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 VI · Sections 31–32

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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 87 of 315

Book VI · Sections 31–32

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Ancient Greek

p. 186

συνήλασεν ἐς λόφον, ὅθεν ἀποροῦντες ἁπάντων ἐπρεσβεύοντο πρὸς τὸν Μάρκιον περὶ σπονδῶν. ὁ δʼ ἐκέλευεν αὐτοὺς Ἄννωνα καὶ τοὺς αὐτομόλους ἐκδόντας αὐτῷ, τότε πρεσβεύειν. οἱ μὲν δὴ καὶ τὸν Ἄννωνα στρατηγὸν ὄντα σφῶν συναρπάσαντες, ἔτι τῶν λεγομένων ἀκροώμενον, καὶ τοὺς αὐτομόλους παρέδοσαν· ὁ δὲ Μάρκιος ᾔτει καὶ τὰ αἰχμάλωτα. λαβὼν δὲ καὶ ταῦτα, ἐκέλευεν αὐτοὺς τακτὸν ἀργύριον κατενεγκεῖν ἅπαντας ἔς τι τοῦ πεδίου χωρίον· οὐ γὰρ ἁρμόζειν τὰ ὑψηλότερα τοῖς παρακαλοῦσιν. καταβάντων δὲ ἐς τὸ πεδίον ἔφη, ἄξια μὲν θανάτου δεδράκατε, οἳ τὰς πατρίδας ἔχοντες ὑφʼ ἡμῖν, εἵλεσθε μετὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ἐπʼ αὐτὰς στρατεύειν· δίδωμι δʼ ὑμῖν, τὰ ὅπλα καταθεῖσιν, ἀπαθέσιν ἀπιέναι. ἀγανακτησάντων δʼ εὐθὺς ὁμοῦ πάντων, καὶ ἀνακραγόντων οὐκ ἀποθήσεσθαι τὰ ὅπλα, μάχη γίγνεται καρτερά. καὶ τὸ μὲν ἥμισυ τῶν Κελτιβήρων, πολλὰ δρασάντων, κατεκόπη, τὸ δʼ ἥμισυ πρὸς Μάγωνα διεσώθη. ὁ δʼ ἄρτι μὲν ἐς τὸ στρατόπεδον τὸ Ἄννωνος κατεπεπλεύκει ναυσὶν ἑξήκοντα μακραῖς, μαθὼν δὲ τὴν Ἄννωνος συμφορὰν ἐς Γάδειρα διέπλει, καὶ λιμῷ κακοπαθῶν περιεσκόπει τὸ μέλλον.

καὶ Μάγων μὲν ἐπὶ ἀργίας ἦν, Σιλανὸς δʼ ἀπέσταλτο μὲν ὑπὸ τοῦ Σκιπίωνος Κάστακα πόλιν προσαγαγέσθαι, πολεμικῶς δʼ αὐτῷ τῶν Καστακαίων ἐχόντων παρεστρατοπέδευε, καὶ τοῦτο ἐμήνυε τῷ Σκιπίωνι. ὁ δὲ προπέμψας τινὰ παρασκευὴν πολιορκίας εἵπετο· καὶ παροδεύων ἐνέβαλεν ἐς Ἰλυργίαν πόλιν, ἣ Ῥωμαίων μὲν ἦν φίλη κατὰ τὸν πρότερον Σκιπίωνα, ἀναιρεθέντος

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Book VI

p. 187

they were reduced to extremities by hunger they sent messengers to Marcius to obtain terms. He told them first to surrender Hanno and the deserters, and then he would treat. Accordingly they seized Hanno, although he was their general and was listening to the conversation, and they delivered up the deserters. Then Marcius demanded the prisoners also. When he had received these he ordered them to bring a specified sum of money down to a certain point in the plain, because the high ground was not a suitable place for suppliants. When they had come down to the plain he said: You deserve to be put to death for adhering to the enemy and waging war against us after your country has espoused our side. Nevertheless, if you will lay down your arms, I will allow you to go unpunished. At this they were very angry and exclaimed with one voice that they would not lay down their arms. A severe engagement ensued in which about half of the Celtiberians fell, not unavenged, the other half escaping to Mago, who had arrived a little before at the camp of Hanno with sixty war-ships. When he learned of Hanno’s disaster he sailed to Gades and awaited the turn of events, meanwhile suffering from want of provisions.

While Mago lay here inert, Silanus was sent by Scipio to receive the submission of the city of Castax. When the inhabitants received him in a hostile manner, he encamped before it, and communicated the fact to Scipio. The latter sent him some siege engines and prepared to follow, but turned aside to attack the town of Ilurgia. This place had been an ally of the Romans in the time of the elder Scipio, but

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.