Appian of Alexandria

▪ Greek historian

flourished 2nd century AD

      Greek historian of the conquests by Rome from the republican period into the 2nd century AD.

      Appian held public office in Alexandria, where he witnessed the Jewish insurrection in AD 116. After gaining Roman citizenship he went to Rome, practiced as a lawyer, and became a procurator (financial agent of the government) under the emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) through the good offices of his friend Marcus Cornelius Fronto (Fronto, Marcus Cornelius).

      In addition to a lost autobiography, Appian wrote in Greek the Romaica, or history of Rome, in 24 books, arranged ethnographically according to the peoples (and their rulers) conquered by the Romans. The books that survive (the preface, Books VI–VII, most of VIII and IX, most of XI, and XII–XVII) deal with Spain, Carthage, Illyria, Syria, Hannibal, Mithradates VI (Mithradates VI Eupator), and the Roman civil wars. Books I–V and parts of VIII, IX, and XI are fragmentary; X and XVIII–XXIV have been lost. Extracts from other books survive in Byzantine compilations and elsewhere.

      Appian wrote in a Greek that was no longer Classical. Not himself an able historian, he nevertheless preserved much information of value by his transmission of earlier sources. His work on the civil wars, dealing with the period from Tiberius Gracchus (Gracchus, Tiberius Sempronius) (tribune 133 BC) to Lucius Sulla (Sulla, Lucius Cornelius) (died 78 BC), is a major historical source. Scholars have noted, however, that Appian used his sources rather creatively to support his views of the importance of Alexandria and the virtues of the Romans. As a conservative supporter of the imperial system, he was often critical of and unsympathetic toward republican institutions and popular movements.

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