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 III · Fragments X–XI

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 42 of 315

Book III · Fragments X–XI

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Ancient Greek

p. 90

ὁποτέρως δʼ οὖν ἀπεκρίνατο, θαυμάσας αὐτὸν τοῦ φρονήματος ὁ Πύρρος ἑτέραν ὁδὸν ἐς τὰς διαλλαγὰς ἐπενόει, καὶ τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους ἐς τῶν Κρονίων τὴν ἑορτὴν ἔπεμπεν ἄνευ φυλάκων, ἐφʼ ᾧ, δεχομένης μὲν τῆς πόλεως ἃ ὁ Πύρρος προτείνει, μένειν καὶ τῆς αἰχμαλωσίας ἀπολελύσθαι, μὴ δεχομένης δὲ ἑορτάσαντας ἐπανήκειν ἐς αὐτόν. τούτους ἡ βουλή, πάνυ παρακαλοῦντας καὶ ἐνάγοντας ἐς τὰς διαλύσεις, ἐκέλευσεν ἑορτάσαντας Πύρρῳ παραδοῦναι σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐν ἡμέρᾳ ῥητῇ, καὶ θάνατον ἐπέταξε τοῖς ἀπολειφθεῖσι τῆς ἡμέρας. οἱ δὲ καὶ αὐτὴν ἅπαντες ἐφύλαξαν, καὶ Πύρρῳ πολεμητέα πάντως αὖθις ἐδόκει.

ὅτι τὸν Πύρρον ἤδη μὲν τὰ Ῥωμαίων κατέπλησσεν, ἐτάρασσε δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐν Μολοσσοῖς θορυβούμενα. Ἀγαθοκλῆς τε, ἄρχων Σικελίαν ἄρτι ἐτεθνήκει, οὗ θυγατέρα Λάνασσαν ἔχων ο Πύρρος ἐν ταῖς γυναιξί, τὴν νῆσον οἰκείαν ἀντὶ τῆς Ἰταλίας περιεβλέπετο. ὤκνει δʼ ὅμως ἔτι τοὺς ἐπικαλέσαντας ἄνευ τινὸς εἰρήνης καταλιπεῖν. ἄσμενος οὖν τῆς προφάσεως τῆς περὶ τὸν αὐτόμολον ἐπιβὰς ἐμαρτύρει τοῖς ὑπάτοις, καὶ Κινέαν ἔπεμπεν ἐς Ῥώμην χάριν ὁμολογήσοντα τῆς σωτηρίας τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους ἀμοιβὴν ἄγοντα, εἰρήνην τε ὅτῃ δύναιτο πράξοντα. δῶρα δʼ ὁ Κινέας ἔφερε πολλὰ μὲν ἀνδράσι

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book III

p. 91

Whichever answer he made, Pyrrhus admired his high spirit. He then tried another plan for procuring peace. He allowed the prisoners to go home without guards to attend the festival of Saturn, on the condition that if the city accepted the terms offered by him they should be free, but if not that they should return to him at the end of the festival. Although the prisoners earnestly besought and urged the Senate to accept the terms, the latter ordered them, at the conclusion of the festival, to deliver themselves up to Pyrrhus on a day specified, and decreed the death penalty to those who should linger beyond that time. This order was observed by all. In this way Pyrrhus learned again that everything depended on the arbitrament of arms.

While Pyrrhus was perplexed by the Roman complication he was disturbed by an uprising of the Molossians. At this time also Agathocles, the king of Sicily, had just died. As Pyrrhus had married his daughter Laneia, he began to look upon Sicily as more of his concern than Italy. Still he was loath to abandon those who had summoned him to their aid, without some kind of arrangement for peace. Seizing eagerly the occasion of the sending back of a traitor who had deserted from him, he testified his gratitude to the consuls for this act and sent Cineas again to Rome to repeat his thanks for the man’s safe-keeping, and to surrender the prisoners by way of recompense,—instructing him to procure peace in whatever way he could. Cineas brought a large number of presents both for men and

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.