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Appian of Alexandria

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I

Ancient Greek with Horace White’s English translation

Appian’s Roman History, Volume IBook III · Fragment IV

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Book III · Fragment IV

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Ancient Greek

p. 72

καὶ πρεσβευσαμένων ἡμῶν δὶς πρὸς ὑμᾶς, καὶ πολλὰ συγχωρούντων, ὑπερήφανα ἡμῖν ἄλλα ἐπετάσσετε, τὴν ἀρχὴν ὅλην ἀποθέσθαι καὶ ὑμῶν ὑπακούειν, ὥσπερ οὐ σπενδομένους ἀλλʼ ἑαλωκότας. καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖσδε τὸν πόλεμον τόνδε ἄσπονδον καὶ ἀκήρυκτον ἐψηφίσασθε, κατʼ ἀνδρῶν ποτὲ φίλων, κατὰ Σαβίνων ἐκγόνων τῶν ὑμῖν συνοικούντων. ἕνεκα μὲν οὖν τῆς ὑμετέρας πλεονεξίας ἔδει καὶ τὰ παρʼ ἡμῶν ὑμῖν ἄσπονδα εἶναι. ἐγὼ νέμεσίν τε θεῶν αἰδούμενος, ἣν ὑμεῖς ὑπερείδεσθε, καὶ συγγενείας καὶ φιλίας τῆς ποτὲ μνημονεύων, δίδωμι ἕκαστον ὑμῶν σὺν ἱματίῳ σῶον ὑπὸ ζυγὸν ἀπελθεῖν, ἢν ὀμόσητε τήν τε γῆν καὶ τὰ χωρία πάνθʼ ἡμῖν ἀποδώσειν, καὶ τοὺς κληρούχους ἀπὸ τῶν πόλεων ἀπάξειν, καὶ μηδέ ποτʼ ἐπὶ Σαυνίτας στρατεύσειν.

ἀπαγγελθέντων δὲ τούτων ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον ὀλοφυρμὸς ἦν καὶ θρῆνος ἐπὶ πλεῖστον· θανάτου γὰρ ἡγοῦντο εἶναι χείρονα τὴν ὕβριν τὴν ὑπὸ τῷ ζυγῷ. ὡς δὲ καὶ περὶ τῶν ἱππέων ἐπύθοντο, αὖθις ἐθρήνουν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον. ὑπὸ δὲ ἀπορίας αὐτὰ ἐδέχοντο, καὶ τοὺς ὅρκους ὤμνυον ὅ τε Πόντιος καὶ οἱ Ῥωμαίων ὕπατοι, δύο ὄντες Ποστούμιός τε καὶ Οὐετούριος, καὶ ταμιαι δύο καὶ ταξιάρχαι τέσσαρες καὶ χιλίαρχοι δώδεκα, σύμπαντες ὅσοι μετὰ τοὺς διεφθαρμένους ἦρχον. γενομένων δὲ τῶν ὅρκων ὁ μὲν Πόντιος παραλύσας τι τοῦ διατειχίσματος, καὶ δυσὶ δόρασιν ἐς τὴν γῆν ἐμπεπηγόσιν ἐπικάρσιον ἄλλο ἐπιθείς, ἐξέπεμπε Ῥωμαίων ἕκαστον ὑπὸ τούτῳ. καί τινα ὑποζύγια ἔδωκεν αὐτοῖς ἐς τοὺς ἀρρωστοῦντας,

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Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book III

p. 73

embassies to you and made many concessions, you treated us disdainfully, and demanded that we should yield you the supremacy and obey you, as though we were not a nation to make terms with but a conquered race. Thereupon you decreed this irreconcilable, implacable war against your former friends, descendants of the Sabines whom you made your fellow-citizens. On account of your insatiable cupidity we ought not to make a treaty with you. But I, having regard for the divine wrath (which you despised), and mindful of our former relationship and friendship, will permit each one of you to pass under the yoke safe and sound with the clothes you stand in, if you swear to give up all of our lands and strongholds and withdraw your colonies from the same, and never wage war against the Samnites again.

When these terms were communicated to the camp there was wailing and lamentation, long and loud, for they considered the disgrace of passing under the yoke worse than death. Afterwards, when they heard about the knights who were to be held as hostages, there was another long lament. Yet they were compelled by want to accept the conditions. Accordingly they took the oaths, Pontius on the one side, and the two consuls, Postumius and Veturius, on the other, together with two quaestors, four division commanders, and twelve tribunes,—all the surviving officers. When the oaths had been taken, Pontius opened a passage from the defile, and having fixed two spears in the ground and laid another across the top, caused the Romans to go under it as they passed out, one by one. He also gave them some animals to carry their sick, and

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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.