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 70–71

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English Page · Branch 118 of 315

Book VI · Sections 70–71

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Ancient Greek

p. 248

ὅθεν ὁ Οὐρίατθος οὐ δοκιμάζων αὐτῷ συμπλέκεσθαι διὰ τὴν ὀλιγότητα, κατὰ μέν τινα φάραγγα ἀφανῆ τὸ πλέον τοῦ στρατοῦ περιέπεμψεν ἀπιέναι, τὸ δὲ λοιπὸν αὐτὸς ἐκτάξας ἐπὶ λοφου δόξαν παρεῖχε πολεμήσοντος. ὡς δʼ ᾔσθετο τῶν προαπεσταλμένων ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ γεγονότων, ἐξίππευσεν ἐς αὐτοὺς μετὰ καταφρονήσεως, ὀξέως οὕτως ὡς μηδʼ αἰσθέσθαι τοὺς διώκοντας ὅποι διέδραμεν. ὁ δὲ Καιπίων ἐς Οὐέττωνας καὶ Καλλαϊκοὺς τραπεὶς τὰ ἐκείνων ἐδῄου.

καὶ ζήλῳ τῶν ἔργων Οὐριάτθου τὴν Λυσιτανίαν λῃστήρια πολλὰ ἄλλα ἐπιτρέχοντα ἐπόρθει. Σέξτος δὲ Ἰούνιος Βροῦτος ἐπὶ ταῦτα πεμφθεὶς ἀπέγνω μὲν αὐτὰ διώκειν διὰ χώρας μακρᾶς, ὅσην ὁ Τάγος τε καὶ Λήθης καὶ Δόριος καὶ Βαίτις ποταμοὶ ναυσίποροι περιέχουσιν, ὀξέως, οἷα δὴ λῃστήρια, μεθισταμένους δυσεργὲς ἡγούμενος εἶναι καταλαβεῖν, καὶ αἰσχρὸν οὐ καταλαβόντι, καὶ νικήσαντι τὸ ἔργον οὐ λαμπρόν· ἐς δὲ τὰς πόλεις αὐτῶν ἐτράπετο, δίκην τε λήψεσθαι προσδοκῶν, καὶ τῇ στρατιᾷ πολὺ κέρδος περιέσεσθαι, καὶ τοὺς λῃστὰς ἐς ἑκάστην ὡς πατρίδα κινδυνεύουσαν διαλυθήσεσθαι. ὁ μὲν δὴ ταῦτ’ ἐνθυμούμενος ἐδῄου τὰ ἐν ποσὶν ἅπαντα, συμμαχομένων τοῖς ἀνδράσι τῶν γυναικῶν καὶ συναναιρουμένων, καὶ οὔ τινα φωνὴν οὐδʼ ἐν ταῖς σφαγαῖς ἀφιεισῶν. εἰσὶ δʼ οἳ καὶ ἐς τὰ ὄρη μεθʼ ὧν ἐδύναντο ἀνεπήδων· καὶ αὐτοῖς δεομένοις συνεγίγνωσκεν ὁ Βροῦτος, καὶ τὰ ὄντα ἐμερίζετο.

καὶ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 249

his. Viriathus deeming it unwise to engage in battle, on account of the smallness of his army, ordered the greater part of it to retreat through a hidden defile, while he drew up the remainder on a hill as though he intended to fight. When he judged that those who had been sent before had reached a place of safety, he darted after them with such disregard of the enemy and such swiftness that his pursuers did not know whither he had gone. Caepio turned against the Vettones and the Callaici and wasted their fields.

Emulating the example of Viriathus many other guerilla bands made incursions into Lusitania and ravaged it. Sextus Junius Brutus, who was sent against them, despaired of following them through the extensive country bounded by the navigable rivers Tagus, Lethe, Durius, and Baetis, because he considered it extremely difficult to overtake them while flying from place to place after the manner of robbers, and yet disgraceful not to do so, and a task not very glorious even if he should conquer them. He therefore turned against their towns, thinking that thus he should take vengeance on them, and at the same time secure a quantity of plunder for his army, and that the robbers would scatter, each to his own place, when their homes were threatened. With this design he began destroying everything that came in his way. Here he found the women fighting and perishing in company with the men with such bravery that they uttered no cry even in the midst of slaughter. Some of the inhabitants fled to the mountains with what they could carry, and to these, when they asked pardon, Brutus granted it, taking their goods as a fine.

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.