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 III · Fragment X

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Book III · Fragment X

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Ancient Greek

p. 88

ἢ στρατηγῶν. Πύρρος δʼ, ὡς οὐδὲν εἰρηναῖόν οἱ παρὰ τῆς βουλῆς ἀπήντησεν, ἐπὶ τὴν Ῥώμην ἠπείγετο, πάντα δῃῶν. καὶ φθάνει μὲν ἐς πόλιν Ἀναγνίαν, βαρεῖαν δʼ ἔχων ἤδη τὴν στρατιὰν ὑπὸ λείας καὶ πλήθους αἰχμαλώτων, ἀναθέμενος μάχην ἀνέστρεφεν ἐπὶ Καμπανίας, ἡγουμένων τῶν ἐλεφάντων, καὶ τὴν στρατιὰν ἐς χειμασίαν κατὰ πόλεις διῄρει.

Ῥωμαίων δὲ πρέσβεις αὐτὸν ἠξίουν λῦσαι τῇ πόλει τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους, ἢ ἀντιλαβεῖν ὅσους ἔχουσι Ταραντίνων καὶ τῶν ἄλλων συμμάχων αὐτοῦ. ὁ δὲ σπενδομένοις μὲν ἔφη, καθάπερ προεῖπε Κινέας, χαριεῖσθαι τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους, πολεμοῦσι δʼ οὐ δώσειν ἐφʼ ἑαυτὸν ἄνδρας τοιούτους καὶ τοσούτους. ἐξένιζε δʼ αὐτοὺς βασιλικῶς, καὶ τὸν τῆς πρεσβείας ἡγούμενον Φαβρίκιον πυνθανόμενος ἐν τῇ πόλει μέγα δύνασθαι καὶ δεινῶς πένεσθαι καθωμίλει, λέγων, εἰ πράξειεν αὐτῷ τὰς διαλύσεις, ὑποστράτηγον καὶ κοινωνὸν τῶν παρόντων ἀγαθῶν ἀπάξειν ἐς Ἤπειρον. χρήματά τε αὐτὸν λαβεῖν ἐντεῦθεν ἤδη παρεκάλει, πρόφασιν ὡς δώσοντα τοῖς τὴν εἰρήνην ἐργασαμένοις. ἐπιγελάσας δʼ ὁ Φαβρίκιος περὶ μὲν τῶν κοινῶν οὐδʼ ἀπεκρίνατο, τὴν δʼ ἐμήν, ἔφη, παρρησίαν οὔτε τῶν σῶν φίλων οὐδεὶς οὔτε αὐτὸς οἴσεις σύ, ὦ βασιλεῦ· καὶ τὴν πενίαν τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ μακαρίζω μᾶλλον ἢ τὸν τῶν τυράννων πλοῦτον ὁμοῦ καὶ φόβον. οἱ δὲ οὐχ οὕτω φασὶν αὐτόν, ἀλλʼ ὅτι μου τῆς φύσεως Ἠπειρῶται μεταλαβόντες ἐμὲ σοῦ προθήσουσιν.

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book III

p. 89

of kings. When Pyrrhus saw that there was no expectation of peace from the Senate, he marched toward Rome, laying everything waste on his way. When he had come as far as the town of Anagnia, finding his army encumbered with booty and a host of prisoners, he decided to postpone the battle. Accordingly he turned back to Campania, sending his elephants in advance, and distributed his army in winter quarters among the towns.

Hither came Roman ambassadors proposing either to ransom the prisoners or to exchange them for Tarentines and his other allies whom they held. He replied that if they were ready for peace on the terms proposed by Cineas, he would release the prisoners gratuitously, but if the war was to continue, he would not give up such a large number of valiant men to fight against him. Otherwise he treated them in a kingly way. Perceiving that Fabricius, the chief of the embassy, had great influence in the city, and also that he was a very poor man, he approached him and said that if he would bring about a treaty of peace, he (Pyrrhus) would take him to Epirus, and make him his chief officer and the sharer of all his possessions; and he asked him to accept a present of money then and there, on the pretext that he was to give it to those who perfected the treaty. Fabricius burst out laughing. He made no answer as to public matters, but said: Neither you nor your friends, O King, can take away my independence. I consider my poverty more blessed than all the riches of kings if conjoined with fear. Others report the conversation differently, saying that Fabricius replied: Beware lest the Epirotes share my nature and prefer me to you.

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.