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 49–51

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Facing Pages · Branch 102 of 315

Book VI · Sections 49–51

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Ancient Greek

p. 216

συναγαγεῖν. ὧν ἐστρατήγει Λικίνιος Λεύκολλος ὕπατος, πρεσβευτῇ χρώμενος Κορνηλίῳ Σκιπίωνι τῷ Καρχηδόνα μετʼ οὐ πολὺ ἑλόντι, καὶ Νομαντίαν ὕστερον.

ὁ μὲν δὴ Λεύκολλος ὥδευεν, ὁ δὲ Μάρκελλος τόν τε πόλεμον προεῖπε τοῖς Κελτίβηρσι, καὶ τὰ ὅμηρα αἰτοῦσιν ἀπέδωκεν. τὸν δʼ ἐν Ῥώμῃ τοὺς λόγους διαθέμενον ὑπὲρ τῶν Κελτιβήρων ἰδίᾳ πρὸς αὑτὸν ἀνακαλέσας ἐπὶ πολὺ διέτριβεν· ὑπὲρ ὅτου δὴ καὶ ὑπωπτεύετο μὲν καὶ τότε, μᾶλλον δʼ ἐπιστώθη τοῖς ὕστερον γενομένοις, ὅτι αὐτοὺς ἀνέπειθεν ἑαυτῷ τὰ κατὰ σφᾶς ἐπιτρέψαι, ἐπειγόμενος ἄρα πρὸ τοῦ Λευκόλλου τὸν πόλεμον καταλυθῆναι. μετὰ γὰρ τὴν συνουσίαν Νεργόβριγα μὲν Ἀρουακῶν πεντακισχίλιοι κατέλαβον, Μάρκελλος δʼ ἐπὶ Νομαντίαν ἐχώρει, καὶ πέντε σταδίους ἀποσχὼν παρεστρατοπέδευεν αὐτοῖς καὶ συνεδίωκεν ἐς τὴν πόλιν, ἕως ὁ τῶν Νομαντίνων στρατηγὸς Λιτέννων ὑποστὰς ἐβόα βούλεσθαι Μαρκέλλῳ συνελθεῖν ἐς λόγους, καὶ συνελθὼν ἔφη Βελλοὺς καὶ Τίτθους καὶ Ἀρουακοὺς ἑαυτοὺς ἐπιτρέπειν Μαρκέλλῳ. ὁ δὲ ἄσμενος ἀκούσας ὅμηρά τε καὶ χρήματα πάντας ᾔτησε, καὶ λαβὼν ἀφῆκεν ἐλευθέρους. ὁ μὲν δὴ πόλεμος ὁ Βελλῶν τε καὶ Τίτθων καὶ Ἀρουακῶν ἔληγεν οὕτω πρὸ Λευκόλλου.

ὁ δὲ Λεύκολλος δόξης τε ἐπιθυμῶν, καὶ ἐκ πενίας χρῄζων χρηματισμοῦ, ἐς Οὐακκαίους. ἕτερον γένος Κελτιβήρων, ἐνέβαλεν, οἳ γείτονες τῶν Ἀρουακῶν εἰσίν, οὔτε τινὸς αὐτῷ ψηφίσματος γεγονότος, οὔτε Οὐακκαίων Ῥωμαίοις πεπολεμηκότων, οὐδὲ ἐς αὐτόν τι Λεύκολλον ἁμαρτόντων.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 217

decided now to choose by lot. The consul Iicinius Lucullus was appointed to the command, and he had for his lieutenant Cornelius Scipio who was not long afterwards distinguished as the conqueror of Carthage and of Numantia.

While Lucullus was on the march Marcellus notified the Celtiberians of the coming war, and gave back the hostages in response to their request. Then he sent for the chief of the Celtiberian embassy in Rome and conferred with him privately a long time. From this circumstance it was then suspected, and was strongly confirmed by later events, that he sought to persuade them to put their affairs in his hands, because he tried in every way to bring the war to an end before the arrival of Lucullus. Directly after this conference 5000 of the Arevaci took possession of the city of Nergobriga. Marcellus marched against Numantia, encamped at a distance of five stades from it, and was driving the Numantines inside the walls when their leader Litenno halted and called out that he would like to have a conference with Marcellus. This being granted he said that the Belli, Titthi, and Arevaci would put themselves entirely in his hands. He was delighted to hear this and having demanded and received hostages and money, he let them go free. Thus the war with the Belli, the Titthi, and the Arevaci was brought to an end before Lucullus arrived.

Lucullus being greedy of fame and needing money, because he was in straitened circumstances, invaded the territory of the Vaccaei, another Celtiberian tribe, neighbors of the Arevaci, against whom war had not been declared by the Senate, nor had they

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.