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 57–59

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Book VI · Sections 57–59

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Ancient Greek

p. 228

διαφυγεῖν. τὴν δὲ λείαν διαδοὺς τῷ στρατῷ τὴν δυνατὴν φέρεσθαι, τὰ λοιπὰ τοῖς θεοῖς τοῖς ἐνυαλίοις ἔκαυσεν.

καὶ Μούμμιος μὲν τάδε πράξας ἐπανῆλθεν ἐς Ῥώμην καὶ ἐθριάμβευσεν,

ἐκδέχεται δʼ αὐτὸν Μάρκος Ἀτίλιος, ὃς Λυσιτανῶν μὲν ἐς ἑπτακοσίους ἐπιδραμὼν ἀπέκτεινε, καὶ τὴν μεγίστην πόλιν ἐξεῖλεν, ᾗ ὄνομα Ὀξθράκαι, τὰ δʼ ἐγγὺς καταπληξάμενος ἅπαντα ἐπὶ συνθήκαις παρέλαβεν. καὶ τούτων ἦν ἔνια τοῦ Οὐεττώνων ἔθνους, ὁμόρου τοῖς Λυσιτανοῖς. ὡς δʼ ἀνεζεύγνυε χειμάσων ὁ Ἀτίλιος, αὐτίκα πάντες μετετίθεντο καί τινας Ῥωμαίοις ὑπηκόους ἐπολιόρκουν· οὓς ἐπειγόμενος ἐξελεῖν τῆς πολιορκίας Σέρουιος Γάλβας ὁ Ἀτιλίου διάδοχος, ἡμέρᾳ μιᾷ καὶ νυκτὶ πεντακοσίους σταδίους διελθὼν ἐπιφαίνεται τοῖς Λυσιτανοῖς, καὶ εὐθὺς ἐς μάχην ἐξέτασσε, κατάκοπον τὸν στρατὸν ἔχων. τρεψάμενος δʼ εὐτυχῶς τοὺς πολεμίους, ἐπέκειτο φεύγουσιν ἀπειροπολέμως. ὅθεν ἀσθενοῦς αὐτῷ καὶ ἀσυντάκτου τῆς διώξεως οὔσης διὰ κόπον, οἱ βάρβαροι κατιδόντες αὐτοὺς διεσπασμένους τε καὶ ἀναπαυομένους κατὰ μέρη συνελθόντες ἐπέθεντο, καὶ κτείνουσιν ἐς ἑπτακισχιλίους. ὁ δὲ Γάλβας μετὰ τῶν ἀμφʼ αὐτὸν ἱππέων κατέφυγεν ἐς Καρμώνην πόλιν, ἔνθα τοὺς διαφυγόντας ἀνελάμβανε, καὶ συμμάχους ἀθροίσας ἐς δισμυρίους διῆλθεν ἐς Κουνέους, καὶ παρεχείμαζεν ἐν Κονιστόργει.

Λεύκολλος δὲ ὁ τοῖς Οὐακκαίοις ἄνευ ψηφίσματος πολεμήσας ἐν Τυρδιτανίᾳ τότε χειμάζων ᾔσθετο Λυσιτανῶν ἐς τὰ πλησίον ἐμβαλόντων, καὶ περιπέμψας τοὺς ἀρίστους τῶν ἡγεμόνων,

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 229

The rest he devoted to the gods of war and burned. Having accomplished these results, Mummius returned to Rome and was awarded a triumph.

He was succeeded in the command by Marcus Atilius, who made an incursion among the Lusitanians and killed about 700 of them and took their largest city, called Oxthracae. This so terrified the neighboring tribes that they all made terms of surrender. Among these were some of the Vettones, a nation adjoining the Lusitanians. But when he went away into winter quarters they all forthwith revolted and besieged some of the Roman subjects. Servius Galba, the successor of Atilius, hastened to relieve them. Having marched 500 stades in one day and night, he came in sight of the Lusitanians and sent his tired army into battle instantly. Fortunately he broke the enemy’s ranks, but he imprudently followed the fugitives, the pursuit being feeble and disorderly on account of the fatigue of his men. When the barbarians saw them scattered, and by turns stopping to rest, they rallied and fell upon them and killed about 7000. Galba, with the cavalry he had about him, fled to the city of Carmone. There he received the fugitives, and having collected allies to the number of 20,000 he moved to the territory of the Cunei, and wintered at Conistorgis.

Lucullus, who had made war on the Vaccaei without authority, was wintering in Turditania. When he discovered that the Lusitanians were making incursions in his neighborhood he sent out some of his best lieutenants and slew about 4000 of

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.