Customer Reviews

The Civil Wars (Penguin Classics)

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I learned about the book after reading Holland's "Rubicon" (also a very good book), in which it was used as one of the primary sources. The translation is very readable and really reads as a novel. Appian wrote the history a few centuries after the events described, but it remains the only continuous narrative of the period between the fall of the Gracchi and rise of Augustus. This is obviously an event-filled and fascinating period in Roman history. For those interested in the period, I would recommend Holland's book and follow it up with this one.

Ancient Mediterranean history seems to have entered a revival period in 2007 (...or, at least, this was what TIME magazine informed me a few months ago). Copies of the *Illiad* and *Odyssey* gain new shiny covers and return to prominence on upper-middle coffee tables. Frank Millar's *300* captivated millions of college kids with its bald and rather bad triune-stroke. Vin Diesel (!!) is apparently scripting a version of Hannibal Barca's trek across the Alps. And HBO concluded its visually-magnificent-if-liberally-altered account of the fall of the Roman Republic with style and aplomb and certainly no lack of visceral carnality. I imagine, after the fact, that certain curious consumers interested in the fall of the Roman Republic / rise of the Roman Empire searched amazon.com and like retailers for the "real" story behind the lurid invention. Thus it is rather surprising that this tome - Appian's *The Civil Wars* - has been reviewed two times, considering it is the only surviving *continuous* history of the period, detailing the fall from beginning to end without serious lacunas or missing chapters.

Fans of HBO's Rome, casual neophytes of Latin history - this is what you are looking for. Appian chronicles the `good / bad old days' of the Roman Republic with taut precision, outlining the central conflict (land ownership, upper class greed - how times change, how... ) that eventually led to the rabble-rousing and subsequent murder of the Gracci Bros, the Catiline conspiracy, the rise and messy fall of the tyrants Sulla and Marus, the rise of Pompey and Caesar and the formation of the First Triumvirate, the assassination of Caesar, the struggles of Antony and Octavian to retain power in war-torn Italy, the creation of the Second Triumvirate and the cracking of its façade...

Appian wrote his histories around 200 years after the fact (this Penguin edition estimates its composition between AD 145 and 165), so - as with all ancient histories - the facts and minutiae will ever be in question. Appian's style is not the easiest to read, either: he favors long complex sentences, occasional tangents and the usual influx of names, names, names - happily, this edition contains voluminous footnotes and detailed maps. For a greater reading experience, I recommend having copies of Plutarch's *Makers of Rome* and *Fall of the Roman Republic* on hand - though not chronologically paced like the Civil Wars, they give insight into the major movers and shakers, offer a sort of conclusion with the portrait of Antony, and augment the overall impact of this turbulent, fascinating period of human development.

'Limitless human ambition, terrible lust for power, indefatigable patience, and evil in ten thousand shapes' -- the glory and the infamy, still unvarnished two thousand years postscript...

I will start this review by describing Appian's The Civil Wars, then will discuss the Greek text which is the basis for this English translation, and finally will review this translation and compare it with others.

Appian of Alexandria, a Roman attorney and prominent public official, in about 145-165 A.D. wrote a history of Rome in 24 books. Seven books are lost. We have another seven only in fragments and ten books that are substantially complete.

Five of those ten surviving books cover the Roman civil wars and form the volume reviewed here. It provides the only surviving continuous history of Rome in the tumultuous years of 113 to 70 B.C., the end of the Roman republic. Appian starts with the violence against the Gracchus brothers and then tells the stories of the civil war between Marius and Sulla; the Social War; Cicero's suppression of the Catiline conspiracy; the first triumvirate of Pompey the Great, Marcus Crassus, and Julius Caesar; the civil war between Pompey and Caesar; Caesar's dictatorship and assassination; the constantly-shifting relationships between Cicero, Octavian Caesar, and Mark Antony after the assassination; the formation of the second triumvirate; the pursuit of Julius Caesar's assassins; Antony's encounter with Cleopatra; and, finally, the death of Sextus Pompey.

Appian covers one of the most eventful periods in history in a narrative filled with vivid personalities and dramatic conflicts. He draws from multiple sources, many of them lost to us now. He often gives both sides of an issue, which is rare among ancient historians.

