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 XVII–XVIII

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Facing Pages · Branch 56 of 315

Book IV · Fragments XVII–XVIII

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Ancient Greek

p. 120

γενόμενος Ῥωμαίων, ἐς λόγους ἦλθε τῷ Καίσαρι, καὶ διαχωρισθέντων ἀπʼ ἀλλήλων αὖθις συνελθεῖν ἐς λόγους ἠξίωσεν. τοῦ δὲ Καίσαρος οὐ συνελθόντος, ἀλλὰ τοὺς πρωτεύοντας Γαλατῶν ἀποστείλαντος, ἔδησε τοὺς πρέσβεις. καὶ ὁ Καῖσαρ ἐστράτευεν ἐπʼ αὐτὸν μετʼ ἀπειλῆς. δέος δʼ ἐμπίπτει τῷ στρατῷ κατὰ κλέος τῶν Γερμανῶν.

ὅτι Οὐσιπέται, ἔθνος Γερμανικόν, καὶ Ταγχρέαι δοκοῦσι πρότεροι σφετέροις ἱππεῦσιν ὀκτακοσίοις τρέψασθαι τῶν Καίσαρος ἱππέων ἐς πεντακισχιλίους, ὁ δὲ Καῖσαρ αὐτοῖς πρεσβευομένοις ἐς αὐτὸν ἐπιθέσθαι, τοὺς πρέσβεις κατασχών, καὶ τὸ πάθος ἐκείνοις ἐς τέλος αἰφνίδιον οὕτω συνενεχθῆναι ὡς τεσσαράκοντα μυριάδας τούτων συγκοπῆναι. Κάτωνά τε ἐν Ῥώμῃ τῶν τις συγγραφέων φησὶ γνώμην ἐσενεγκεῖν, ἐκδοῦναι τοῖς βαρβάροις τὸν Καίσαρα ὡς ἐναγὲς ἔργον ἐς διαπρεσβευσαμένους ἐργασάμενον. ὁ δὲ Καῖσαρ ἐν ταῖς ἰδίαις ἀναγραφαῖς τῶν ἐφημέρων ἔργων φησὶ τοὺς Οὐσιπέτας καὶ Ταγχρέας κελευομένους ἐκπηδᾶν ἐς τὰ ἀρχαῖα σφῶν, φάναι πρέσβεις ἐς τοὺς ἐκβαλόντας Σουήβους ἀπεσταλκέναι καὶ τὰς ἀποκρίσεις αὐτῶν ἀναμένειν, καὶ ἐν ταῖσδε ταῖς διαπρεσβεύσεσιν ἐπιθέσθαι τοῖς ὀκτακοσίοις, καὶ παρʼ αὐτὸ τρέψαι τοὺς Ῥωμαίων πεντακισχιλίους. ἐπιπρεσβευομένων δʼ αὐτῶν καὶ περὶ

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book IV

p. 121

Ariovistus, the king of the Germans, who had been voted a friend of the Roman people, came to Caesar to have a colloquy. After they had separated he wished to have another. Caesar refused it, but sent some of the leading men of the Gauls to meet him. Ariovistus cast them in chains, wherefore Caesar threatened him and made war on him, but fear fell upon the army on account of the military reputation of the Germans.

It is believed that the Usipetes and the Tenchteri, German tribes, with 800 of their own horse, put to flight about 5000 of Caesar’s horse. When they sent ambassadors to Caesar he held them as prisoners and made an attack on them, and took them so completely by surprise that 400,000 of them were cut to pieces. One writer says that Cato in the Roman Senate proposed that Caesar should be surrendered to the barbarians for this deed of blood perpetrated while negotiations were pending. But Caesar in his own diary says that when the Usipetes and Tenchteri were ordered to go back forthwith to their former homes, they replied that they had sent ambassadors to the Suevi, who had driven them away, and that they were waiting for their answer; that while these negotiations were pending, they set upon his men with 800 of their horse, and by the suddenness of the attack put to flight his 5000; and that when they

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.