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 IPreface · Sections 1–2

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 1 of 315

Preface · Sections 1–2

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Ancient Greek

p. 2

Τὴν Ῥωμαϊκὴν ἱστορίαν ἀρχόμενος συγγράφειν ἀναγκαῖον ἡγησάμην προτάξαι τοὺς ὅρους, ὅσων ἐθνῶν ἄρχουσι Ῥωμαῖοι.

εἰσὶ δὲ οἵδε· ἐν μὲν τῷ ὠκεανῷ Βρεττανῶν τοῦ πλείονος μέρους, διὰ δὲ τῶν Ἡρακλείων στηλῶν ἐς τήνδε τὴν θάλασσαν ἐσπλέοντί τε καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς αὐτὰς στήλας περιπλέοντι νήσων ἄρχουσι πασῶν καὶ ἠπείρων, ὅσαι καθήκουσιν ἐπὶ τὴν θάλασσαν.

ὧν εἰσιν ἐν δεξιᾷ πρῶτοι Μαυρουσίων, ὅσοι περὶ τὴν θάλασσαν, ὅσα τε ἄλλα Λιβύων ἔθνη μέχρι Καρχηδόνος καὶ τούτων ὕπερθε Νομάδες, οὓς Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσι Νουμίδας καὶ τὴν χώραν Νουμιδίαν, ἕτεροι δὲ Λίβυες, ὅσοι περιοικοῦσι τὰς Σύρτεις μέχρι Κυρήνης, Κυρήνη τε αὐτὴ καὶ Μαρμαρίδαι καὶ Ἀμμώνιοι καὶ οἳ τὴν Μάρειαν λίμνην κατοικοῦσι, καὶ ἡ μεγάλη πόλις, ἣν Ἀλέξανδρος ἔθηκε πρὸ Αἰγύπτου, Αἴγυπτός τε αὐτὴ μέχρι Αἰθιόπων τῶν ἑῴων ἀνὰ τὸν Νεῖλον πλέοντι καὶ μέχρι Πηλουσίου διὰ θαλάσσης.

ἐπιστρέφοντι δὲ τὸν πλοῦν καὶ περιιόντι Συρία τε ἡ Παλαιστίνη καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτὴν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Preface

p. 3

INTENDING to write the history of the Romans I have deemed it best to begin with the boundaries of the nations under their sway. They are as follows: In the ocean, the major part of those who inhabit the British Isles. Then entering the Mediterranean by the Pillars of Hercules and circumnavigating the same we find under their rule all the islands and the mainlands washed by that sea. The first of these on the right hand are the Mauritanians of the coast and various other African nations as far as Carthage. Farther inland are the nomad tribes whom the Romans call Numidians and their country Numidia; then other Africans who dwell around the Syrtes as far as Cyrene, and Cyrene itself; also the Marmaridae, the Ammonii, and those who dwell by the lake Mareotis; then the great city founded by Alexander on the border of Egypt, and Egypt itself, as one sails up the Nile, as far as eastern Ethiopia; and as far as Pelusium by sea.

Here turning our course we take in Palestine-Syria, and beyond it a part

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.