Appian

Appianus (Greek: Αππιανός) (c. 95 – c. 165), of Alexandria was a Roman historian (of Greek ethnicity) who flourished during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius. He is commonly referred to by the anglicised form of his name, Appian.

He was born ca. 95 in Alexandria. He tells us that, after having filled the chief offices in the province of Egypt, he went to Rome ca. 120, where he practiced as an advocate, pleading cases before the emperors. 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. The position of procurator was open only to members of the equestrian class.

His work (Ῥωμαϊκά, known in English as the Roman History) in twenty-four books, written in Greek before 165, is more a number 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. In spite of its unattractive style, 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.

Editions

• Editio princeps, 1551
• Schweighauser, 1785
• Bekker, 1852
• Ludwig Mendelssohn, 1878-1905, Appiani Historia Romana, Bibliotheca Teubneriana
• Paul Goukowsky, 1997-, Appien. Histoire romaine (Greek text, French translation, notes), Collection Budé

English translations:

• W. B., 1578 (black letter) - possibly William Barker - used by Shakespeare
• J. D[avies], 1679
• Horace White, 1899 (Bohn's Classical Library);
• Book I edited by James Leigh Strachan-Davidson, 1902.
• Books XIII-XVII (Civil Wars), transl. John Carter, Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1996

References

• William Smith (ed) (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology Vol 1 pp. 247-248

External links

• Appian's Foreign Wars at Livius.org
• Appian's Civil Wars at LacusCurtius
• Works by Appian at the Internet Archive

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.