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 59–61

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 192 of 315

Book VII · Sections 59–61

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Ancient Greek

p. 398

ἐς τετρακισχιλίους καὶ πλῆθος ὑποζυγίων, οὐ δυνάμενος ἐς Λιβύην ἐπάγεσθαι.

μετὰ δὲ τοῦτο ἐς τὰς ναῦς τὸ πλῆθος ἐμβιβάσας τὸ πνεῦμα ἀνέμενεν, ὀλίγους ἐς φυλακὴν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς καταλιπών. οἱ δὲ Πετηλῖνοι καὶ σὺν αὐτοῖς ἕτεροι Ἰταλοὶ ἐπέθεντο, καί τινας αὐτῶν κατασφάξαντες ἀπέδρασαν. Ἀννίβας δʼ ἐπὶ Λιβύης ἀνήγετο, ἑκκαίδεκα ἔτεσιν ὁμαλῶς πορθήσας τε τὴν Ἰταλίαν, καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας ἐμπλήσας κακῶν μυρίων καὶ ἐς κίνδυνον ἔσχατον πολλάκις συναγαγών, τοῖς τε ὑπηκόοις αὑτοῦ καὶ συμμάχοις ἐνυβρίσας ὡς πολεμίοις· ἅτε γὰρ καὶ τέως αὐτοῖς οὐκ ἐπʼ εὐνοίᾳ μᾶλλον ἢ χρείᾳ χρώμενος, οὐδὲν ἔχων ἔτι πρὸς αὐτῶν ὠφελεῖσθαι κατεφρόνησεν ὡς πολεμίων.

Ἀννίβου δʼ ἀποπλεύσαντος ἡ βουλὴ τοῖς μὲν ἄλλοις ἔθνεσι τῆς Ἰταλίας, ὅσοι μετέθεντο πρὸς ἐκεῖνον, συνέγνω τῶν γεγονότων καὶ ἀμνηστίαν ἐψηφίσατο, Βρεττίων δὲ μόνων, οἳ μέχρι τέλους αὐτῷ προθυμότατοι ἐγεγένηντο, χώραν τε πολλὴν ἀφείλετο καὶ ὅπλα, εἴ τινα ἦν ἔτι χωρὶς ὧν Ἀννίβας ἀφῄρητο· ἔς τε τὸ μέλλον ἀπεῖπεν αὐτοῖς μὴ στρατεύεσθαι ὡς οὐδʼ ἐλευθέροις οὖσιν, ὑπηρέτας δὲ τοῖς τε ὑπάτοις καὶ στρατηγοῖς τοῖς ἐς τὰς τῶν ἐθνῶν ἡγεμονίας ἀπιοῦσιν ἐς τὰς δημοσίας ὑπηρεσίας, οἷα θεράποντας, ἀκολουθεῖν. τοῦτο τὸ τέλος ἦν Ἀννίβου τῆς ἐς τὴν Ἰταλίαν γενομένης ἐσβολῆς.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VII

p. 399

large number of pack animals, which he was not able to transport to Africa.

Thereupon he embarked his army and waited for a wind, having left a few garrisons on the land. These the Petalini and other Italians set upon, slew some of them, and then ran away. Hannibal passed over to Africa, having devastated Italy for sixteen successive years, and inflicted countless evils upon the inhabitants, and reduced Rome several times to the last extremity, and treated his own subjects and allies with contumely as enemies. For, just as he had made use of them for a time, not from any good will but from necessity, so now that they could be of no further service to him he scorned them and considered them enemies.

When Hannibal had departed from Italy the Senate pardoned all the Italian peoples who had sided with him, and voted a general amnesty except as to the Bruttians, who remained most zealous for him to the end. From these they took away a considerable part of their land, also their arms, if there were any that Hannibal had not taken. They were also forbidden to be enrolled in the military forces thereafter, as being no longer free persons, and they were required to attend as servants upon the consuls and praetors who went about inspecting the affairs of government and the public works of the provinces. Such was the end of Hannibal’s invasion of Italy.

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.