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 II · Fragments VII–VIII

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Book II · Fragments VII–VIII

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Ancient Greek

p. 52

τῷ δὲ στρατηγῷ στρατὸς ἦν δυσπειθὴς ὑπὸ μνησικακίας, ἐθελοκάκως τε ἠγωνίζοντο, καὶ ἔφευγον ἐπιδησάμενοι τὰ σώματα ὡς τετρωμένοι, καὶ τὰς σκηνὰς διέλυον, καὶ ἀναχωρεῖν ἐπεχείρουν, ἀπειρίαν ἐπικαλοῦντες τῷ στρατηγῷ.

ὅτι σημειων γενομενων ἐκ Διὸς ἀηδῶν μετὰ τὴν Οὐηιεντίας ἅλωσιν, οἱ μάντεις ἔλεγον ἐκλειφθῆναί τινα πρὸς εὐσέβειαν, καὶ ὁ Κάμιλλος ἀνήνεγκεν ὅτι τὴν δεκάτην τῆς λείας ἐκλάθοιτο τῷ θεῷ τῷ χρήσαντι περὶ τῆς λίμνης ἐξελέσθαι. ἡ μὲν οὖν βουλὴ τοὺς λαβόντας ὁτιοῦν ἐκ τῆς Οὐηιέντης ἐκέλευσεν ἀποτιμήσασθαι καθʼ αὑτοὺς καὶ σὺν ὅρκῳ τὸ δέκατον εἰσενεγκεῖν, ὑπὸ δὲ εὐσεβείας οὐκ ὤκνησε καὶ τῆς γῆς ἤδη πεπραμένης, ὡς λαφύρου, τὸ δέκατον ἀναθεῖναι. κρατήρ τε ἀπὸ τῶνδε τῶν χρημάτων ἐν Δελφοῖς ἔκειτο χρύσεος ἐπὶ χαλκῆς βάσεως ἐν τῷ Ῥωμαίων καὶ Μασσαλιητῶν θησαυρῷ, μέχρι τὸν μὲν χρυσὸν Ὀνόμαρχος ἐν τῷ Φωκικῷ πολέμῳ κατεχώνευσε, κεῖται δʼ ἡ βάσις.

αὐτὸν δὲ Κάμιλλον ἐν τῷ δήμῳ τις ἐδιωκεν ὡς αἴτιον γεγονότα τῇ πόλει φασμάτων καὶ τεράτων χαλεπῶν, καὶ ὁ δῆμος ἐκ πολλοῦ τὸν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book II

p. 53

him. They fought badly on purpose, and took to flight, putting bandages on their bodies as though they were wounded. They broke up camp and tried to retreat, putting the blame on the unskilfulness of their commander.

Bad omens from Jupiter were observed after the capture of Veii. The soothsayers said that some religious duty had been neglected, and Camillus remembered that it had been forgotten to appropriate a tenth of the plunder to the god that had given the oracle concerning the lake. Accordingly the Senate decreed that those who had taken anything from Veii should make an estimate, each one for himself, and bring in a tenth of it under oath. Their religious feeling was such that they did not hesitate to add to the votive offering a tenth of the produce of the land that had already been sold, as well as of the spoils. With the money thus obtained they sent to the temple of Delphi a golden cup which stood on a pedestal of brass in the treasury of Rome and Massiliat until Onomarchus melted the cup during the Phocaean war. The pedestal is still standing.

Camillus was afterwards accused before the people of being himself the author of those bad omens and portents. The people, who had been for some

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.