A Roman historian of Greek descent, Appian was born in Alexandria (c. 95), received a formal education and later moved to Rome to serve as a barrister (c. 120). He was eventually presented with the title of procurator under Antoninus Pius, which allowed him to spend time on his ’Historia Romana’. The collection totaled 24 books written in Greek dialect, of which, unfortunately, only about half have survived, either complete or in large fragments. Beginning with Appian’s own preface, the work chronicles nine centuries of Roman history, including the Spanish, Hannibalic, Punic, Illyrian, Syrian, and Mithridatic wars, and most significantly in the second volume, the Civil Wars. Although Appian’s contributions were based on his limited knowledge of Republic institutions, he spent considerable time compiling, organizing and reducing material from such Greek and Latin authors such as Hieronymus of Cardia, Polybius, Gaius Asinius Pollio, Caesar, and Augustus. ’The Roman History’ is today an invaluable record of military history. Here in this edition we have the first of two volumes in which Appian’s history of Rome’s foreign wars are detailed.
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