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 VI–VII

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 63 of 315

Book V · Fragments VI–VII

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Ancient Greek

p. 136

Μάγνον, στρατηγοῦντα τοῦ λῃστικοῦ καὶ Μιθριδατείου πολέμου, πέμψαντες ἔφασαν ἑαυτοὺς ἐλθόντι ἐπιτρέψειν. ὁ δὲ ἀσχόλως τότε ἔχων ἐκέλευε τὸν Μέτελλον, ὡς οὐ δέον ἔτι πολεμεῖν τοῖς ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιτρέπουσιν, ἐξανίστασθαι τῆς νήσου· παραλήψεσθαι γὰρ αὐτὸς αὐτὴν ἐπελθών. ὁ δὲ οὐ φροντίσας ἐπέμεινε τῷ πολέμῳ, μέχρι ὑπηγάγετο αὐτήν, Λασθένει συνθέμενος ὅμοια Πανάρει. καὶ ἐθριάμβευσε, καὶ Κρητικὸς ἐκλήθη ὅδε δικαιότερον Ἀντωνίου, τὴν νῆσον ἐξεργασάμενος.

ὅτι Κλώδιος ὁ πατρίκιος, ὁ ποῦλχερ ἐπίκλην, τοῦτʼ ἔστιν εὐπρεπής, τῆς Γαΐου Καίσαρος γυναικὸς ἤρα. καὶ ἁρμόσασθαι αὑτὸν ἐς γυναῖκα ἐκ κεφαλῆς ἐς ἄκρους πόδας, ἔτι ὄντα ἀγένειον, καὶ ἐς τὴν οἰκίαν τοῦ Γαΐου παρελθεῖν οἷα γυναῖκα νυκτός, ὅτε μόναις γυναιξὶν ἐξῆν ἐσελθεῖν, μυστηρίων ἀγομένων. πλανηθέντα δὲ τῆς ὁδηγούσης, κατάφωρον ὑπʼ ἄλλων ἐκ τῆς φωνῆς γενόμενον ἐξελαθῆναι.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book V

p. 137

who was conducting the war against the pirates, and against Mithridates, that if he would come they would surrender themselves to him. As he was then busy with other things, he commanded Metellus to withdraw from the island, as it was not seemly to continue a war against those who offered to give themselves up, and he said that he would come to receive the surrender of the island later. Metellus paid no attention to this order, but pushed on the war until the island was subdued, making the same terms with Lasthenes as he had made with Panares. Metellus was awarded a triumph and the title of Creticus with more justice than Antonius, for he actually subjugated the island.

The patrician Clodius, surnamed Pulcher, which means handsome, was in love with Caesar’s wife. He arrayed himself in woman’s clothes from head to foot, being still without a beard, and gained admission to Caesar’s house as a woman in the night, at a time when the mysteries [of the Bona Dea] were celebrated, to which only women were admitted. Having lost his guide, and being detected by others by the sound of his voice, he was hustled out.

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.