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 54–55

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English Page · Branch 187 of 315

Book VII · Sections 54–55

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Ancient Greek

p. 388

τε τῷ ἀδελφῷ καὶ στρατιᾷ τοσῇδε διʼ ἀπειρίαν ὁδῶν αἰφνίδιον ἀπολωλυίᾳ δυσφορῶν, καὶ τεσσαρεσκαιδέκατον ἔτος ἔχων ἐν πονοις ἀτρύτοις ἐξ οὗ Ῥωμαίοις ἐν Ἰταλίᾳ διεπολέμει, πάντων τε ὧν εἰλήφει πρότερον ἐκπεπτωκώς, ἐς Βρεττίους, ὅπερ αὐτῷ λοιπὸν ἔθνος ὑπήκοον ἦν, ἀνεχώρει, καὶ ἡσύχαζεν ὡς ἑτέρας δυνάμεως ἀφιξομένης ἀπὸ Καρχηδόνος. οἱ δʼ ἔπεμψαν μὲν αὐτῷ ναῦς ἑκατὸν στρογγύλας, ἐφʼ ὧν σῖτός τε ἦν καὶ στρατιὰ καὶ χρήματα, οὐδενὸς δʼ ἐρετικοῦ παραπέμποντος αὐτὰς ἄνεμος ἐς Σαρδόνα κατήνεγκε, καὶ ὁ τῆς Σαρδόνος στρατηγὸς ἐπιπλεύσας μακραῖς ναυσὶ κατέδυσε μὲν αὐτῶν εἴκοσιν, ἑξήκοντα δʼ ἔλαβεν· αἱ δὲ λοιπαὶ διέφυγον ἐς Καρχηδόνα. καὶ ὁ Ἀννίβας ἔτι μᾶλλον ἀπορούμενός τε καὶ τὰ παρὰ Καρχηδονίων ἀπεγνωκώς, οὐδὲ Μάγωνος αὐτῷ τι, τοῦ ξενολογοῦντος ἐν Κελτοῖς καὶ Λίγυσιν, ἐπιπέμποντος, ἀλλὰ τὸ μέλλον ἔσεσθαι περιορωμένου, συνιδὼν ὅτι μένειν ἐπὶ πλεῖον οὐ δυνήσεται, αὐτῶν ἤδη Βρεττίων ὡς ἀλλοτρίων ὅσον οὔπω γενησομένων κατεφρόνει, καὶ ἐσφορὰς ἐπέβαλλεν αὐτοῖς πάνυ πολλάς, τάς τε ὀχυρὰς τῶν πόλεων μετῴκιζεν ἐς τὰ πεδινὰ ὡς βουλευούσας ἀπόστασιν, πολλούς τε τῶν ἀνδρῶν αἰτιώμενος διέφθειρεν, ἵνα τὰς περιουσίας αὐτῶν σφετερίζοιτο.

καὶ ὁ μὲν ἐν τούτοις ἦν, ἐν δὲ Ῥώμη γίγνονται μὲν ὕπατοι Λικίνιός τε Κράσσος καὶ Πόπλιος Σκιπίων ὁ λαβὼν Ἰβηρίαν, τούτων δὲ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 389

Hannibal was greatly depressed by the loss of his brother and of so great an army, destroyed suddenly through ignorance of the roads. Deprived of all that he had gained by the untiring labors of fourteen years, during which he had fought with the Romans in Italy, he with-drew to Bruttium, whose people were the only ones that remained in alliance with him. Here he remained quiet, awaiting new forces from Carthage. They sent him 100 merchant ships laden with supplies, soldiers, and money, but as they had not a sufficient force of rowers they were driven by the wind to Sardinia. The praetor of Sardinia attacked them with his war-ships, sunk twenty and captured sixty of them. The remainder escaped to Carthage. Thus was Hannibal still further straitened and he despaired of assistance from the Carthaginians. Nor did Mago, who was collecting mercenaries in Gaul and Liguria, send him any aid, but waited to see what turn affairs would take. Perceiving that he could not stay there long, Hannibal now began to despise the Bruttians themselves as men who would soon be strangers to him, and he loaded them with taxes. He transferred the strongholds of their towns to the plains as though they were planning a revolt. He despoiled many of their men, bringing accusations against them in order that he might confiscate their property. Such was his situation.

In Rome the consuls at this time were Licinius Crassus and Publius Scipio, the conqueror of Spain. Crassus conducted the war against Hannibal in Apulia,

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.