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 77–78

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Book VI · Sections 77–78

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Ancient Greek

p. 258

καθʼ ἡμέραν ἐν ταῖς ἀκροβολίαις ἐλασσούμενος ὑπʼ ἀνδρῶν πολὺ ἐλασσόνων, μετέβαινεν ἐπὶ Τερμεντίαν ὡς εὐχερέστερον ἔργον. ὡς δὲ καὶ τῇδε συμβαλὼν ἑπτακοσίους τε ἀπώλεσε, καὶ τὸν τὴν ἀγορὰν αὐτῷ φέροντα χιλίαρχον οἱ Τερμεντεῖς ἐτρέψαντο, καὶ τρίτῃ πείρᾳ κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἡμέραν ἐς ἀπόκρημνα τοὺς Ῥωμαίους συνελάσαντες πολλοὺς αὐτῶν πεζούς τε καὶ ἱππέας αὐτοῖς ἵπποις κατέωσαν ἐς τὰ ἀπόκρημνα, περιφόβως ἔχοντες οἱ λοιποὶ διενυκτέρευον ἔνοπλοι, καὶ ἅμα ἕῳ προσιόντων τῶν πολεμίων ἐκταξάμενοι τὴν ἡμέραν ὅλην ἠγωνίζοντο ἀγχωμάλως, καὶ διεκρίθησαν ὑπὸ νυκτός. ὅθεν ὁ Πομπήιος ἐπὶ πολίχνης Μαλίας ἤλασεν, ἣν ἐφρούρουν οἱ Νομαντῖνοι. καὶ οἱ Μαλιεῖς τοὺς φρουροὺς ἀνελόντες ἐξ ἐνέδρας, παρέδοσαν τὸ πολίχνιον τῷ Πομπηίῳ. ὁ δὲ τά τε ὅπλα αὐτοὺς καὶ ὅμηρα αἰτήσας, μετῆλθεν ἐπὶ Σηδητανίαν, ἣν ἐδῄου λῄσταρχος ὄνομα Ταγγῖνος· καὶ αὐτὸν ὁ Πομπήιος ἐνίκα, καὶ πολλοὺς ἔλαβεν αἰχμαλώτους. τοσοῦτον δʼ ἦν φρονήματος ἐν τοῖς λῃσταῖς ὥστε τῶν αἰχμαλώτων οὐδεὶς ὑπέμεινε δουλεύειν, ἀλλʼ οἱ μὲν αὑτοὺς οἱ δὲ τοὺς πριαμένους ἀνῄρουν, οἱ δὲ τὰς ναῦς ἐν τῷ διάπλῳ διετίτρων.

ὁ δὲ Πομπήιος αὖθις ἐλάσας ἐπὶ Νομαντίαν, ποταμόν τινα μετωχέτευεν ἐς τὸ πεδίον ὡς λιμῷ πιέσων τὴν πόλιν. οἱ δὲ ἐργαζομένῳ τε ἐπέκειντο, καὶ σαλπικτῶν χωρὶς ἐκτρέχοντες ἀθρόοι τοὺς ὀχετεύοντας ἠνώχλουν. ἔβαλλον δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ χάρακος ἐπιβοηθοῦντας, ἕως κατέκλεισαν ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον. καὶ σιτολογοῦσιν ἑτέροις

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 259

When he saw his forces wasted day by day in skirmishes with an enemy much inferior in numbers, he moved against Termantia as being an easier task. Here he engaged the enemy and lost 700 men; and one of his tribunes, who was bringing provisions to his army, was put to flight by the Termantines. In a third engagement the same day they drove the Romans into a rocky place where many of their infantry and cavalry with their horses were forced down a precipice. The remainder, panic-stricken, passed the night under arms. At daybreak the enemy came out and a regular battle was fought which lasted all day with equal fortune. Night put an end to the conflict. Thence Pompeius marched against a small town named Malia, which was garrisoned by Numantines. The inhabitants slew the garrison by treachery and delivered the town to Pompeius. He required them to surrender their arms and give hostages, after which he moved to Sedatania, which a robber chief named Tanginus was plundering. Pompeius overcame him and took many of his men prisoners. So high-spirited were these robbers that none of the captives would endure servitude. Some killed themselves, others killed those who had bought them, and others scuttled the ships that carried them away.

Pompeius, coming back to the siege of Numantia, endeavored to turn the course of a certain river in order to reduce the city by famine. The inhabitants harassed him while he was doing this work. They rushed out in crowds without giving any signal, and assaulted those who were working on the river, and hurled darts at those who came to their assistance from the camp, and finally shut the Romans up in

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.