Historian Jona Lendering sums up Appian's importance on the Livius website: "Appian is a far better historian than most twentieth-century classicists have been willing to accept. He identified good sources and used them with due criticism. . . It must be stressed that he is the only ancient author who recognized the social causes of the Roman civil wars, for which Appian remains one of the most important sources. He is also a fine writer, who can vividly describe events, and knows how to evoke the smaller and larger tragedies that are history. He includes nice digressions, has an eye for the better anecdote, and does not ignore the interesting detail. Never has the stylistic device of repetition been used more effectively than by Appian in his shocking account of the persecution of the enemies of the Second Triumvirate, which belongs to the finest [historical writing] that was ever written in Greek."

To sum up, Appian's The Civil Wars is essential for anyone studying the Roman republic, the Social Wars, Pompey the Great, Cicero, Antony, Octavian, or Sextus Pompey. For non-scholars who enjoy reading history and biography, The Civil Wars may seem slow in places, but Appian's portrayals of unforgettable characters in exciting scenes provide an entertaining, enlightening view of clashes in republican Rome that still echo in our times.

Was the Greek text used as the source for this translation accurate, or was it corrupt?

Corrupt texts cause major problems for the works of some classical authors, not so much for Appian. For more than 100 years, the definitive Greek source for Appian was the text prepared by Professor Ludwig Mendelssohn of the University of Dorpat, Russia for the 2-volume edition of Appian's Historia Romana published by Teubner 1879-1882. For this translation, John Carter used the Teubner Greek source text as edited by P. Viereck in 1905, revised by A.G. Roos in 1936, with addenda and corrections by E. Gabba in 1962. (The Teubner edition is currently out of print.) Carter was satisfied enough with the quality of the Greek source text in the Teubner edition that he made only 33 changes to it for this translation. (Each change is precisely noted.)

The only other Greek source text for The Civil Wars available on Amazon is found in two Loeb Classical Library volumes: Appian: Roman History, Vol. III, The Civil Wars, Books 1-3.26 (Loeb Classical Library No. 4) and Appian: Roman History, Vol. IV, The Civil Wars, Books 3.27-5 (Loeb Classical Library No. 5). These two Loeb volumes also use Mendelssohn's Teubner text, but instead of using the revisions by Viereck, Roos, and Gabba, their text uses a separate set of revisions made by Iliff Robinson in 1913. The Loeb Greek text is good, but not as good as the Greek text used by Carter.

When Carter made his translation in 1995 (published in 1996), he used the best Greek text available in his time. Since then, a newer Greek text has appeared. The first two volumes were published by Les Belles Lettres in 2008 and 2010: Guerres Civiles, Livre I with source text restoration, translation into French, and introduction by Paul Goukowsky and notes by François Hinard; and Guerres Civiles, Livre III, with source text restoration, translation into French, and introduction by Paul Goukowsky, notes by Philippe Torrens.

These new texts have been praised by classical scholars. For example, Richard Westall, in his review of Guerres Civiles, Livre III in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review, wrote: "As a result of lavish attention to detail and the exercise of critical acumen, there is no doubt that this will henceforth be the standard edition of reference for anyone working on Appian and the convoluted history of the period extending from mid-March 44 to mid-September 43 BCE. . . . The Greek text established afresh by Goukowsky represents a marked improvement upon the past."

In addition, in a separate project Kai Brodersen of the University of Erfurt is working on a new edition of the Greek text of The Civil Wars for the Oxford Classical Texts series.

I will sum up by saying the Greek text that forms the basis of John Carter's translation is a good Greek text, but not the best. This matters to serious scholars, but not to other readers of The Civil Wars.

Finally, how accurate and readable is this translation? Is it the best one available?

Surprisingly, in spite of the importance and enjoyableness of Appian's work, if you read only English, you have just two choices: this translation by John Carter, and the Loeb Classical Library translation by Horace White. These are the only two English translations I can find.

White's translation was originally written in 1889 for the Bohn's Classical Library series. The Loeb version of White was revised by Iliff Robinson in 1913, almost a century ago. The vocabulary and sentence structure is a bit stiff, but White's translation is clear and surprisingly readable. The Loeb volumes offer an additional attraction: They feature Greek source text on the left pages and the English translation on facing right pages, making it easy to compare any point of the translation with its original source.

Carter's English translation is a bit more fluid and modern, and he is careful to present Appian's sometimes tangled sentences as clearly as possible.

To allow you to contrast White's style with Carter's, here is a short excerpt of each from near the beginning of Book IV.

