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 28–29

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Facing Pages · Branch 167 of 315

Book VII · Sections 28–29

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Ancient Greek

p. 348

σφίσιν ἐπιτρέψαι, καὶ ὁ δῆμος αὐτοῖς συνεδάκρυε καὶ συνεδεῖτο· τῶν δὲ βουλευτῶν οἱ μὲν οὐκ ἠξίουν ἐπὶ τοσαῖσδε συμφοραῖς ἄλλους τοσούσδε βλαβῆναι τὴν πόλιν, οὐδὲ δούλους μὲν ἐλευθεροῦν τοὺς δὲ ἐλευθέρους ὑπερορᾶν, οἱ δʼ οὐκ ᾤοντο δεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐθίζειν τῷδε τῷ ἐλέῳ φεύγειν, ἀλλʼ ἢ νικᾶν μαχομένους ἢ ἀποθνήσκειν ὡς οὐκ ὂν οὐδʼ ὑπὸ τῶν οἰκείων ἐλεεῖσθαι τὸν φυγόντα. πολλῶν δὲ παραδειγμάτων ἐς ἑκάτερα λεχθέντων, οὐκ ἐπέτρεψεν ἡ βουλὴ τοῖς συγγενέσι λύσασθαι τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους, ἡγουμένη, πολλῶν σφίσιν ἔτι κινδύνων ἐπόντων, οὐ συνοίσειν ἐς τὸ μέλλον τὴν ἐν τῷ παρόντι φιλανθρωπίαν, τὸ δʼ ἀπάνθρωπον, εἰ καὶ σκυθρωπὸν εἴη, πρός τε τὰ μέλλοντα χρήσιμον ἔσεσθαι καὶ ἐν τῷ παρόντι καταπλήξειν Ἀννίβαν τῷ τολμήματι. Σεμπρώνιος οὖν καὶ οι σὺν αὐτῷ δύο τῶν αἰχμαλώτων πρὸς Ἀννίβαν ἐπανῄεσαν. ὁ δʼ ἔστι μὲν οὓς ἀπέδοτο τῶν αἰχμαλώτων, ἔστι δʼ οὓς ὑπʼ ὀργῆς ἀνῄρει, καὶ τοῖς σώμασι τὸν ποταμὸν ἐγεφύρου καὶ ἐπέρα. ὅσοι δʼ ἦσαν ἀπὸ τῆς βουλῆς ἢ ἄλλως ἐπιφανεῖς, μονομαχεῖν αὐτοὺς ὑπὸ θεαταῖς τοῖς Λίβυσιν ἠνάγκασε, πατέρας τε υἱοῖς καὶ ἀδελφοὺς ἀδελφοῖς, οὐδὲν ἐκλείπων ὑπεροψίας ὠμῆς.

μετὰ δὲ τοῦτʼ ἐπιὼν τὰ ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίοις ἐλυμαίνετο, καὶ Πετηλίνοις μηχανήματα προσῆγεν. οἱ δʼ ὀλίγοι μὲν ἦσαν, ὑπὸ δὲ τόλμης μετὰ τῶν γυναικῶν ἐπεξέθεον αὐτῷ, καὶ πολλὰ καὶ γενναῖα ἔδρων, τάς τε μηχανὰς αὐτοῦ συνεχῶς ἐνεπίμπρασαν, οὐχ ἧσσον αὐτοῖς τῶν γυναικῶν ἀνδριζομένων.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 349

Senate to allow them to do so, and the people joined them with their own prayers and tears. Some of the senators thought it was not wise, after such great calamities, to expose the city to the loss of so many more men, or to disdain free men while giving liberty to slaves. Others thought that it was not fitting to accustom men to flight by compassion, but rather to teach them to conquer or die, as would be the case if not even his relative should pity the runaway. Many precedents having been adduced on either side, the Senate finally decided that the prisoners should not be ransomed by their relatives, being of opinion that while so many dangers were still impending present clemency would tend to future harm, while severity, although painful, would be for the public advantage hereafter, and indeed at this very time would startle Hannibal by the very boldness of their action. Accordingly Sempronius and the two prisoners who accompanied him returned to Hannibal. The latter in his anger sold some of his prisoners, put others to death, and made a bridge of their bodies with which he passed over a stream. The senators and other distinguished prisoners in his hands he compelled to fight with each other, as a spectacle for the Africans, fathers against sons, and brothers against brothers. He omitted no act of disdainful cruelty.

Hannibal next turned his arms against the territory of the Roman allies and, having devastated it, laid siege to Petilia. The inhabitants, although few in number, made courageous sallies against him (their women joining in the fight) and performing many noble deeds of daring. They burned his siege engines unceasingly, and in these enterprises the women

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.