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 57–58

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Facing Pages · Branch 190 of 315

Book VII · Sections 57–58

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Ancient Greek

p. 394

ἐχόντων αὐτήν· ἐκβαλὼν γὰρ αὐτοὺς ἐδεδώκει Βρεττίοις. ᾐτιᾶτο δʼ ὅτι ἐπρέσβευσαν ἐς Ῥώμην, ἀρνουμένων δʼ ἐκείνων ὑπεκρίνετο πιστεύειν. ἵνα δʼ, ἔφη, μηδʼ ὑπονοῆσθε, τοὺς μὲν δυνατοὺς παρέδωκε τοῖς Νομάσι, κεχωρισμένως τηρεῖν αὐτῶν ἕκαστον, τοῦ δὲ πλήθους τὰ ὅπλα παρείλετο, τοὺς δὲ δούλους καθοπλίσας ἐπέστησε τῇ πόλει φύλακας. καὶ τούτοις ὅμοια τὰς ἄλλας πόλεις ἐπιὼν ἐποίει. Θουρίων δὲ τρισχιλίους Καρχηδονίοις μάλιστα εὔνους ἐξελόμενος, καὶ πεντακοσίους ἄλλους ἀπὸ τῶν ἀγρῶν, τὰ λοιπὰ τῇ στρατιᾷ διαρπάζειν ἔδωκεν. καὶ τῆς πόλεως ἐγκρατῆ φρουρὰν καταλιπών, ἐς Κρότωνα τοὺς τρισχιλίους καὶ πεντακοσίους μετῴκιζε, τὴν πόλιν εὔκαιρον ἡγούμενος εἶναι, καὶ ταμιεῖον αὐτὴν ἑαυτῷ καὶ ὁρμητήριον ἐπὶ τὰς ἄλλας τιθεμενος.

Καρχηδονίων δʼ αὐτὸν μετακαλούντων κατὰ σπουδὴν ἐπικουρεῖν κινδυνευούσῃ τῇ πατρίδι ὑπὸ Σκιπίωνος, καὶ τὸν ναύαρχον Ἀσδρούβαν ἐπʼ αὐτόν, ἵνα μὴ βραδύνειε, πεμψάντων, ἤχθετο μὲν τῆς Καρχηδονίων ἐς τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἀπιστίας τε καὶ ἀχαριστίας ἐς πεῖραν ἐρχόμενος διὰ μακροῦ, καὶ τὴν αἰτίαν ἐδεδοίκει τοῦ τοσοῦδε πολέμου πρῶτος ἐμβαλὼν ἐν Ἰβηρίᾳ, ἐγνώκει δʼ ὑπʼ ἀνάγκης ὅμως ἕπεσθαι, καὶ ναῦς εἰργάζετο πολλάς, εὐξύλου τῆς Ἰταλίας οὔσης. τῶν δʼ ἔτι ὑπηκόων οἱ πόλεων ὡς ἀλλοτρίων καταφρονῶν, ἔγνω διαρπάσαι πάσας, καὶ τὴν στρατιὰν πλουτίσας,

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 395

the Petelians, as he had expelled them and given the town to the Bruttians. He accused the latter of sending an embassy to Rome. When they denied it he pretended to believe them, but in order, as he said, that there might be no ground for suspicion, he delivered their principal citizens over to the Numidians, who were ordered to guard each one of them separately. He also disarmed the people, armed the slaves, and stationed them as guards over the city. He did the same to the other cities that he visited. He removed 3000 citizens of Thurii, who were particularly friendly to the Carthaginians, and 500 others from the country, but gave the goods of the remainder as spoils to his soldiers. Leaving a strong garrison in the city he settled these 3500 people at Croton, which he found to be well situated for his operations and where he established his magazines and his headquarters against the other towns.

When the Carthaginians summoned him to hasten to the aid of his own country, which was in danger from Scipio, and sent Hasdrubal, their admiral, to him that there might be no delay, he lamented the perfidious and ungrateful conduct of the Carthaginians toward their generals, of which he had had long experience. Moreover, he had apprehensions for himself touching the cause of this great war, which had been begun by himself in Spain. Nevertheless, he recognized the necessity of obeying, and accordingly he built a fleet, for which Italy supplied abundant timber. Despising the cities still allied to him now as foreigners, he resolved to plunder them all, and thus, by enriching his army, render himself secure against his

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.