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 10–11

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English Page · Branch 8 of 315

Preface · Sections 10–11

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Ancient Greek

p. 16

ἐμοῖς βασιλεῦσι μόνοις ἦν στρατιά τε πεζῶν μυριάδες εἴκοσι καὶ μυριάδες ἱππέων τέσσαρες καὶ ἐλέφαντες πολεμισταὶ τριακόσιοι καὶ ἅρματα ἐς μάχας δισχίλια καὶ ὅπλα ἐς διαδοχὴν μυριάσι τριάκοντα.

καὶ τάδε μὲν αὐτοῖς ἦν ἐς πεζομαχίαν, ἐς δὲ ναυμαχίας κοντωτὰ καὶ ὅσα σμικρότερα ἄλλα, δισχίλια, τριήρεις δὲ ἀπὸ ἡμιολίας μέχρι πεντήρους πεντακόσιαι καὶ χίλιαι καὶ σκεύη τριηριτικὰ διπλότερα τούτων θαλαμηγά τε χρυσόπρυμνα καὶ χρυσέμβολα ἐς πολέμου πομπήν, οἷς αὐτοὶ διαπλέοντες ἐπέβαινον οἱ βασιλεῖς, ὀκτακόσια, χρημάτων δ’ ἐν τοῖς θησαυροῖς τέσσαρες καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα μυριάδες ταλάντων Αἰγυπτίων.

ἐς γὰρ δὴ τοσοῦτο παρασκευῆς τε καὶ στρατιᾶς ἐκ τῶν βασιλικῶν ἀναγραφῶν φαίνεται προαγαγών τε καὶ καταλιπὼν ὁ δεύτερος Αἰγύπτου βασιλεὺς μετ’ Ἀλέξανδρον, ὃς καὶ πορίσαι δεινότατος ἦν βασιλέων καὶ δαπανῆσαι λαμπρότατος καὶ κατασκευάσαι μεγαλουργότατος.

φαίνεται δὲ καὶ πολλὰ τῶν ἄλλων σατραπῶν οὐ πολὺ τούτων ἀποδέοντα. ἀλλὰ πάντα ἐς τοὺς ἐπιγόνους αὐτῶν συνετρίφθη, φθαρέντας ἐς ἀλλήλους, ᾧ μόνως ἀρχαὶ μεγάλαι καταλύονται, στασιάσασαι. τὰ δὲ Ῥωμαίων μεγέθει τε καὶ χρόνῳ διήνεγκε δι’ εὐβουλίαν καὶ εὐτυχίαν ἔς τε τὴν περίκτησιν αὐτῶν ἀρετῇ καὶ φερεπονίᾳ καὶ ταλαιπωρίᾳ πάντας ὑπερῆραν, οὔτε ταῖς εὐπραγίαις ἐπαιρόμενοι, μέχρι βεβαίως ἐκράτησαν, οὔτε συστελλόμενοι ταῖς συμφοραῖς· ὧν γε καὶ δύο μυριάδες ἀνδρῶν ἐνίοτε μιᾶς ἡμέρας καὶ ἑτέρας τέσσαρες

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Preface

p. 17

country [Egypt] alone had an army consisting of 200,000 foot, 40,000 horse, 300 war elephants, and 2,000 armed chariots, and arms in reserve for 300,000 soldiers more. This was their force for land service. For naval service they had 2,000 barges propelled by poles, and other smaller craft, 1,500 galleys with from one and a half to five benches of oars each, and galley furniture for twice as many ships, 800 vessels provided with cabins, gilded on stem and stern for the pomp of war, with which the kings themselves were wont to go to naval combats; and money in their treasuries to the amount of 740,000 Egyptian talents. Such was the state of preparedness for war shown by the royal accounts as recorded and left by the king of Egypt second in succession after Alexander, who was the most formidable of these rulers in his preparations, the most lavish in expenditure, and the most magnificent in projects. It appears that many of the other satrapies were not much inferior in these respects. Yet all these resources were wasted under their successors by warring with each other. By means of such civil dissensions alone are great states destroyed.

Through prudence and good fortune has the empire of the Romans attained to greatness and duration in gaining which they have excelled all others in bravery, patience, and hard labor. They were never elated by success until they had firmly secured their power, nor were they ever cast down by misfortune, although they sometimes lost 20,000

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.