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 VII · Sections 2–3

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Book VII · Sections 2–3

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Ancient Greek

p. 306

διέπεμπεν ἐς Καρχηδόνα, θεραπεύων τὸ πλῆθος, εἰ δύναιτο μὴ χαλεπαίνειν αὐτῷ τῆς στρατηγίας τῆς ἐν Σικελίᾳ, χώραν δʼ αὐτοῦ κατακτωμένου πολλὴν κλέος τε μέγα ἦν, καὶ Καρχηδονίοις ἐπιθυμία πάσης Ἰβηρίας ὡς εὐμαροῦς ἔργου. Ζακανθαῖοι δέ, καὶ ὅσοι ἄλλοι Ἕλληνες ἐν Ἰβηρίᾳ, καταφεύγουσιν ἐπὶ Ῥωμαίους, καὶ γίγνεται Καρχηδονίοις ὅρος Ἰβηρίας, μὴ διαβαίνειν τὸν Ἴβηρα ποταμόν· καὶ τόδε ταῖς Ῥωμαίων καὶ Καρχηδονίων σπονδαῖς ἐνεγράφη. ἐπὶ δὲ τούτῳ Βάρκας μὲν τὴν ὑπὸ Καρχηδονίοις Ἰβηρίαν καθιστάμενος ἔν τινι μάχῃ πεσὼν ἀποθνήσκει, καὶ στρατηγὸς Ἀσδρούβας ἐπʼ αὐτῷ γίγνεται, ὃς ἐκήδευε τῷ Βάρκᾳ. καὶ τόνδε μὲν κτείνει θεράπων ἐν κυνηγεσίοις, οὗ τὸν δεσπότην ἀνῃρήκει.

τρίτος δὲ ἐπὶ τοῖσδε στρατηγὸς Ἰβήρων ὑπὸ τῆς στρατιᾶς ἀποδείκνυται, φιλοπόλεμος καὶ συνετὸς εἶναι δοκῶν, Ἀννίβας ὅδε, Βάρκα μὲν υἱὸς ὤν, Ἀσδρούβου δὲ τῆς γυναικὸς ἀδελφός, νέος δὲ κομιδῇ, καὶ ὡς μειράκιον ἔτι τῷ πατρὶ καὶ τῷ κηδεστῇ συνών. καὶ ὁ δῆμος ὁ Καρχηδονίων αὐτῷ τὴν στρατηγίαν ἐπεψήφισεν. οὕτω μὲν Ἀννίβας, περὶ οὗ τάδε συγγράφω, γίγνεται στρατηγὸς Καρχηδονίων ἐπʼ Ἴβηρσι· τῶν δʼ ἐχθρῶν τῶν Βάρκα τε καὶ Ἀσδρούβου τοὺς φίλους τοὺς ἐκείνων διωκόντων, καὶ Ἀννίβου τοῦδε καταφρονούντων ὡς ἔτι νέου, ἀρχὴν εἶναι τοῦθʼ ὁ Ἀννίβας ἐφʼ ἑαυτὸν ἡγούμενος, καὶ νομίζων οἱ τὸ ἀσφαλὲς ἐκ τῶν τῆς πατρίδος φόβων περιέσεσθαι, ἐς πόλεμον

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 307

thence he sent much booty to Carthage in order to win the favor of the multitude so that if possible he might ward off censure on account of his command in Sicily. Having gained much territory and great glory he inspired the Carthaginians with a desire to possess the whole of Spain, and persuaded them that it would be an easy task. Thereupon the Saguntines and other Greeks who were settled in Spain had recourse to the Romans, and a boundary was fixed to the Carthaginian possessions in that country, namely, that they should not cross the river Iberus (Ebro), and a treaty to this effect was made between the Romans and the Carthaginians. After this, Hamilcar, while settling the affairs of Carthaginian Spain, was killed in battle, and Hasdrubal, his son-in-law, succeeded him as general. The latter while hunting was killed by a slave whose master he had put to death.

After them this Hannibal was chosen by the army as the third commander in Spain because he seemed to have great aptitude and fondness for war. He was the son of Hamilcar and the brother of Hasdrubal’s wife, a very young man whose early years had been passed in the company of his father and his brother-in-law. The people of Carthage confirmed his election as general. In this way Hannibal, whose history I am about to write, became the commander of the Carthaginians against the Spaniards. The enemies of Hamilcar and Hasdrubal in Carthage continued to persecute the friends of those men, despising Hannibal on account of his youth. The latter, believing that this persecution was originally directed against himself and that he might secure his own safety by means of his country’s fears, began

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.