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 16–17

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Facing Pages · Branch 158 of 315

Book VII · Sections 16–17

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Ancient Greek

p. 330

οἱ Καρχηδόνιοι πεισθέντες οὔτε στρατιὰν ἔπεμπον οὔτε χρήματα. καὶ ὁ Ἀννίβας ταῦτʼ ὀδυρόμενος ἔγραφεν ἐς Ἰβηρίαν Ἀσδρούβᾳ τῷ ἀδελφῷ, παρακαλῶν αὐτὸν ἀρχομένου θέρους μεθʼ ὅσης δύναιτο στρατιᾶς καὶ χρημάτων ἐσβαλεῖν ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν, καὶ πορθεῖν αὐτῆς τὰ ἐπέκεινα, ἵνα δῃῷτο πᾶσα καὶ Ῥωμαῖοι κάμνοιεν ὑπʼ αὐτῶν ἑκατέρωθεν.

καὶ τάδε μὲν ἦν περὶ Ἀννίβαν, Ῥωμαῖοι δὲ τῷ τε μεγέθει τῆς ἥττης τῆς Φλαμινίου καὶ Κεντηνίου περιαλγοῦντες ὡς ἀνάξια σφῶν καὶ παράλογα καὶ ἀθρόα παθόντες, καὶ τὸν πόλεμον ὅλως οὐ φέροντες ἔνδον ὄντα παρʼ ἑαυτοῖς, ἄλλα τε κατέλεγον ἐκ Ῥώμης τέλη στρατιωτῶν τέσσαρα μετʼ ὀργῆς ἐπὶ τὸν Ἀννίβαν, καὶ τοὺς συμμάχους πανταχόθεν ἤγειρον ἐς Ἰαπυγίαν. ὑπάτους τε αἱροῦνται ἐκ μὲν δόξης πολεμικῆς Λεύκιον Αἰμίλιον τὸν Ἰλλυριοῖς πολεμήσαντα, ἐκ δὲ δημοκοπίας Τερέντιον Οὐάρρωνα, πολλὰ αὐτοῖς ἐκ τῆς συνήθους δοξοκοπίας ὑπισχνούμενον. καὶ αὐτοὺς παραπέμποντες ἐξιόντας ἐδέοντο κρῖναι τὸν πόλεμον μάχῃ, καὶ μὴ τὴν πόλιν ἐκτρύχειν χρόνῳ τε καὶ στρατείαις συνεχέσι καὶ ἐσφοραῖς καὶ λιμῷ καὶ ἀργίᾳ τῆς γῆς δῃουμένης. οἱ δὲ τὴν στρατιὰν τὴν ἐν Ἰαπυγίᾳ προσλαβόντες, καὶ τὸ σύμπαν ἔχοντες πεζοὺς μὲν ἑπτακισμυρίους ἱππέας δʼ ἑξακισχιλίους, ἐστρατοπέδευον ἀμφὶ κώμῃ τινὶ καλουμένῃ Κάνναις. καὶ ὁ Ἀννίβας αὐτοῖς ἀντεστρατοπέδευεν. φύσει δὲ ὢν φιλοπόλεμος ὁ Ἀννίβας καὶ οὔ ποτε φέρων ἀργίαν, τότε μάλιστα τῆς ἀπορίας αὐτὸν ἐνοχλούσης ἐξέτασσε συνεχῶς

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 331

home to their own people. The Carthaginians followed their suggestion and sent neither soldiers nor money. Hannibal, lamenting this short-sighted policy, wrote to his brother Hasdrubal in Spain, telling him to make an incursion into Italy at the beginning of summer with what men and money he could raise, and ravage the other extremity so that the whole country might be wasted at once and the Romans exhausted by the double encounter. Such was the situation of Hannibal’s affairs.

The Romans, distressed by the magnitude of the disasters to Flaminius and Centenius, and considering such a succession of surprising defeats unworthy of their dignity, and that a war within their own territory was not to be tolerated, and furious against Hannibal, levied four new legions in the city to serve against him, and hurried the allied forces from all quarters to Apulia. As consuls they chose Lucius Aemilius, who had acquired military fame in the war against the Illyrians, and Terentius Varro, a demagogue who had won popular favor by the usual high-sounding promises. When they sent the consuls forward they begged them as they were leaving the city to end the war by battle, and not to exhaust the city by delay, by conscriptions, by taxes, and by hunger and idleness due to the devastation of the fields. The consuls on taking command of the army in Apulia had altogether 70,000 foot and 6000 horse, and they encamped near a village called Cannae. Hannibal’s camp was near by. Hannibal, who was always ready to fight and impatient of idleness, was especially so now because he was troubled lest his supplies should fail, for which reason he continually offered battle. He feared

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.