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 9–10

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Facing Pages · Branch 152 of 315

Book VII · Sections 9–10

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Ancient Greek

p. 318

οὐ παρούσης σφίσιν ἀξιομάχου δυνάμεως. ἐστράτευον δὲ ὅμως ἐκ τῶν ὑπολοίπων ὀκτακισχιλίους, καὶ Κεντήνιον αὐτοῖς τινὰ τῶν ἐπιφανῶν ἰδιωτῶν, οὐδεμιᾶς ἀρχῆς παρούσης, ἐπέστησάν τε καὶ ἐξέπεμπον ἐς Ὀμβρικοὺς ἐς τὴν Πλειστινην λίμνην, τὰ στενὰ προληψόμενον, ᾗ συντομώτατόν ἐστιν ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥώμην. ἐν δὲ τούτῳ καὶ Φλαμίνιος ὁ τοῖς τρισμυρίοις τὴν ἐντὸς Ἰταλίαν φυλάσσων, αἰσθόμενος τῆς σπουδῆς Ἀννίβου, μετέβαινεν ὀξέως, οὐ διαναπαύων τὴν στρατιάν. δέει τε περὶ τῆς πόλεως, καὶ αὐτὸς ὢν ἀπειροπόλεμός τε καὶ ἐς τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀπὸ δημοκοπίας ᾑρημένος, ἠπείγετο Ἀννίβᾳ συμπλεκῆναι.

ὁ δὲ αἰσθόμενος αὐτοῦ τῆς τε ὁρμῆς καὶ ἀπειρίας, ὄρος μέν τι καὶ λίμνην προυβάλετο πρὸ ἑαυτοῦ, ψιλοὺς δὲ καὶ ἱππέας ἐς φάραγγα ἀποκρύψας ἐστρατοπέδευεν. καὶ αὐτὸν ὁ Φλαμίνιος κατιδὼν ἅμα ἕῳ σμικρὸν μέν τι διέτριψε, τὸν στρατὸν ἀναπαύων ἐξ ὁδοιπορίας καὶ χαρακοποιούμενος, μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο ἐξῆγεν εὐθὺς ἐπὶ τὴν μάχην αὔους ὄντας ὑπʼ ἀγρυπνίας καὶ κόπου. τῆς δʼ ἐνέδρας ἐκφανείσης ἐν μέσῳ ληφθεὶς τοῦ τε ὄρους καὶ τῆς λίμνης καὶ τῶν ἐχθρῶν αὐτός τε ἀνῃρέθη καὶ σὺν αὐτῷ δισμύριοι. τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς ἔτι μυρίους, ἔς τινα κώμην ὀχυρὰν συμφυγόντας, Μαάρβαλ ὁ ὑποστράτηγος Ἀννίβου, μεγίστην καὶ ὅδε ἐπὶ στρατηγίᾳ δόξαν ἔχων, οὐ δυνάμενος ἑλεῖν εὐχερῶς, οὐδὲ ἀξιῶν ἀπεγνωκόσι μάχεσθαι, ἔπεισε τὰ ὅπλα ἀποθέσθαι, συνθέμενος ἀπολύσειν ὅπῃ θέλοιεν.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 319

force at hand fit for battle. Nevertheless, 8000 of those who remained were brought together, over whom Centenius, one of the patricians, although a private citizen, was appointed commander, there being no regular officer present, and sent into Umbria to the Plestine marshes to occupy the narrow passages which offered the shortest way to Rome. In the meantime Flaminius, who guarded the interior of Italy with 30,000 men, learning of the rapidity of Hannibal’s movement, changed his position hastily, giving his army no chance to rest. Fearing for the safety of the city and being inexperienced in war (for he had been wafted into power on a popular breeze), he hastened to engage with Hannibal.

The latter, well aware of his rashness and inexperience, moved forward and took a position with a mountain and a lake [Thrasimenus] before him, concealing his light-armed troops and his cavalry in a ravine. Flaminius, seeing the enemy’s camp in the early morning, delayed a little to let his men rest from their toilsome march and to fortify his camp, after which he led them straightway to battle, although they were still weary with night-watches and hard labor. Caught between the mountain and the lake and the enemy (for the ambush suddenly appeared everywhere), he lost his own life, and 20,000 men were slain with him. The remaining 10,000 escaped to a village strongly fortified by nature. Maharbal, Hannibal’s lieutenant, who had himself acquired very great renown in war, not being able to take them easily and thinking it unwise to fight with desperate men, persuaded them to lay down their arms, agreeing that they should go free wherever they pleased.

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.