greeks by way of distinction call the great islands, Cyprus, Crete, Rhodes, Lesbos, Eubœa, Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica, and whatever other isle there may be, large or small—all are under Roman rule. Crossing the Northern ocean to Britain, a continent in itself, they took possession of the better and larger part, not caring for the remainder. Indeed, the part they do hold is not of much use to them.

Although holding the empire of so many and so great nations the Romans labored five hundred years with toil and difficulty to establish their power firmly in Italy itself. Half of this time they were under kings, but having expelled them and sworn to have kingly rule no longer, they adopted aristocracy, and chose their rulers yearly. In the two hundred years next succeeding the five hundred their dominion increased greatly, they acquired unexampled foreign power, and brought the greater part of the nations under their sway. Gaius

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.