Appianus (
Greek: )
(
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 24 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.
Life
Little is known of the life of Appian of Alexandria. He wrote an
autobiography that has been nearly completely lost. Information
about Appian is distilled from his own writings and a letter by
Cornelius Fronto, a famous litterateur living in Rome in the
mid-second century. However, it is certain that Appian was born in
c. 95 in the capital of Roman Egypt, Alexandria. Since it is known
that his parents were Roman citizens capable of paying for their
son’s education it can be determined that Appian belonged to the
wealthy upper class.
It is believed that Appian moved to Rome in 120 where he became a
barrister. From his introduction to one of his most important
surviving works entitled Roman History, he boasts “that he pleaded
cases in Rome before the emperors.” The emperors he claims to have
addressed must have been either Hadrian or Marcus Aurelius and
definitely Antoninus Pius, for he was still in Egypt by the end of
the reign of Trajan (c. 53 - c. 117) meaning he must have moved to
Rome at a later date. From the primary source of Fronto’s letter
(mentioned previously) it is revealed that a request on behalf of
Appian to give him the rank of procurator, can be dated during
coregency, i.e., between 147 and 161. Applying for that office
acknowledges that Appian belonged to the equestrian class, or
“second class” of Roman citizens after the Senatorial class. It is
known that Appian won this office, but it is unclear whether it was
a real job or an honorific title. The only other certain fact about
this historian is that he published a Roman History that appeared
sometime before 162 C.E. It is certain because it is one of the few
primary sources historians have to work with on the period.
Works
Appian’s work began around the middle of the 2nd century AD. Under
the title of Historia Romana, the writings are divided up into 24
different books, of which only sections from half of these books
survives today. The Latin names of all 24 books can be found here
(Brill’s New Pauly). The most important preserved work of Appian
lies in the 5 books on the ‘Civil Wars,’ also recognized as books
13-17 of his “Roman History.” These five books stand out because
they are the only comprehensive, meticulous source available to
historians about this incomparably significant period where Roman
politics were in turmoil because of great domestic disputes.
The work’s particular characteristics lie in its ethnographic
structure. Appian most likely used this structure to facilitate the
reader’s orientation through the sequence of events, which occur in
different places and are only united by their relationship to Rome.
A literary example of this can be found from Appian’s The Civil
Wars (part 5 of 17). It states, “And now civil discord broke out
again worst than ever and increased enormously…..So in the course
of events in the Roman empire was partitioned….by these three men:
Antony, Lepidus, and the one who was first called Octavius….Shortly
after this division they fell to quarrelling among
themselves…Octavius …first deprived Lepidus of Africa…and
afterward, as the result of the battle of Actium, took from Antony
all the provinces lying between Syria and the Adriatic gulf." It
would be expected that a historical work covering nine centuries
and countless different people would involve the examination of a
multitude of testimonials from different periods. However, it is
unclear if Appian worked this way for he only mentions the source
of his information under special circumstances. Usually, he is
silent on his sources, which renders identification difficult. In
any case, one has the impression that he primarily only relied on
one author for each book, whom he did not follow uncritically since
he also used additional sources for precision and correction. At
our present state of knowledge questions regarding Appian’s sources
cannot be solved.
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.
- *Carsana, Chiara (ed.). Commento storico al libro II delle
Guerre Civili di Appiano.
(parte I)
. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 2007. 309
pp. (Pubblicazioni della Facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia
dell'Università di Pavia, 116).
English translations:
References
- William Smith (ed) (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman
Biography and Mythology Vol 1 pp. 247-248
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