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 48–49

Swipe or use the arrow keys.

English Page · Branch 101 of 315

Book VI · Sections 48–49

Book Mode

Ancient Greek

p. 214

ἐπὶ τῆς οὐραγίας γενομένων ἔλεγον τινὰς ἀγνοοῦντας τὰ ὡμολογημένα ἁμαρτεῖν. ὁ δὲ τοὺς μὲν ἑκατὸν ἱππέας ἔδησε, τοὺς δʼ ἵππους αὐτῶν ἀποδόμενος καὶ τὸ πεδίον καταδραμὼν τὴν λείαν διεῖλε τῷ στρατῷ, καὶ τῇ πόλει παρεστρατοπέδευσεν. Νεργόβριγες δέ, προσαγομένων αὐτοῖς μηχανημάτων ἅμα μαὶ χωμάτων, κήρυκα πέμψαντες λυκῆν ἀντὶ κηρυκείου περικείμενον, ᾔτουν συγγνώμην. ὁ δὲ οὐκ ἔφη δώσειν, εἰ μὴ πάντες Ἀρουακοὶ καὶ Βελλοὶ καὶ Τίτθοι δεηθεῖεν ὁμοῦ. ὧν τὰ μὲν ἔθνη πυθόμενα προθύμως ἐπρεσβεύετο, καὶ τὸν Μάρκελλον ἠξίουν, ποινὴν αὐτοῖς ἐπιθέντα μετρίαν, ἐς τὰς Γράκχου συνθήκας ἀναγαγεῖν· ἀντέλεγον δʼ αὐτοῖς ἐπιχώριοί τινες ὑπʼ ἐκείνων πεπολεμημένοι.

καὶ ὁ Μάρκελλος ἐξ ἑκατέρων πρέσβεις ἐς Ῥώμην ἔπεμπεν ἀντιλέξοντας ἀλλήλοις, ἰδίᾳ δʼ ἐπέστελλε τῇ βουλῇ προτρέπων ἐς τὰς διαλύσεις· ἐβούλετο γὰρ ἐφʼ ἑαυτοῦ τὸν πόλεμον ἐκλυθῆναι, δόξαν οἱ χρηστὴν καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦδε νομίζων ἔσεσθαι. τῶν δὲ πρέσβεων οἱ μὲν ἐκ τῆς φιλίας ἐς τὴν πόλιν ἐσελθόντες ἐξενίζοντο, οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῶν πολεμίων, ὡς ἔθος ἐστίν, ἔξω τειχῶν ἐστάθμευον. ἀποδοκιμάζουσα δʼ ἡ βουλὴ τὴν εἰρήνην, καὶ χαλεπῶς φέρουσα ὅτι μή, καθάπερ αὐτοὺς ἠξίου Νωβελίων ὁ πρὸ Μαρκέλλου, Ῥωμαίοις αὑτοὺς ἐπετετρόφεσαν, Μάρκελλον αὐτοῖς ἐξοίσειν ἔφη τὰ δόξαντα. καὶ στρατιὰν εὐθὺς ἐκλήρουν ἐς Ἰβηρίαν τότε πρῶτον ἀντὶ καταλέξεως· πολλῶν γὰρ αἰτιωμένων τοὺς ὑπάτους ἀδίκους ποιεῖσθαι τὰς καταγραφὰς καί τινας ἐς τὰς κουφοτέρας στρατείας καταλέγειν, ἔδοξεν ἀπὸ κλήρου τότε

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 215

Marcellus then put the hundred horsemen in chains, sold their horses, devastated their country, distributed the plunder to his soldiers, and besieged the city. When the Nergobriges saw the engines advanced and the mounds thrown up against their walls they sent a herald, who wore a wolf’s skin instead of bearing a caduceus, and begged forgiveness. Marcellus replied that he would not grant it unless all the Arevaci, the Belli, and the Titthi would ask it together. When these tribes heard of this, they sent ambassadors eagerly, and begged that Marcellus would let them off with a light punishment and renew the terms of the agreement made with Gracchus. This petition was opposed by some of the country people who had been incited to war by them.

Marcellus sent ambassadors from each party to Rome to carry on their dispute there. At the same time he sent private letters to the Senate urging peace. He desired that the war should be brought to an end by himself, thinking that he should gain glory thereby. Some of the ambassadors from the friendly faction on coming to the city were treated as guests, but, as was customary, those from the hostile faction lodged outside the walls. The Senate rejected the proposal of peace and took it ill that these people had refused terms to the Romans when they were asked by Nobilior, the predecessor of Marcellus. So they replied that Marcellus would announce the Senate’s decision to them. And now for the first time they chose an army for Spain by lot, instead of the customary levy, for since many had complained that they had been treated unjustly by the consuls in the enrolment, while others had been chosen for easy service, it was

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.