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 IV · Fragments IX–XI

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Facing Pages · Branch 52 of 315

Book IV · Fragments IX–XI

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Ancient Greek

p. 112

δὲ δῆμον ἀπὸ τοῦ τείχους ὁρᾶν, καὶ τοῖς πονουμένοις ἑτέρους νεαλεῖς ἐπιπέμπειν ἀεί. οἱ δὲ Κελτοὶ κεκμηκότες ἀκμῆσι συμπλεκόμενοι ἔφευγον ἀτάκτως.

ὁ δὲ Κελτὸς ἀγανακτῶν καὶ λιφαιμῶν ἐδιωκε τὸν Οὐαλέριον, συγκαταπεσεῖν ἐπειγομενος· ὑπὸ δὲ τοὺς πόδας ἀναχωροῦντος ἀεὶ τοῦ Οὐαλερίου κατέπεσε πρηνὴς ὁ Κελτός. καὶ δεύτερον τοῦτο μονομάχιον ἐπὶ Κελτοῖς ἐμεγαλαύχουν οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι.

ὅτι τὸ τῶν Σενόνων ἔθνος ἔνσπονδον ἦν Ῥωμαίοις, καὶ ἐμισθοφόρουν κατὰ Ῥωμαίων. ἡ δὲ βουλὴ πρέσβεις ἔπεμψεν ἐγκαλέσοντας ὅτι ὄντες ἔνσπονδοι μισθοφοροῦσι κατὰ Ῥωμαίων. τούτους Βριτόμαρις ὁ Κελτός, ἀγανακτῶν ὑπὲρ τοῦ πατρὸς ὅτι συμμαχῶν Τυρρηνοῖς ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων ἐν τῷδε τῷ πολέμῳ διέφθαρτο, τά τε κηρύκεια φέροντας καὶ τὴν ἄσυλον ἐσθῆτα περικειμένους κατέτεμεν ἐς πολλά, καὶ τὰ μέρη τῶν σωμάτων διέρριψεν ἐς τὰ πεδία. καὶ τοῦ μύσους ὁ Κορνήλιος ἐν ὁδῷ πυθόμενος, ἐς τὰς Σενόνων πόλεις συντόνῳ σπουδῇ διὰ Σαβίνων καὶ Πικεντίνων ἐσβαλὼν ἅπαντα καθῄρει καὶ ἐνεπίμπρη, τῶν τε

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book IV

p. 113

constantly sent fresh troops to take the place of the tired ones. But the tired Gauls having to engage with fresh opponents took to disorderly flight.

The Gaul, furious and exhausted with loss of blood, pursued Valerius, hastening in order to grapple with him. As Valerius was all the time dodging just in front of him, the Gaul fell headlong. The Romans felicitated themselves on this second single combat with the Gauls.

The Senones, although they had a treaty with the Romans, nevertheless furnished mercenaries against them, wherefore the Senate sent an embassy to them to remonstrate against this infraction of the treaty. Britomaris, the Gaul, being incensed against them on account of his father, who had been killed by the Romans while fighting on the side of the Etruscans in this very war, slew the ambassadors while they held the caduceus in their hands, and wore the garments of their office. He then cut their bodies in small pieces and scattered them in the fields. The consul Cornelius, learning of this abominable deed while he was on the march, moved with great speed against the towns of the Senones by way of the Sabine country and Picenum, and ravaged them all with fire and sword.

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.