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 11–12

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Facing Pages · Branch 9 of 315

Preface · Sections 11–12

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Ancient Greek

p. 18

ἀπώλλυντο καὶ ἄλλης πέντε.

καὶ περὶ τῆς πόλεως αὐτῆς πολλάκις ἐκινδύνευον, καὶ λιμοί τε καὶ λοιμοὶ συνεχεῖς καὶ στάσεις, ὁμοῦ πάντα ἐπιπίπτοντα, οὐκ ἀπέστησε τῆς φιλοτιμίας, ἕως ἑπτακοσίοις ἔτεσιν κακοπαθοῦντές τε καὶ κινδυνεύοντες ἀγχωμάλως τὴν ἀρχὴν ἐς τόδε προήγαγον καὶ τῆς εὐτυχίας ὤναντο διὰ τὴν εὐβουλίαν. καὶ τάδε πολλοὶ μὲν Ἑλλήνων, πολλοὶ δὲ Ῥωμαίων συνέγραψαν, καὶ ἔστιν ἡ ἱστορία τῆς Μακεδονικῆς, μεγίστης δὴ τῶν προτέρων οὔσης, πολὺ μείζων.

ἀλλ’ ἐντυγχάνοντά με καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν αὐτῶν ἐντελῆ καθ’ ἕκαστον ἔθνος ἰδεῖν ἐθέλοντα ἀπέφερεν ἡ γραφὴ πολλάκις ἀπὸ Καρχηδόνος ἐπὶ Ἴβηρας καὶ ἐξ Ἰβήρων ἐπὶ Σικελίαν ἢ Μακεδονίαν ἢ ἐπὶ πρεσβείας ἢ συμμαχίας ἐς ἄλλα ἔθνη γενομένας, εἶτ’ αὖθις ἐς Καρχηδόνα ἀνῆγεν ἢ Σικελίαν ὥσπερ ἀλώμενον καὶ πάλιν ἐκ τούτων ἀτελῶν ἔτι ὄντων μετέφερεν, ἕως οὗ τὰ μέρη συνήγαγον ἐμαυτῷ, ὁσάκις ἐς Σικελίαν ἐστράτευσαν ἢ ἐπρέσβευσαν ἢ ὁτιοῦν ἔπραξαν [ἐς Σικελίαν], μέχρι κατεστήσαντο αὐτὴν ἐς τὸν κόσμον τὸν παρόντα, ὁσάκις τε αὖ Καρχηδονίους ἐπολέμησαν ἢ ἐσπείσαντο ἢ ἐπρέσβευσαν ἐς αὐτοὺς ἢ πρεσβείας ἐδέξαντο παρ’ ἐκείνων ἢ ἔδρασαν ὁτιοῦν ἢ ἔπαθον πρὸς αὐτῶν, ἕως Καρχηδόνα κατέσκαψαν καὶ τὸ Λιβύων ἔθνος προσέλαβον καὶ αὖθις ᾤκισαν αὐτοῖς Καρχηδόνα καὶ Λιβύην κατέστησαν ἐς τὰ νῦν ὄντα.

καὶ τόδε μοι κατὰ ἔθνος ἕκαστον ἐπράχθη, βουλομένῳ τὰ ἐς ἑκάστους ἔργα Ῥωμαίων καταμαθεῖν, ἵνα τὴν τῶν

Appian’s Roman History, Volume I: Preface

p. 19

men in a single day, at another time 40,000, and once 50,000, and although the city itself was often in danger. Neither famine, nor frequently recurring plague, nor sedition, nor all these falling upon them at once could abate their ardor; until, through the doubtful struggles and dangers of seven hundred years, they achieved their present greatness, having enjoyed the favors of fortune through wisdom.

These things have been described by many writers, both Greek and Roman, and the history is even more copious than that of the Macedonian empire, which was the longest history of earlier times. Being interested in it, and desiring to compare the Roman prowess carefully with that of every other nation, my history has often led me from Carthage to Spain, from Spain to Sicily or to Macedonia, or to join some embassy to foreign countries, or some alliance formed with them; thence back to Carthage or Sicily, like a wanderer, and again elsewhere, while the work was still unfinished. At last I have brought the parts together, showing how often the Romans sent armies or embassies into Sicily and what they did there until they brought it into its present condition; also how often they made war and peace with the Carthaginians, or sent embassies to them or received the same from them, and what damage they inflicted upon or suffered from them until they demolished Carthage and made Africa a Roman province, and how they rebuilt Carthage and brought Africa into its present condition. I have made this research also in respect to each of the other provinces, desiring to learn the Romans’ relations to each, in order to understand the weakness of these nations or their power of

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.