First, White: "Octavian and Antony composed their differences on a small, depressed islet in the river Lavinius, near the city of Mutina. Each had five legions of soldiers whom they stationed opposite each other, after which each proceeded with 300 men to the bridges over the river. Lepidus by himself went before them, searched the island, and waved his military cloak as a signal to them to come. Then each left his three hundred in charge of friends on the bridges and advanced to the middle of the island in plain sight, and there the three sat together in council, Octavian in the centre because he was consul."

Second, Carter's translation of the same text: "Octavian and Antonius met near Mutina, on a small low-lying island in the river Lavinius, to exchange enmity for friendship. Each had five legions, which they left drawn up facing each other while they each advanced with 300 men to the bridges over the river. Lepidus went ahead in person to search the island, and signaled with his cloak to each of them to come across. They then left their 300 men with their advisers at the bridges and went forward in full view into the space between, where the three of them sat down together, with Octavian in the centre presiding because of his office."

Where Carter really shines is in the extra information he provides to increase the usefulness of his edition. He starts with a 25-page introduction, and provides a 5-page "Table of Dates" that is really a list of events from 133 B.C. to 35 B.C., and which matches each event up to a book and paragraph number. I have found his list extremely useful. Carter buttresses his translation with 735 footnotes, useful for general public and scholars alike. He includes seven appendices: "The Roman Assemblies in the Late Republic;" "Senate and Equestrian Order (`Knights');" "The Roman Proletariat;" "The Latins and the Roman Citizenship;" "The Armies of the Late Republic;" "The Terminal Date of Caesar's Command in Gaul;" and "`The Italians' in Book I." Most of these appendices make Appian's text more clear for general readers. The book concludes with four maps and an index.

In conclusion, John Carter's translation of Appian's The Civil Wars is enjoyable for those of us who read history for pleasure and at the same time provides enough information to be valuable for scholars. This is as good a version of The Civil Wars as you will find, unless you read ancient Greek (or the French translation published by Les Belles Lettres). I recommend it.

Appian's Civil Wars forms the only surviving continuous narrative of the Roman Republic's last century. This is the period typically attributed to the fall of the Republic, and indeed Appian begins his history with the Gracchi, the violence around their tribunates marking, in his view, the origins of constitutional breakdown. That Appian begins with Tiberius Gracchus shows sophistication in discerning underlying historical causes, and an understanding of politics well beyond the narrow realm of great men. The problem is that the period of republican decline is only covered in summary fashion, and most of Appian's work describes what happened after Caesar crossed the Rubicon. Thus the 133-49BC narrative takes all of ninety pages, leaving much unanswered. Indeed, Sallust is probably a more interesting source on the late Republic, if only because he was actually a contemporary (Appian wrote two centuries after the fact; it is most likely the lack of sources that constrained his narrative).

Appian's history, however, is beautifully written (like Sallust's), and is extant on the civil wars up to 35BC. The account of the Ides of March will be of particular interest to many readers. Only one warning to the unwary: the speeches are a standard feature of classical history-writing, but it is generally assumed they are apocryphal. Appian's work also contains inevitable inaccuracies: he has the mob burn down the curia at Caesar's funeral, for example, in revenge upon the site of his murder, but as is implied in earlier chapters, Caesar had been killed in the temple of Venus belonging to Pompey's theatre, where the senate had met that day. This is, nevertheless, a must for anyone interested in the transition from Roman Republic to empire.

This work is the largest surviving piece of Appian's Roman History, and it covers the time from the fall of Gracci through the defeat of Antonius at the hands of Octavian. The book is also the oldest surviving continuous narrative of this era. The book is vivid, even lively at times.

While the speeches are probably apocryphal, the book is filled with a great deal of information about the decline of Rome. Despite the title, the book focuses more on politics than on war. The stories are frequently of political intrigue, capture, murder, escape, etc.

Appian's sympathies are clearly autocratic and authoritarian. He praises Caesar and seems to be unsympathetic with the the more republican figures. He defends the political purges of the Second Triumvirate.

However even for those of us who do not share Appain's political leanings, the book is a very fascinating look into Roman thought and history. The book is extensively footnoted, and the introduction is also quite helpful.

On the whole this is a very important work, and the translation is very good. Highly recommended.

One of the best comprehensive histories of the Roman civil wars. Contains almost everything you want to know and more. A must for any Roman history fan or buff.

Do not buy this unless you absolutely have to for academic purposes, and even then its probably not worth it.