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 I · Fragments 1–2

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Book I · Fragments 1–2

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Ancient Greek

p. 30

Αἰνείᾳ ἐκ Κρεούσης τῆς Πριάμου, τῆς ἐν Ἰλίῳ γενομένης αὐτῷ γυναικός. οἱ δὲ ἐκ τῆς Λαουινίας Ἀσκάνιον αὐτῷ γεννηθῆναί φασι, τὸν διάδοχον τῆς ἀρχῆς.

Ἀσκανίου δὲ τελευτήσαντος ἔτει τετάρτῳ μετὰ τὴν Ἄλβης οἴκισιν (καὶ γὰρ οὗτος ἔκτισε πόλιν, Ἄλβην καλέσας, καὶ ἀπὸ Λαουινίου τὸν λαὸν μετῴκισεν) ἐκδέχεται τὴν ἀρχὴν Σίλουιος. καὶ Σιλουίου παῖδα Αἰνείαν Σίλουιόν φασιν, Αἰνείου δὲ Λατῖνον Σίλουιον, τοῦ δὲ Κάπυν, Κάπυος δὲ Κάπετον γενέσθαι, Καπέτου δὲ Τιβερῖνον, τοῦ δὲ Ἀγρίππαν, τοῦ δὲ Ῥωμύλον. καὶ τόνδε μὲν βληθῆναι κεραυνῷ· οὗ γενέσθαι παῖδα Ἀουεντῖνον, Ἀουεντίνου δὲ Πρόκαν γενέσθαι. καὶ πᾶσι δὲ τὸν Σίλουιον ἐπώνυμον εἶναι. τῷ δὲ Πρόκᾳ δύο ἐγενέσθην υἱοί, πρεσβύτερος μὲν Νεμέτωρ, νεώτερος δὲ Ἀμούλιος. λαβόντος δὲ τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου παρὰ τοῦ πατρὸς τελευτῶντος τὴν ἀρχήν, ὁ νεώτερος ὕβρει καὶ βίᾳ κατέσχεν ἀφελόμενος. καὶ τὸν μὲν παῖδα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ Ἔγεστον κτείνει, τὴν θυγατέρα δὲ Ῥέαν Σιλουίαν ἱέρειαν, ἵνα ἄπαις διαμείνῃ, καθίστησι· τὸν μέντοι Νεμέτορα τῆς εἰς τὸ σῶμα ἐπιβουλῆς ἡ τῶν ἠθῶν ἐξεῖλε πραότης καὶ ἡ πολλὴ ἐπιείκεια. ἀλλʼ ἡ Σιλουία ἔκυε παρὰ τὸν νόμον. καὶ τὴν μὲν Ἀμούλιος ἐπὶ κολάσει συνελάμβανε, δύο δὲ παῖδας ἐκ τῆσδε γενομένους ποιμέσιν ἔδωκεν, εἰς τὸν πλησίον ποταμὸν ἐμβαλεῖν τὰ βρέφη· Θύβρις ἦν ὄνομα τῷ ποταμῷ, Ῥῶμος δὲ καὶ Ῥωμύλος οἱ παῖδες, ἐξ Αἰνείου ἕλκοντες μητρόθεν τὸ γένος· τὸ γὰρ τοῦ φύντος ἄδηλον.

ὁ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book I

p. 31

the son of Aeneas and Creusa, a daughter of Priam, to whom he had been married in Troy. But some say that the Ascanius who succeeded to the government was the son of Aeneas and Lavinia.

Ascanius died four years after the founding of Alba (for he also built a city and gave it the name of Alba, and settled it with a colony from Lavinium), and Silvius succeeded to the throne. They say that this Silvius had a son named Aeneas Silvius, and he a son named Latinus Silvius, and he a son named Capys, and he a son named Capetus, and he a son named Tiberinus, and he a son named Agrippa, who was the father of the Romulus who was struck by lightning, and who left a son Aventinus, who was the father of Procas. All of these bore the surname of Silvius. Procas had two sons, the elder named Numitor, and the younger Amulius. When the elder succeeded to the throne on the death of the father, the younger took it away from him by force and violence. He also killed Egestus, his brother’s son, and he made Rhea Silvia, his brother’s daughter, a vestal, so that she might remain childless. Notwithstanding a conspiracy against his life, Numitor himself was saved because of the gentleness and clemency of his manners. Silvia having become pregnant contrary to law, Amulius cast her into prison by way of punishment, and when she had given birth to two sons he gave them to some shepherds with orders to throw the babes into the neighboring stream called the river Tiber. These boys were Romulus and Remus. Being of the lineage of Aeneas, on their mother’s side, for their father’s lineage was unknown, they always boasted their descent from the former.

My first book contains the deeds of Rome’s seven kings, viz.: Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Hostilius,

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.