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 100–102

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Facing Pages · Branch 143 of 315

Book VI · Sections 100–102

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Ancient Greek

p. 298

ὀκνοῦσαν ἐνέπρησεν αὐτῷ βουλευτηρίῳ, ὁ δὲ Φλάκκος ἐπελθὼν ἔκτεινε τοὺς αἰτίους.

τοσάδε μὲν ηὗρον ἄξια λόγου Ῥωμαίοις ἐς τότε πρὸς Ἴβηρας αὐτοὺς γενόμενα· χρόνῳ δʼ ὕστερον στασιαζόντων ἐν Ῥώμῃ Σύλλα τε καὶ Κίννα, καὶ ἐς ἐμφυλίους πολέμους καὶ στρατόπεδα κατὰ τῆς πατρίδος διῃρημένων, Κόιντος Σερτώριος, ἐκ τῆς Κίννα στάσεως αἱρεθεὶς τῆς Ἰβηρίας ἄρχειν, Ἰβηρίαν τε αὐτὴν ἐπανέστησε Ῥωμαίοις, καὶ πολὺν στρατὸν ἀγείρας, καὶ βουλὴν τῶν ἰδίων φίλων ἐς μίμημα τῆς συγκλήτου καταλέξας, ἤλαυνεν ἐς Ῥώμην ἐπὶ τόλμης καὶ φρονήματος λαμπροῦ, καὶ τἄλλα ὢν ἐς θρασύτητα περιώνυμος, ὥστε τὴν βουλὴν δείσασαν ἑλέσθαι τοὺς παρὰ σφίσιν ἐπὶ μεγίστης τότε δόξης στρατηγούς, Καικίλιόν τε Μέτελλον μετὰ πολλοῦ στρατοῦ καὶ Γναῖον Πομπήιον ἐπʼ ἐκείνῳ μεθʼ ἑτέρου στρατοῦ, ἵνα τὸν πόλεμον, ὅπῃ δύναιντο, ἐξωθοῖεν ἐκ τῆς Ἰταλίας ἐν διχοστασίᾳ τότε μάλιστα οὔσης. ἀλλὰ Σερτώριον μὲν τῶν στασιωτῶν τις αὐτοῦ Περπέρνας ἀνελὼν ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ Σερτωρίῳ στρατηγὸν ἀπέφηνε τῆς ἀποστάσεως, Περπέρναν δʼ ἔκτεινε μάχῃ Πομπήιος, καὶ ὁ πόλεμος ὅδε, θορυβήσας δὴ τῷ φόβῳ μάλιστα Ῥωμαίους, διελύθη. τὸ δὲ ἀκριβὲς αὐτοῦ δηλώσει τὰ περὶ Σύλλαν ἐμφύλια.

μετὰ δὲ τὸν Σύλλα θάνατον Γάιος Καῖσαρ αἱρεθεὶς Ἰβηρίας στρατηγεῖν, ὥστε καὶ πολεμεῖν οἷς δεήσειεν, ὅσα τῶν Ἰβήρων ἐσαλεύετο ἢ Ῥωμαίοις ἔτι ἔλειπε, πολέμῳ συνηνάγκασε πάντα ὑπακούειν. καί τινα αὖθις ἀφιστάμενα Ὀκταούιος Καῖσαρ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 299

Flaccus arrived there he put the authors of this crime to death.

These are the events which I have found most worthy of mention in the relations of the Romans with the Spaniards until that time. At a later period, when the dissensions of Sulla and Cinna arose in Rome, and the country was torn with civil wars and hostile camps, Quintus Sertorius, one of Cinna’s party, who had been chosen to the command in Spain, stirred up that country against the Romans. He raised a large army, created a senate of his own friends after the manner of the Roman Senate, and marched towards Rome full of confidence and high courage, for he had been renowned for valor elsewhere. The Senate in great alarm sent against him their most famous generals, first Caecilius Metellus with a large army, and then Pompey with another army, in order to repel if possible this war from Italy, which was terribly distracted with civil strife. But Sertorius was murdered by Perpenna, one of his own partisans, who proclaimed himself general of the faction in place of Sertorius. Pompey slew Perpenna in battle, and so this war, which had greatly alarmed the Romans, came to an end; but I shall speak of this more particularly in my account of the civil wars of Sulla.

After the death of Sulla, Gaius Caesar was sent as praetor into Spain with power to make war wherever it was needful. All of those Spaniards who were doubtful in their allegiance, or had not yet submitted to the Romans, he brought under subjection by force and arms. Some, who afterwards rebelled, were subdued by his adopted son Octavius, surnamed Augustus. From that

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.