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 54–55

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Facing Pages · Branch 105 of 315

Book VI · Sections 54–55

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Ancient Greek

p. 222

βαρβάρων, πρὶν ἀφικέσθαι Λεύκολλον, ἐπὶ χορτολογίαν προεληλύθεσαν, οὐκ ἔχοντες ἐσελθεῖν ἐς τὴν πόλιν Λευκόλλου περικαθημένου, περιθέοντες ἐβόων καὶ συνετάρασσον· καὶ συνεπήχουν οἱ ἔνδον αὐτοῖς. ὅθεν ὁ φόβος ἦν τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ποικίλος. ἔκαμνον δὲ καὶ τῇ φυλακῇ διʼ ἀγρυπνίαν καὶ ἀήθειαν τροφῶν ἐπιχωρίων· οἴνου γὰρ οὐκ ὄντος οὐδʼ ἁλῶν οὐδʼ ὄξους οὐδʼ ἐλαίου, πυροὺς καὶ κριθὰς καὶ ἐλάφων κρέα πολλὰ καὶ λαγωῶν χωρὶς ἁλῶν ἑψόμενα σιτούμενοι κατερρήγνυντο τὰς γαστέρας, καὶ πολλοὶ καὶ ἀπώλλυντο, μέχρι ποτὲ τὸ χῶμα ἠγέρθη, καὶ τὰ τείχη τῶν πολεμίων τύπτοντες μηχαναῖς μέρος μέν τι κατέβαλον, καὶ ἐσέδραμον ἐς τὴν πόλιν· μετὰ δʼ οὐ πολὺ βιασθέντες τε καὶ ἀναχωροῦντες ἐσπίπτουσιν ἔς τινα δεξαμενὴν ὕδατος ὑπʼ ἀγνωσίας, ἔνθα οἱ πλείους ἀπώλοντο. καὶ νυκτὸς οἱ βάρβαροι τὰ πεσόντα ἀνῳκοδόμουν. πάνυ δʼ ἑκατέρων κακοπαθούντων (ὁ γὰρ λιμὸς ἀμφοῖν ἥπτετο) Σκιπίων ἀνεδέχετο τοῖς βαρβάροις οὐδὲν ἔσεσθαι παράσπονδον, καὶ πιστευθεὶς κατὰ κλέος ἀρετῆς διέλυσε τὸν πόλεμον ἐπὶ τοῖσδε, Λευκόλλῳ δοθῆναι παρὰ τῶν Ἰντερκατίων σάγους μυρίους καὶ θρεμμάτων τι πλῆθος ὡρισμένον, καὶ πεντήκοντα ἄνδρας ἐς ὅμηρα. χρυσὸν δὲ καὶ ἄργυρον Λεύκολλος αἰτῶν, οὗ δὴ χάριν, ἡγούμενος ὅλην Ἰβηρίαν πολύχρυσον εἶναι καὶ πολυάργυρον, ἐπολέμει, οὐκ ἔλαβεν· οὐ γὰρ εἶχον, οὐδʼ ἐν δόξῃ ταῦτʼ ἐκεῖνοι Κελτιβήρων τίθενται.

ἐπὶ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 223

panic. A body of the enemy’s horse who had gone out foraging before Lucullus arrived, returned and not finding any entrance to the city because it was surrounded by the besiegers, ran about shouting and creating disturbance while those inside the walls shouted back. These noises caused strange terror in the Roman camp. Their soldiers were sick from want of sleep, and because of the unaccustomed food which the country afforded. They had no wine, no salt, no vinegar, no oil, but lived on wheat and barley, and the flesh of deer and rabbits boiled without salt, which caused dysentery, from which many died. Finally when a mound was completed so that they could batter the enemy’s walls, they knocked down a section and rushed into the city, but they were speedily overpowered. Being compelled to retreat and being unacquainted with the ground, they fell into a reservoir where many perished. The following night the barbarians repaired their broken wall. As both sides were now suffering severely (for famine had fastened upon both), Scipio promised the barbarians that if they would make a treaty it should not be violated. They had so much confidence in his word that the war was brought to an end on these conditions: The Intercatii to give to Lucullus 10,000 cloaks, a certain number of cattle, and fifty hostages. As for the gold and silver that Lucullus was after (and for the sake of which he had waged this war, thinking that all Spain abounded with gold and silver), he got nothing. Not only did they have none, but these particular Celtiberians did not set any value on those metals.

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.