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 IPreface · Sections 3–4

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Facing Pages · Branch 3 of 315

Preface · Sections 3–4

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Ancient Greek

p. 6

Ἰωνίας κόλπος ἐστὶ θαλάσσης ὁ Αἰγαῖος καὶ ἕτερος Ἰονίου θαλάσσης καὶ ὁ Σικελικὸς πορθμὸς καὶ ἡ Τυρρηνικὴ θάλασσα μέχρι τῶν Ἡρακλείων στηλῶν.

τοῦτο μῆκός ἐστιν ἀπ’ Ἰωνίας ἐπὶ τὸν ὠκεανόν, καὶ ἐν τῷδε αὖ τῷ παράπλῳ Ῥωμαίων ὑπήκοα τοσαῦτα, ἥ τε Ἑλλὰς πᾶσα καὶ Θεσσαλία καὶ Μακεδόνες καὶ ὅσα πρόσοικα ἄλλα Θρᾳκῶν καὶ Ἰλλυριῶν καὶ Παιόνων ἔθνη, αὐτή τε Ἰταλία μακροτάτη δὴ πάντων ἐθνῶν οὖσα καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ Ἰονίου παρήκουσα ἐπὶ πλεῖστον τῆς Τυρρηνικῆς θαλάσσης μέχρι Κελτῶν, οὓς αὐτοὶ Γαλάτας προσαγορεύουσι, καὶ Κελτῶν, ὅσα ἔθνη τὰ μὲν ἐς τήνδε τὴν θάλασσαν, τὰ δὲ ἐς τὸν βόρειον ὠκεανὸν ἀφορᾷ, τὰ δὲ παρὰ Ῥῆνον ποταμὸν ᾤκηται, Ἰβηρία τε πᾶσα καὶ Κελτίβηρες, ἐπὶ τὸν ἑσπέριον καὶ βόρειον ὠκεανὸν καὶ τὰς Ἡρακλέους στήλας τελευτῶντες.

καὶ τούτων πέρι καὶ ἐφ’ ἑκάστου δηλώσω τὰ ἀκριβέστατα, ὅταν ἐς ἕκαστον ἔθνος ἡ γραφὴ περιίῃ. νῦν δέ, ὅσον ὅροις μεγάλοις τὴν ἀρχὴν περιλαβεῖν, κατὰ μὲν θάλασσαν εἴρηται, κατὰ δὲ γῆν περιοδεύοντι μοῖρά τε Μαυρουσίων ἂν εἴη τῶν παρ’ Αἰθίοψι τοῖς περὶ ἑσπέραν καὶ εἴ τι θερμότερον ἢ θηριῶδες ἄλλο Λιβύης μέχρι Αἰθιόπων τῶν ἑῴων.

ταῦτα μὲν Λιβύης Ῥωμαίοις ὅροι, τῆς δὲ Ἀσίας ποταμός τε Εὐφράτης καὶ τὸ Καύκασον ὄρος καὶ ἡ Ἀρμενίας τῆς μείζονος ἀρχὴ καὶ Κόλχοι παρὰ τὴν Εὔξεινον θάλασσαν ᾠκημένοι καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ τοῦδε τοῦ πελάγους.

ἐν δὲ τῇ Εὐρώπῃ ποταμοὶ δύο, Ῥῆνός τε καὶ Ἴστρος, μάλιστα τὴν Ῥωμαίων ἀρχὴν ὁρίζουσιν, καὶ τούτων Ῥῆνος μὲν ἐς τὸν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Preface

p. 7

Ionia are the Aegean sea, the Adriatic, the straits of Sicily, and the Tyrrhenian sea stretching to the Pillars of Hercules. This is the distance from Ionia to the ocean. Following the coast line we find the following countries subject to the Romans: all of Greece, Thessaly, and Macedonia, also the adjoining Thracians, the Illyrians, and Pannonians, and Italy itself, the longest of all, extending from the Adriatic and bordering the greater part of the Tyrrhenian sea as far as the country of the Celts (whom the Romans call Gauls), some of whom border the Mediterranean, others the Northern ocean, and still others dwell along the river Rhine; also all of Spain and Celtiberia on the Northern and Western oceans as far as the Pillars of Hercules. Of these I shall speak more particularly when I come to deal with each nation. But for the present let this suffice for the principal boundaries which define their empire along the sea.

On the landward side the boundaries are a part of Mauritania lying against western Ethiopia and the remainder of Africa (having a very warm climate, or much infested with wild beasts) extending to eastern Ethiopia. These are the Roman boundaries in Africa. Those of Asia are the river Euphrates, Mount Caucasus, the kingdom of Greater Armenia, the Colchians who dwell along the Euxine sea, and the remainder of that coast. In Europe the two rivers, Rhine and Danube, for the most part bound the Roman empire. Of these the Rhine empties into the Northern

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.