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 25–27

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 165 of 315

Book VII · Sections 25–27

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Ancient Greek

p. 344

ἐπʼ αὐτοῖς ταξίαρχοί τε ν άντες καὶ λοχαγοὶ καὶ τῶν στρατηγῶν αὐτῶν οἱ ἄριστοι δύο. ὁ δὲ φαυλότατός τε καὶ τῶν συμφορῶν αἴτιος ἀρχομένης τῆς τροπῆς ἐπεφεύγει. καὶ Ῥωμαῖοι δύο ἔτεσιν ἤδη περὶ τὴν Ἰταλίαν Ἀννίβᾳ πολεμοῦντες ἀπωλωλέκεσαν ἀνδρῶν ἰδίων τε καὶ συμμάχων ἐς δέκα μυριάδας.

Ἀννίβας δὲ νίκην ἀρίστην τε καὶ σπάνιον ἐξενεγκάμενος ἡμέρας μιᾶς στρατηγήμασι τέσσαρσι, τοῦ τε πνεύματος τῇ φορᾷ καὶ τοῖς ὑποκριθεῖσιν αὐτομολεῖν καὶ τοῖς προσποιηθεῖσι φεύγειν καὶ τοῖς ἐν μέσαις ταῖς φάραγξι κεκρυμμένοις, εὐθὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔργου τοὺς πεσόντας ἐπῄει, θεώμενος δὲ τῶν φίλων τοὺς ἀρίστους ἀνῃρημένους ᾤμωξε, καὶ δακρύσας εἶπεν οὐ χρῄζειν ἑτέρας τοιᾶσδε νίκης. ὃ καὶ Πύρρον φασὶν εἰπεῖν πρὸ αὐτοῦ, τὸν Ἠπείρου βασιλέα, Ῥωμαίων κἀκεῖνον ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ κρατοῦντα σὺν ὁμοίᾳ ζημίᾳ. τῶν δὲ φυγόντων ἐκ τῆς μάχης οἱ μὲν ἐν τῷ μείζονι στρατοπέδῳ στρατηγὸν αὑτῶν ἑσπέρας ἑλόμενοι Πόπλιον Σεμπρώνιον, ἐβιάσαντο τοὺς Ἀννίβου φύλακας ὕπνου καὶ κόπου πλήρεις ὄντας, καὶ διέδραμον ἐς Κανύσιον περὶ μέσας νύκτας, ἀμφὶ τοὺς μυρίους, οἱ δʼ ἐν τῷ βραχυτέρῳ πεντακισχίλιοι τῆς ἐπιούσης ἡμέρας ἐλήφθησαν ὑπὸ τοῦ Ἀννίβου. Τερέντιος δὲ στρατὸν ἀγείρας τοὺς διερριμμένους ἐπειρᾶτο παραθαρρύνειν, καὶ στρατηγὸν αὐτοῖς ἐπιστήσας τῶν χιλιάρχων τινὰ Σκιπίωνα ἐς Ῥώμην διέδραμεν.

ἡ δὲ πόλις, ἀπαγγελθεισης τῆς συμφορᾶς, οἱ μὲν ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς ἐθρήνουν τε τοὺς οἰκείους ἀνακαλοῦντες,

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 345

the military tribunes and centurions, and their two best generals. The most worthless one, who was the cause of the calamity, had made good his escape at the beginning of the rout. The Romans, in their two years’ war with Hannibal in Italy, had now lost, of their own and their allied forces, about 100,000 men.

Hannibal gained this rare and splendid victory by employing four stratagems in one day: by the force of the wind, by the feigned desertion of the Celtiberians, by the pretended flight, and by the ambuscades in the ravines. Immediately after the battle he went to view the dead. When he saw the bravest of his friends lying among the slain he lifted up his voice and wept, saying that he did not want another such victory. It is said that Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, made the same exclamation aforetime, when he too gained a victory over the Romans in Italy, with like loss to himself. Some of those who escaped from the battle and who had taken refuge in the larger camp and in the evening had chosen Publius Sempronius as their general, forced a passage through Hannibal’s guards, who were exhausted by weariness and want of sleep. These men, to the number of about 10,000, made their way to Canusium about midnight. But the 5000 in the smaller camp were captured by Hannibal the following day. Varro, having collected the remains of the army and sought to revive their fainting spirits, put them under the command of Scipio, one of the military tribunes, and himself hastened to Rome.

When the disaster was announced in the city, multitudes thronged the streets uttering lamentations

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.