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 VI · Sections 37–38

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 92 of 315

Book VI · Sections 37–38

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Ancient Greek

p. 196

ὤμοσε συμμαχήσειν, ἂν ἐς Λιβύην στρατεύη. ἔπραξε δὲ τοῦτο ἀνὴρ ἐς πάντα βέβαιος διὰ τοιάνδε αἰτίαν. Ἀσδρούβου τοῦ τότε οἱ συνόντος στρατηγοῦ θυγάτηρ ἐς γάμον ἠγγύητο Μασσανάσσῃ· Σύφακα δʼ ἄρα τὸν δυνάστην ἔρως ἔκνιζε τῆς παιδός, καὶ οἱ Καρχηδόνιοι μέγα ποιούμενοι Σύφακα ἐπὶ Ῥωμαίους προσλαβεῖν, ἔδωκαν αὐτῷ τὴν παῖδα, οὐδὲν τοῦ Ἀσδρούβου πυθόμενοι, καὶ τῶνδε πραχθέντων ὁ μὲν Ἀσδρούβας αὐτὰ ἐπέκρυπτε, τὸν Μασσανάσσην αἰδούμενος, ὁ δὲ αἰσθόμενος συνέθετο τῷ Σκιπίωνι. Μάγων δὲ ὁ ναύαρχος ἀπογνοὺς ἀπὸ τῶν παρόντων τὰ ἐν Ἰβηρίᾳ, πλεύσας ἐς Λίγυας καὶ Κελτοὺς ἐξενολόγει. καὶ ὁ μὲν περὶ ταῦτα ἦν, καὶ τὰ Γάδειρα ἐκλειφθέντα ὑπὸ τοῦ Μάγωνος οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι παρέλαβον.

στρατηγοὺς δὲ Ἰβηρίας ἐτησίους ἐς τὰ ἔθνη τὰ εἰλημμένα ἔπεμπον ἀπὸ τοῦδε ἀρξάμενοι, μικρὸν πρὸ τῆς τετάρτης καὶ τεσσαρακοστῆς καὶ ἑκατοστῆς ὀλυμπιάδος, ἁρμοστὰς ἢ ἐπιστάτας αὐτοῖς τῆς εἰρήνης ἐσομένους. καὶ αὐτοῖς ὁ Σκιπίων ὀλίγην στρατιὰν ὡς ἐπὶ εἰρήνῃ καταλιπών, συνῴκισε τοὺς τραυματίας ἐς πόλιν, ἣν ἀπὸ τῆς Ἰταλίας Ἰταλικὴν ἐκάλεσε· καὶ πατρίς ἐστι Τραϊανοῦ τε καὶ Ἀδριανοῦ τῶν ὕστερον Ῥωμαίοις ἀρξάντων τὴν αὐτοκράτορα ἀρχήν. αὐτὸς δὲ ἐς Ῥώμην ἐπὶ στόλου πολλοῦ διέπλει, λαμπρῶς τε κεκοσμημένου καὶ καταγέμοντος αἰχμαλώτων ὁμοῦ καὶ χρημάτων καὶ ὅπλων καὶ λαφύρων ποικίλων. καὶ ἡ πόλις αὐτὸν ἐπιφανῶς ἐξεδέχετο μετὰ δόξης ἀοιδίμου τε καὶ παραλόγου διά τε νεότητα καὶ ταχυεργίαν καὶ μέγεθος εὐπραξίας. οἵ τε

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 197

with Scipio, and swore to join him if the war should be carried into Africa. This man remained faithful under all circumstances and for the following reason. The daughter of Hasdrubal had been betrothed to him while he was fighting under the latter’s command. But King Syphax was desperately in love with the same girl, and the Carthaginians, considering it a matter of great moment to secure Syphax against the Romans, gave her to him without consulting Hasdrubal. The latter, when he heard of it, concealed it from Masinissa out of regard for him. When Masinissa learned the facts he made an alliance with Scipio. Mago, the admiral, despairing of Carthaginian success in Spain, sailed to the country of the Ligurians and the Gauls to recruit mercenaries. While he was absent on this business the Romans took possession of Gades, which he had abandoned.

From this time, which was a little before the 144th Olympiad, the Romans began to send praetors to Spain yearly to the conquered nations as governors or superintendents to keep the peace. Scipio left them a small force suitable for a peace establishment, and settled his sick and wounded soldiers in a town which he named Italica after Italy, and this was the native place of Trajan and Hadrian, who afterwards became emperors of Rome. Scipio himself sailed for Rome with a large fleet magnificently arrayed, and loaded down with captives, money, arms, and all kinds of booty. The city gave him a glorious reception, bestowing noble and unprecedented honors upon him on account of his youth and the rapidity and greatness of his exploits. Even those who

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.