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 79–80

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Book VI · Sections 79–80

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Ancient Greek

p. 262

προσδοκίαν γεγονότος, ἐπρέσβευον ἐς Πομπήιον. ὁ δὲ ἐς μὲν τὸ φανερὸν ἐκέλευεν αὑτοὺς Ῥωμαίοις ἐπιτρέπειν (οὐ γὰρ εἰδέναι σύνθήκας ἑτέρας Ῥωμαίων ἀξίας), λάθρᾳ δʼ ὑπισχνεῖτο ἃ ἔμελλε ποιήσειν. καὶ συνθεμένων ἐκείνων καὶ ἐπιτρεψάντων ἑαυτούς, ὅμηρά τε καὶ αἰχμάλωτα ᾔτησε καὶ τοὺς αὐτομόλους, καὶ πάντα ἔλαβεν. ᾔτησε δὲ καὶ ἀργυρίου τάλαντα τριάκοντα· ὧν μέρος αὐτίκα ἔδοσαν οἱ Νομαντῖνοι, καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ ὁ Πομτήιος ἀνέμενεν, παραγενομένου δʼ αὐτῷ διαδόχου Μάρκου Ποπιλίου Λαίνα, οἱ μὲν ἔφερον τὰ λοιπὰ τῶν χρημάτων, ὁ δʼ ἀπηλλαγμένος μὲν τοῦ περὶ τοῦ πολέμου δέους τῷ παρεῖναι τὸν διάδοχον, τὰς δὲ συνθήκας εἰδὼς αἰσχράς τε καὶ ἄνευ Ῥωμαίων γενομένας, ἠρνεῖτο μὴ συνθέσθαι τοῖς Νομαντίνοις. καὶ οἱ μὲν αὐτὸν ἤλεγχον ἐπὶ μάρτυσι τοῖς τότε παρατυχοῦσιν ἀπό τε βουλῆς καὶ ἱππάρχοις καὶ χιλιάρχοις αὐτοῦ Πομπηίου, ὁ δὲ Ποπίλιος αὐτοὺς ἐς Ῥώμην ἔπεμπε δικασομένους τῷ Πομπηίῳ. κρίσεως δʼ ἐν τῇ βουλῇ γενομένης, Νομαντῖνοι μὲν καὶ Πομπήιος ἐς ἀντιλογίαν ἦλθον, τῇ βουλῇ δʼ ἔδοξε πολεμεῖν Νομαντίνοις. καὶ ὁ Ποπίλιος ἐνέβαλεν ἐς τοὺς γείτονας αὐτῶν Λούσονας, οὐδὲν δʼ ἐργασάμενος (ἧκε γὰρ αὐτῷ διάδοχος ἐπὶ τὴν στρατηγίαν Ὁστίλιος Μαγκῖνος) ἀνέζευξεν ἐς Ῥώμην.

ὁ δὲ Μαγκῖνος τοῖς Νομαντίνοις συμβαλὼν ἡττᾶτό τε πολλάκις, καὶ τέλος ἀναιρουμένων πολλῶν ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον ἔφυγεν. λόγου δὲ ψευδοῦς ἐμπεσόντος ὅτι Νομαντίνοις ἔρχονται βοηθοῦντες Κάνταβροί τε καὶ Οὐακκαῖοι, δείσας

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 263

of their crops, by want of food, and by the length of the war, which had been protracted beyond expectation, sent legates to Pompeius. He publicly advised them to surrender at discretion, because no other kind of treaty seemed worthy of the dignity of the Roman people, but privately he told them what terms he should impose. When they had come to an agreement and the Numantines had given themselves up, he demanded and received from them hostages, together with the prisoners and deserters. He also demanded thirty talents of silver, a part of which they paid down and the rest he agreed to wait for. His successor, Marcus Popillius Laena, had arrived when they brought the last instalment. Pompeius being no longer under any apprehension concerning the war, since his successor was present, and knowing that he had made a disgraceful peace and without authority from Rome, began to deny that he had come to any understanding with the Numantines. The latter proved the contrary by witnesses who had taken part in the transaction, senators, and his own prefects of horse and military tribunes. Popillius sent them to Rome to carry on the controversy with Pompeius there. The case was brought before the Senate, and the Numantines and Pompeius debated it there. The Senate decided to continue the war. Thereupon Popillius attacked the Lusones who were neighbors of the Numantines, but he accomplished nothing, and on the arrival of his successor in office, Hostilius Mancinus, he returned to Rome.

Mancinus had frequent encounters with the Numantines in which he was worsted, and finally, after great loss, took refuge in his camp. On a false rumor that the Cantabri and Vaccaei were

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.