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Excerpt from Appian's Roman History, Vol. 1 of 4: With an English Translation The historian, Appian, was a native of Alexandria, Egypt. All that we know about him as an individual is gleaned from his'own writings and from the letters of Fronto, the tutor of Marcus Aurelius. It is sup posed that he was born about a.d. 95 and that he died about a.d. 165. A fragment Of his works found in recent years speaks Of a war against the Jews in Egypt in which he had an adventure. This was probably the war waged by the Emperor Trajan to suppress the Jewish insurrection in that country, a.d. 116. In the preface to his history he says that he reached a high station in his own country and afterwards became a pleader of causes in the court of the emperors at Rome (probably as advocatus fisci) until he was appointed procurator by them. In order to be qualified for the latter Office he must have been a Roman citizen Of equestrian rank. The time of writing the preface is indicated as 900 years from the founding Of the city, which would be during the reign of Antoninus Pius. A letter of Fronto to Antoninus is extant asking the appointment of his friend Appian as procurator, not to gratify his ambi. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.