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 90–91

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Book VI · Sections 90–91

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Ancient Greek

p. 282

πολλὰ διεῖλεν αὐτούς, καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ στρατιὰν ἐπιδιεῖλεν· εἶθʼ ἡγεμόνας ἐπιστήσας ἑκάστῳ μέρει προσέταξε περιταφρεύειν καὶ περιχαρακοῦν τὴν πόλιν. ἦν δὲ ἡ περίοδος ἡ μὲν αὐτῆς Νομαντίας τέσσαρες καὶ εἴκοσι στάδιοι, ἡ δὲ τοῦ χαρακώματος ὑπὲρ τὸ διπλάσιον. καὶ τοῦτο διῄρητο πᾶν οἱ κατὰ μέρος ἕκαστον. καὶ προείρητο, εἴ τι ἐνοχλοῖεν οἱ πολέμιοι, σημεῖον ἐξαίρειν, ἡμέρας μὲν φοινικίδα ἐπὶ δόρατος ἱψηλοῦ, νυκτὸς δὲ πῦρ, ἵνα τοῖς δεομένοις ἐπιθέοντες αὐτός τε καὶ Μάξιμος ἀμύνοιεν. ὡς δʼ ἐξείργαστο πάντα αὐτῷ, καὶ τοὺς κωλύοντας εἶχεν ἱκανῶς ἀπομάχεσθαι, ἑτέραν τάφρον ὤρυσσεν οὐ μακρὰν ὑπὲρ ἐκείνην, καὶ σταυροὺς αὐτῇ περιεπήγνυ, καὶ τεῖχος ᾠκοδόμει, οὗ τὸ μὲν πάχος ἦν πόδες ὀκτώ, τὸ δὲ ὕψος δέκα χωρὶς τῶν ἐπάλξεων. πύργοι τε πανταχόθεν αὐτῷ διὰ πλέθρου περιέκειντο. καὶ λίμνην συνάπτουσαν οὐκ ἐνὸν περιτειχίσαι, χῶμα αὐτῇ περιέθηκεν ἴσον τῷ τείχει καὶ τὸ βάθος καὶ τὸ ὕψος, ὡς ἂν εἴη καὶ τόδε ἀντὶ τείχους.

οὕτω μὲν ὁ Σκιπίων ὅδε πρῶτος, ὡς ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ, περιετείχισε πόλιν οὐ φυγομαχοῦσαν· τόν τε Δόριον ποταμόν, συμφερόμενον τῷ περιτειχίσματι καὶ πολλὰ τοῖς Νομαντίνοις χρήσιμον ἔς τε ἀγορᾶς κομιδὴν καὶ διαπομπὴν ἀνδρῶν, ὅσοι κατʼ αὐτὸν κολυμβηταί τε καὶ σκάφεσι μικροῖς ἐλάνθανον, ἢ ἱστίοις, ὅτε λάβρον εἴη τὸ πνεῦμα, ἐβιάζοντο, ἢ κώπαις κατὰ τὸ ῥεῦμα, ζεῦξαι μὲν οὐκ ἐδύνατο πλατὺν ὄντα καὶ πάνυ ῥοώδη, φρούρια δὲ ἀντὶ γεφύρας αὐτῷ δύο περιθεὶς ἀπήρτησε καλῳδίοις δοκοὺς μακρὰς ἐξ ἑκατέρου

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 283

them into several parts and afterwards subdivided his own army. Then he appointed a commander for each division and ordered them to surround the city with a ditch and palisade. The circumference of Numantia itself was twenty-four stades, that of the enclosing works more than twice as great. All of this space was carefully allotted to the several divisions, and he had given orders that if the enemy should make a sally anywhere they should signal to him by raising a red flag on a tall spear in the daytime or by a fire at night, so that he or Maximus might hasten to the aid of those who needed it. When this work was completed and he could effectually repel any assaults, he dug another ditch not far behind this one and fortified it with palisades and built a wall eight feet wide and ten feet high, exclusive of the parapets. He built towers along the whole of this wall at intervals of 100 feet. As it was not possible to carry the wall around the adjoining marsh he threw an embankment around it of the same height and thickness as the wall, to serve in place of it.

Thus Scipio was the first general, as I think, to throw a wall around a city which did not shun a battle in the open field. However, the river Durius, which took its course through the fortifications, was very useful to the Numantines for bringing provisions and sending men back and forth, some diving and others concealing themselves in small boats, some making their way with sail-boats when a strong wind was blowing, or with oars aided by the current. As he was not able to span it on account of its breadth and swiftness, Scipio built two towers in place of a bridge. To each of these towers he moored large timbers with ropes and set them

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.