APPIAN OF ALEXANDRIA

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 at an advanced age became a procurator. In addition to a lost autobiography, Appian wrote in Greek a 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 in complete form deal with Spain, Carthage, Illyria, Syria, Hannibal, Mithradates, and the Roman civil wars from the Gracchi onward. 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 first book on the civil wars, dealing with the period from Tiberius Gracchus (tribune 133 BC) to Sulla (d. 78 BC), is a major historical source.