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 VIII · Sections 6–8

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Facing Pages · Branch 198 of 315

Book VIII · Sections 6–8

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Ancient Greek

p. 412

συμβούλῳ περὶ ἁπάντων, ἐκράτει τε λαμπρῶς, καὶ ἐπὶ δόξης ἐκ τοῦδε πολλῆς γενόμενος τὴν μὲν στρατηγίαν τοῖς ἐς διαδοχὴν ἐπιπεμφθεῖσι παρέδωκεν, ἐς δὲ Ῥώμην ἐπανελθῶν ἠξίου πεμφθῆναι στρατηγὸς ἐς Λιβύην ὡς ἀναστήσων Ἀννίβαν ἐξ Ἰταλίας καὶ Καρχηδονίοις δίκην ἐπιθήσων ἐν τῇ πατρίδι.

τῶν δὲ πολιτευομένων οἱ μὲν ἀντέλεγον οὐ χρῆναι, κεκενωμένης ἄρτι τῆς Ἰταλίας τοσοῖσδε πολέμοις καὶ πορθουμένης ἔτι πρὸς Ἀννίβου, καὶ Μάγωνος ἐν πλευραῖς ἐπʼ αὐτὴν Λίγυάς τε καὶ Κελτοὺς ξενολογοῦντος, ἐς Λιβύην στρατεύειν, οὐδὲ τὴν ἀλλοτρίαν χειροῦσθαι πρὶν τὴν οἰκείαν ἀπαλλάξαι τῶν παρόντων· οἱ δὲ ᾤοντο Καρχηδονίους νῦν μὲν ἀδεεῖς ὄντας ἐφεδρεύειν τῇ Ἰταλίᾳ, οὐδὲν ἐνοχλουμένους οἴκοι, πολέμου δὲ οἰκείου σφίσι γενομένου καὶ Ἀννίβαν μεταπέμψεσθαι. οὕτω μὲν ἐκράτησε πέμπειν ἐς Λιβύην Σκιπίωνα, οὐ μὴν συνεχώρησαν αὐτῷ καταλέγειν στρατὸν ἐξ Ἰταλίας πονουμένης ἔτι πρὸς Ἀννίβου· ἐθελοντὰς δέ, εἴ τινες εἶεν, ἐπέτρεψαν ἐπάγεσθαι, καὶ τοῖς ἀμφὶ τὴν Σικελίαν ἔτι οὖσι χρῆσθαι. τριήρεις τε ἔδοσαν αὐτῷ κατασκευάσασθαι δέκα, καὶ πληρώματα αὐταῖς λαβεῖν, ἐπισκευάσαι δὲ καὶ τὰς ἐν Σικελία. καὶ χρήματα οὐκ ἔδωκαν, πλὴν εἴ τις ἐθέλοι τῷ Σκιπίωνι κατὰ φιλίαν συμφέρειν. οὕτως ἀμελῶς ἥπτοντο τοῦδε τοῦ πολέμου τὰ πρῶτα, μεγίστου σφίσι καὶ ἀξιοτιμοτάτου μετʼ ὀλίγον γενομένου.

ὁ δὲ Σκιπίων ἔνθους ὢν ἐπὶ Καρχηδόνι ἐκ πολλοῦ, καί τινας ἱππέας τε καὶ πεζούς, ἐς ἑπτακισχιλίους μάλιστα. ἀθροίσας, διέπλευσεν ἐς

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VIII

p. 413

had divine counsel in all things, prevailed brilliantly, and achieving great glory by this success, gave over his command to those sent to succeed him, returned to Rome, and asked to be sent with an army to Africa so as to draw Hannibal out of Italy and to bring retribution upon the Carthaginians in their own country.

Some of the leading men opposed this plan, saying that it was not best to send an army into Africa while Italy was wasted by such long wars and was subject to the ravages of Hannibal, and while Mago was enlisting Ligurian and Celtic mercenaries for a flank attack upon her. They ought not to attack another land, they said, until they had delivered their own country from its present perils. Others thought that the Carthaginians were emboldened to attack Italy because they were not molested at home, and that if war were brought to their own doors they would recall Hannibal. So it was decided to send Scipio into Africa, but they would not allow him to levy an army in Italy while Hannibal was ravaging it. If he could procure volunteers he might take them, and he might use the forces which were then in Sicily. They authorized him to fit out ten galleys and allowed him to take crews for them, and also to refit those in Sicily. They did not give him any money except what he could raise among his friends. So indifferently at first did they undertake this war, which soon came to be the most great and glorious for them.

Scipio, who seemed to be divinely inspired from long ago against Carthage, having collected scarcely 7000 soldiers, cavalry and infantry, sailed for Sicily,

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.