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 V · Fragments III–V

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English Page · Branch 61 of 315

Book V · Fragments III–V

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Ancient Greek

p. 132

ὅτι Ἱπποκράτης καὶ Ἐπικύδης, ἀδελφὼ μὲν ἀλλήλων, στρατηγὼ δὲ Συρακοσίων, Ῥωμαίοις ἐκ πολλοῦ δυσχεραίνοντες, ἐπεὶ τὰς Συρακούσας οὐκ ἴσχυον ἐκπολεμῶσαι, κατέφυγον ἐς Λεοντίνους διαφερομένους τοῖς Συρακοσίοις, καὶ κατηγόρουν τῆς πατρίδος ὅτι τὰς σπονδὰς Ἱέρωνος ἐφʼ ὅλῃ Σικελίᾳ πεποιημένου μόνοι Συρακόσιοι σφίσιν αὐτοῖς ἀνακαινίσειαν. οἱ δὲ ἠρεθίζοντο. καὶ Συρακόσιοι μὲν ἐπεκήρυσσον, εἴ τις Ἱπποκράτους ἢ Ἐπικύδους κομίσειε τὴν κεφαλήν, ἰσόσταθμον αὐτῷ χρυσίον ἀντιδώσειν, Λεοντῖνοι δὲ αὑτῶν Ἱπποκράτη στρατηγὸν ᾑροῦντο.

ὅτι Σικελοὶ καὶ τέως ἀγανακτοῦντες ἐπὶ τῇ ὠμότητι Μαρκέλλου τοῦ στρατηγοῦ, μᾶλλόν τι καὶ τῷδε τῷ ἔργῳ συνεταράσσοντο, ἐφʼ ᾧ κατὰ προδοσίαν ἐς Συρακούσας ἐσῆλθεν. καὶ πρὸς Ἱπποκράτη μετετίθεντο, καὶ συνώμνυντο μὴ διαλύσασθαι χωρὶς ἀλλήλων, ἀγοράν τε αὐτῷ καὶ στρατιὰν ἔπεμπον, ἐς δισμυρίους πεζοὺς καὶ ἱππέας πεντακισχιλίους.

ὅτι διαβεβλημένῳ τῷ Μαρκέλλῳ οὐκ ἐπίστευον χωρὶς ὅρκων. διὸ καὶ Ταυρομενίων προσχωρούντων οἱ, συνέθετο καὶ ὤμοσε μήτε φρουρήσειν τὴν πόλιν μήτε στρατολογήσειν ἀπʼ αὐτῆς.

ὅτι

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book V

p. 133

Hippocrates and Epicydes, two brothers, were generals of the Syracusans. They had been for a long time incensed against the Romans, and when they could not stir up their fellow-countrymen to war, they went over to the Leontines, who had some differences with the Syracusans. They accused their own countrymen of renewing a separate league with the Romans, although Hiero had made one to include the whole of Sicily. The Leontines were much stirred up by this. The Syracusans made proclamation that if anybody would bring them the head of Hippocrates or of Epicydes, they would give him its weight in gold. But the Leontines chose Hippocrates as their general.

The Sicilians, who had been for a long time embittered against the Roman general Marcellus, on account of his severity, were still more excited against him because he had gained entrance to Syracuse by treachery. For this reason they joined themselves to Hippocrates, and took an oath together that none of them would make peace without the others, and sent him supplies and an army of 20,000 foot and 5000 horse.

Marcellus was in such bad odor that nobody would trust him except under oath, for which reason, when the Tauro-menians gave themselves up to him, he made an agreement and confirmed it with an oath, that he would not station any guard in their city nor require the inhabitants to serve as soldiers.

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.