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 · Fragments VI–IX

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Book IV · Fragments VI–IX

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Ancient Greek

p. 110

κατέβαινεν ἱερεύς, ὄνομα Δόρσων, ἐπὶ ἐτήσιον δή τινα ἱερουργίαν ἐς τὸν τῆς Ἑστίας νεὼν στέλλων τὰ ἱερὰ διὰ τῶν πολεμίων, αἰδεσθέντων ἢ καταπλαγέντων αὐτοῦ τὴν τόλμαν ἢ τὴν εὐσέβειαν, ἢ τὴν ὄψιν ἱερὰν οὖσαν. ὁ μὲν δὴ κινδυνεύειν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἱερῶν ἑλόμενος ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ἐσώζετο τῶν ἱερῶν. καὶ τόδε φησὶν ὧδε γενέσθαι Κάσσιος ὁ Ῥωμαῖος.

τοῦ δὲ οἴνου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων ἄδην ἐνεπίμπλαντο οἱ Κελτοί, τήν τε φύσιν ὄντες ἀκρατεῖς, καὶ χώραν ἔχοντες, ὅτι μὴ πρὸς δημητριακοὺς καρπούς, τῶν ἄλλων ἄγονον καὶ ἀφυᾶ. τά τε σώματα αὐτοῖς μεγάλα ὄντα καὶ τρυφηλὰ καὶ σαρκῶν ὑγρῶν μεστὰ ὑπὸ τῆς ἀδηφαγίας καὶ μέθης ἐς ὄγκον καὶ βάρος ἐξεχεῖτο, καὶ πρὸς δρόμους καὶ πόνους ἀδύνατα πάμπαν ἐγίγνετο· ὑπό τε ἱδρῶτος καὶ ἄσθματος, ὅπου τι δέοι κάμνειν, ἐξελύοντο ταχέως.

οὓς γυμνοὺς ἐπεδείκνυε Ῥωμαίοις, οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ τὴν βοὴν βαρεῖαν ἱέντες ὑμῖν ἐν ταῖς μάχαις καὶ τὰ ὅπλα παταγοῦντες καὶ ξίφη μακρὰ καὶ κόμας αἰωροῦντες. ὧν τὸ ἄτολμον ὁρῶντες, καὶ τὸ σῶμα μαλακὸν καὶ ἄτονον, προσίεσθε τῷ ἔργῳ.

τὸν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book IV

p. 111

certain yearly sacrifice in the temple of Vesta, and passed safely, with the sacred utensils, through the ranks of the enemy, who were either awed by his courage or had respect for his piety and his venerable appearance. Thus he who had incurred danger for the sake of his holy office was saved by it. That this event occurred, as related, the Roman writer Cassius tells us.

The Gauls filled themselves to repletion with wine and other luxuries, being intemperate by nature, and inhabiting a country which yielded only cereals, and was unfruitful and destitute of other productions. Thus their large bodies became delicate, distended with fatness, and heavy by reason of excessive eating and drinking, and quite incapable of running or hardship; and when any exertion was required of them they speedily became exhausted by perspiration and shortness of breath.

He (Camillus) showed them naked to the Romans and said: These are the creatures who assail you with such terrible shouts in battle, and clash their arms and shake their long swords and toss their hair. Behold their weakness of soul, their slothfulness and flabbiness of body, and gird yourselves to your work.

The people beheld the battle from the walls, 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.