Appian: Roman History, I, Books 1-8.1

by Appian, Horace White (Translator)

Appian (Appianus) was a Greek official of Alexandria. He saw the Jewish rebellion of 116 CE, and later became a Roman citizen and advocate and received the rank of eques (knight). In his older years he held a procuratorship. He died during the reign of Antoninus Pius who was emperor 138–161 CE. Honest admirer of the Roman empire though ignorant of the institutions of the earlier Roman republic, he wrote, in the simple 'common' dialect, 24 books of 'Roman affairs', in fact conquests, from the beginnings to the times of Trajan (emperor 98–117 CE). Eleven have come down to us complete, or nearly so, namely those on the Spanish, Hannibalic, Punic, Illyrian, Syrian, and Mithridatic wars, and five books on the Civil Wars. They are valuable records of military history.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Appian is in four volumes.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics

672 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 150

About the author

Appian of Alexandria (/ˈæpiən/; Ancient Greek: Ἀππιανός Ἀλεξανδρεύς, Appianós Alexandreús; Latin: Appianus Alexandrinus; ca. AD 95 – ca. AD 165) was a Roman historian of Greek ethnicity who flourished during the reigns of Emperors of Rome Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius.

He was born circa 95 in Alexandria. He tells us, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Aegyptus (Egypt), he went to Rome circa 120, where he practised as an advocate, pleading cases before the emperors (probably as advocatus fisci), that in 147 at the earliest he was appointed to the office of procurator, probably in Egypt, on the recommendation of his friend Marcus Cornelius Fronto, a well-known litterateur. Because the position of procurator was open only to members of the equestrian order (the "knightly" class), his possession of this office tells us about Appian's family background.

His principal surviving work (Ῥωμαϊκά, known in Latin as Historia Romana and in English as Roman History) was written in Greek in 24 books, before 165. This work more closely resembles a series of monographs than a connected history. It gives an account of various peoples and countries from the earliest times down to their incorporation into the Roman Empire, and survives in complete books and considerable fragments. The work is very valuable, especially for the period of the civil wars.

The Civil Wars, five of the later books in the corpus, concern mainly the end of the Roman Republic and take a conflict-based approach to history.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a review of all four volumes of this set in the continuing series of histories that I'm reading because no one reads them unless they are source-mining them (see my Diodorus Siculus and Polybius reviews).

Before I started reading him, Appian interested chiefly because he decided to adopt a geographical structure to his history rather than the chronological-universal history structure which most of the widely read historians adopted. What this means is that Appian groups his sections on where various wars occured, so he has Macedonian Wars, Illyrian Wars on up to the Civil Wars (which is kind of all over the empire). It is an interesting change in focus, although it does make the narrative a bit choppy at times. The approach works as long as you know the broad chronology of Rome's wars, but, especially in the early 2nd century, it could get confusing because Rome had a habit of fighting three or four major wars at the same time which tended to blend into each other.

As a historian, Appian is solid. Indeed, his Civil Wars is one of the best treatments of that period, especially of the early civil disturbances from the Gracchi onwards. Given how patchy the historical record is for this period, Appian is an invaluable resource.

As far as readability, Appian is not overly rhetorical or overly terse, so he is quite readible. He tends to let the narrative speak, rather than relying overmuch on speeches.

So, well worth reading, especially if one is comfortable already with the chronology of the Roman Middle to Late Republic.

[Ellana Thornton-Wheybrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting history. Rather than a simple chronological history, this is a geographical history, with the focus on places.

I'll admit this took me a long time to read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like Appian pretty well, but all the death and atrocities in Iberia make this volume rather grim. Hannibal also was quite cruel at times. Still, there are a lot of interesting scenes: Romans using elephants to attack a walled city in Spain; Hannibal appearing as young, then old, then middle-aged to make the Celts think he was a god; and demoralized Romans hiding in their tents in camp while a hardy few of them barely fended the enemy off at the camp gates. The events are a bit repetitive at times, but never boring.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appian(not the builder of the Appian Way) lived during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, during the height of the Roman Empire. His history of Rome is actually a history of Roman wars. It is divided into sections based on geography. The first half of this book deserves 2 stars, that last half 4 stars.

The first half covers the times of kings, the Sicilian Wars, and the Gallic Wars. Much of the early part is nothing but fragments, entire chapters consisting of a single sentence. It fills out when it reaches the Gallic Wars, and there the problems become obvious. Appian states early on that he has no use for dates or proper names. The Gallic Wars are covered in no form of chronological order, with mentions of Julius Caesar followed by Sulla and then Octavian and back to Julius and so on. All that could be gathered from this section is that there was war in France for centuries.

The second half is so much better it's as if it was written by a different person. Earlier Appian had just dropped facts in a wooden manner, now he has suddenly learned how to write. It probably helps that these chapters cover a condensed timeline and fewer individuals. The Spanish Wars, the Hannibalic War, and the Punic Wars are covered. They are quite detailed and fairly easy to follow, though there are some issues not of Appian's making. For instance, the Spanish War follows Scipio, son of Scipio, nephew of Scipio, not to be confused with his grandson Scipio. To help things along most of the Carthaginian generals are named Hannibal, Hamilcar, or Hasdrubal. This part is not a dry fact dump but full of interesting anecdotes and personalities.

Apropos of Appian's attention to detail, the book ends with an obvious error in Julius Caesar's timeline.

[Lukerik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shit at first, but then rather good.

There are eight books in this first volume, but the first five are fragmentary. Some of these consist of scattered sentences that must have been quoted as examples of Greek linguistics. Others work as short stories, but really context is everything so if you’re looking for early Roman history this is not the place to start.

Each book deals with the annexation of a particular region into the Empire. Sounds like a good idea, but the one on Spain doesn’t work. It’s complete but feels disjointed.

However, those on Hannibal and the Punic Wars do work. It’s a bit odd having one story split geographically, but what he’s done is retell the accounts as fast-paced easy reads. Much shortened from other accounts and perhaps not as literary. He also has an account of the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage. If you were annoyed by Polybius and Livy breaking off with the story unfinished here’s the sequel.

[Hippocleides · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appian's a relatively mediocre and stodgy ancient historian. Focusing exclusively on wars and then separating them geographically instead of chronologically is all quite dubious. But it's useful to read Appian to see what other historians (Herodotus, Thucydides, Tacitus) did better.

[Samuel Puopolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great loeb edition to be sure, but I just didn’t like Appian that that much — he’s fine, y’know, whatever.

[Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes reads like a novel.