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 33–34

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 171 of 315

Book VII · Sections 33–34

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Ancient Greek

p. 356

χωρίς γε τοῦ πρὸς θαλάσσῃ μέρους· οὐ γὰρ ἦν καὶ τοῦτο δυνατόν. καὶ παραδοὺς Ἄννωνι τὴν πολιορκίαν, ἐς Ἰάπυγας ἀνεχώρει.

λιμένες δʼ εἰσὶ τοῖς Ταραντινοις πρὸς βορρᾶν ἄνεμον ἐκ πελάγους ἐσπλέοντι διὰ ἰσθμοῦ, καὶ τὸν ἰσθμὸν ἀπέκλειον γεφύραις, ὧν τότε κρατοῦντες οἱ Ῥωμαίων φρουροὶ σφίσι μὲν ἐδέχοντο τὴν ἀγορὰν ἐκ θαλάσσης, Ταραντίνοις δʼ ἐκώλυον ἐσκομίζεσθαι. ὅθεν ἠπόρουν ἀγορᾶς οἱ Ταραντῖνοι, ἕως ἐπελθὼν αὐτοῖς ὁ Ἀννίβας ἐδίδαξε λεωφόρον ὁδόν, ἣ διὰ μέσης τῆς πόλεως ἔφερεν ἀπὸ τῶν λιμένων ἐπὶ τὴν νοτιον θαλασσαν, ὀρύξαντας, ἰσθμὸν ἕτερον ποιήσασθαι. καὶ οἱ μὲν οὕτω πράξαντες εἶχόν τε ἀγοράν, καὶ τριήρεσι τοὺς Ῥωμαίων φρουροὺς ναῦς οὐκ ἔχοντας ὑπὸ τὸ τεῖχος ἔβλαπτον, ὅτε μὴ χειμὼν εἴη μάλιστα, καὶ τὴν ἀγορὰν τὴν καταπλέουσαν ἐκείνοις ἀφῃροῦντο· οἱ δʼ ἠπόρουν. καὶ νυκτὸς αὐτοὶς Θουρίων σῖτόν τε ναυσὶ πεμπόντων καὶ τριήρεις ἐς φυλακὴν τῶν νεῶν, οἱ Ταραντῖνοι καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτοῖς Λίβυες πυθόμενοι καὶ λοχήσαντες ἔλαβον αὐτῷ τε σίτῳ καὶ αὐτοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἁπάσας. πρεσβευομένων δὲ θαμινὰ τῶν Θουρίων, καὶ ἀξιούντων λύσασθαι τοὺς εἰλημμένους, οἱ Ταραντῖνοι τοὺς φοιτῶντας αὐτῶν μετέπειθον ἐς Ἀννίβαν. καὶ ὁ Ἀννίβας ὅσους εἶχε Θουρίων αἰχμαλώτους, εὐθὺς ἀπέλυεν. οἱ δὲ τοὺς οἰκείους σφῶν βιασάμενοι, τὰς πύλας Ἄννωνι ἀνέῳξαν. καὶ Θούριοι μὲν Ῥωμαίοις Τάραντα περιποιούμενοι ἔλαθον οὕτως ὑπὸ Καρχηδονίοις αὐτοὶ γενόμενοι· ἡ δʼ ἐν τῇ πόλει φρουρὰ Ῥωμαίων ἐς Βρεντέσιον λαθοῦσα διεπλευσεν.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 357

threw a wall around the city except on the sea side, where it was not possible to do so. Then turning the siege over to Hanno he advanced into Apulia.

The port of Tarentum looked toward the north and gave entrance through a narrow passage to those sailing in from the sea. The passage was now closed by bridges which were under the control of the Roman garrison, by which means they obtained provisions by sea and prevented the Tarentines from supplying themselves. For this reason the latter began to suffer from want, until Hannibal came back and suggested the making of another passage by excavating the public highway, which ran through the midst of the city from the harbor to the sea on the south. When this was done they had provisions in plenty, and with their triremes they worried the Roman garrison who had no ships, even coming close to the walls, especially in calm weather, and intercepting the supply ships coming to them. The Romans in turn began to suffer from want. When the people of Thurii sent them some ships laden with corn by night, under a convoy of triremes, the Tarentines and the Carthaginians in league with them, getting wind of the affair, laid a trap for them and captured them all, including the corn and the men that brought it. The Thurians sent numerous messengers to negotiate for the release of the captives, and the Tarentines won the negotiators over to Hannibal, who thereupon released all the Thurian prisoners he held. These, when they came home, forced their relatives to open the gates to Hanno. Thus the Thurians, while endeavoring to help the Romans in Tarentum, unexpectedly fell into the power of the

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.