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 IV · Fragment I

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 46 of 315

Book IV · Fragment I

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Ancient Greek

p. 100

ὧδε τοὺς πολεμίους τοσῶνδε δοράτων ἄφεσιν καὶ ἐπʼ αὐτῇ ταχεῖαν ἐπιχείρησιν. τὰ δὲ δόρατα ἦν οὐκ ἀπεοικότα ἀκοντίοις· ἃ Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσιν ὑσσούς, ξύλου τετραγώνου τὸ ἥμισυ, καὶ τὸ ἄλλο σιδήρου, τετραγώνου καὶ τοῦδε καὶ μαλακοῦ χωρίς γε τῆς αἰχμῆς. καὶ οἱ Βοιοὶ οὖν ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων τότε ἐφθάρησαν πανστρατιᾷ.

ἄλλους δὲ πάλιν Κελτοὺς ἐνίκα Ποπίλλιος, καὶ μετʼ ἐκεῖνον τοὺς αὐτοὺς Κάμιλλος ὁ τοῦ Καμίλλου υἱός. ἔστησε δὲ κατὰ Κελτῶν καὶ Πάππος Αἰμίλιος τρόπαια. πρὸ δὲ τῶν τοῦ Μαρίου ὑπατειῶν πλεῖστόν τι καὶ μαχιμώτατον, τῇ τε ἡλικίᾳ μάλιστα φοβερώτατον χρῆμα Κελτῶν ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν τε καὶ Γαλατίαν ἐσέβαλε, καί τινας ὑπάτους Ῥωμαίων ἐνίκησε καὶ στρατόπεδα κατέκοψεν· ἐφʼ οὓς ὁ Μάριος ἀποσταλεὶς ἅπαντας διέφθειρε. τελευταῖα δὲ καὶ μέγιστα τῶν ἐς Γαλάτας Ῥωμαίοις πεπραγμένων ἐστὶ τὰ ὑπὸ Γαΐῳ Καίσαρι στρατηγοῦντι γενόμενα. μυριάσι τε γὰρ ἀνδρῶν ἀγρίων, ἐν τοῖς δέκα ἔτεσιν ἐν οἷς ἐστρατήγησεν, ἐς χεῖρας ἦλθον, εἴ τις ὑφʼ ἓν τὰ μέρη συναγάγοι, τετρακοσίων πλείοσι, καὶ τούτων ἑκατὸν μὲν ἐζώγρησαν, ἑκατὸν δʼ ἐν τῷ πόνῳ κατέκανον. ἔθνη δὲ τετρακόσια καὶ πόλεις ὑπὲρ ὀκτακοσίας, τὰ μὲν ἀφιστάμενα σφῶν, τὰ δὲ προσεπιλαμβάνοντες, ἐκρατύναντο. πρὸ δὲ τοῦ Μαρίου καὶ Φάβιος Μάξιμος ὁ Αἰμιλιανός, ὀλίγην κομιδῇ στρατιὰν ἔχων, ἐπολέμησε τοῖς Κελτοῖς, καὶ δώδεκα μυριάδας αὐτῶν ἐν μιᾷ μάχῃ κατέκανε, πεντεκαίδεκα μόνους τῶν ἰδίων ἀποβαλών. καὶ ταῦτα μέντοι ἔπραξε πιεζόμενος ὑπὸ τραύματος ὑπογυίου, καὶ τὰ τάγματα ἐπιὼν καὶ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book IV

p. 101

quarters. The hurling of so many missiles, followed by an immediate charge, would throw the enemy into confusion. The spears of the Gauls were not like javelins, but what the Romans called , four-sided, part wood and part iron, and not hard except at the pointed end. In this way the army of the Boii was completely destroyed by the Romans.

Another Gallic force was defeated by Popillius, and after this Camillus, son of the former Camillus, defeated the same tribe. Afterwards AEmilius Pappus won some trophies from the Gauls. Shortly before the consulships of Marius a most numerous and warlike horde of Celtic tribes, most formidable in bodily strength, made incursions into both Italy and Gaul, and defeated some of the Roman consuls, and cut their armies in pieces. Marius was sent against them and he destroyed them all. The latest and greatest war of the Romans against the Gauls was that waged under the command of Caesar, for, in the ten years that he held command there, he fought with more than 4,000,000 barbarians, taken all together. Of these 1,000,000 were captured and as many more slain in battle. He reduced to subjection 400 tribes and more than 800 towns, which had either revolted from their allegiance or were conquered for the first time. Even before Marius, Fabius Maximus AEmilianus with a very small army killed 120,000 of them in one battle, losing only fifteen of his own men; and he did this although suffering from a recent wound,

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.