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 7–8

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Book VII · Sections 7–8

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Ancient Greek

p. 314

τῇ δὲ φάλαγγι τοὺς πεζούς· τοὺς δὲ ἱππέας ἐκέλευσεν ὀπίσω τῶν ἐλεφάντων ἀτρεμεῖν ἕως αὐτός τι σημήνῃ. γενομένων δʼ ἐν χερσὶ πάντων, οἱ μὲν Ῥωμαίων ἵπποι τοὺς ἐλέφαντας, οὐ φέροντες αὐτῶν οὔτε τὴν ὄψιν οὔτε τὴν ὀδμήν, ἔφευγον· οἱ δὲ πεζοί, καίπερ ὑπὸ τοῦ κρύους καὶ τοῦ ποταμοῦ καὶ τῆς ἀγρυπνίας τετρυμένοι τε καὶ μαλακοὶ ὄντες, ὅμως ὑπὸ τόλμης τοῖς θηρίοις ἐπεπήδων καὶ ἐτίτρωσκον αὐτά, καὶ τινῶν καὶ τὰ νεῦρα ὑπέκοπτον, καὶ τοὺς πεζοὺς ἐνέκλινον ἤδη. θεασάμενος δʼ ὁ Ἀννίβας ἐσήμηνε τὴν ἵππον κυκλοῦσθαι τοὺς πολεμίους. ἐσκεδασμένων δʼ ἄρτι τῶν Ῥωμαϊκῶν ἱππέων διὰ τὰ θηρία καὶ τῶν πεζῶν μόνων τε ὄντων καὶ κακοπαθούντων καὶ δεδιότων τὴν περικύκλωσιν, φυγὴ πανταχόθεν ἦν ἐς τὰ στρατόπεδα. καὶ ἀπώλλυντο οἱ μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν ἱππέων καταλαμβανόντων ἅτε πεζούς, οἱ δὲ ὑπὸ τοῦ ποταμοῦ παραφέροντος· τοῦ γὰρ ἡλίου τὴν χιόνα τήξαντος ὁ ποταμὸς ἐρρύη μέγας, καὶ οὔτε στῆναι διὰ τὸ βάθος οὔτε νεῖν διὰ τὰ ὅπλα ἐδύναντο. Σκιπίων δὲ αὐτοῖς ἑπόμενος καὶ παρακαλῶν ὀλίγου μὲν ἐδέησε τρωθεὶς διαφθαρῆναι, μόλις δʼ ἐς Κρεμῶνα διεσώθη φερόμενος. ἐπίνειον δὲ ἦν τι βραχὺ Πλακεντίας, ᾧ προσβαλὼν ὁ Ἀννίβας ἀπώλεσε τετρακοσίους καὶ αὐτὸς ἐτρώθη. καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦδε πάντες ἐχείμαζον, Σκιπίων μὲν ἐν Κρεμῶνι καὶ Πλακεντίᾳ, Αννίβας δὲ περὶ Πάδον.

οἱ δʼ ἐν ἄστει Ῥωμαῖοι πυθόμενοι, καὶ τρίτον ἤδη πταίοντες περὶ Πάδον ἥττηντο γὰρ δὴ καὶ ὑπὸ Βοιῶν πρὸ Ἀννίβου), στρατιάν τε παρʼ αὑτῶν ἄλλην κατέλεγον, σὺν τοῖς οὖσι περὶ τὸν Πάδον ὡς εἶναι τρισκαίδεκα τέλη, καὶ τοῖς

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 315

soldiers against the legions, and he ordered his own cavalry to remain quiet behind the elephants until he should give the signal. When battle was joined the horses of the Romans, terrified by the sight and smell of the elephants, broke and fled. The foot-soldiers, although suffering much and weakened by cold, wet clothes, and want of sleep, nevertheless boldly attacked these beasts, wounded them, and cut the hamstrings of some, and were already pushing back the enemy’s infantry. Hannibal, observing this, gave the signal to his horse to attack the Roman flank. The Roman horse having been just dispersed by fear of the elephants, the foot-soldiers were left without protection, and were now in difficulties. Fearing lest they should be surrounded, they everywhere broke in flight to their own camp. Many foot-soldiers were cut off by the enemy’s horse and many perished in the swift stream, for the river was now swollen with melting snow so that they could not wade, on account of its depth, nor could they swim, on account of the weight of their armor. Scipio, who followed trying to rally them, was wounded and almost killed, and was with difficulty rescued and carried to Cremona. There was a small arsenal near Placentia which Hannibal laid siege to, where he lost 400 men and was himself wounded. And now they all went into winter quarters, Scipio in Cremona and Placentia, and Hannibal on the Po.

When the Romans in the city learned of this third defeat on the Po (for they had in fact been beaten by the Boii before Hannibal arrived), they levied a new army of their own citizens which, with those already on the Po, amounted to thirteen

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.