The Life of Appian

Abstract

This chapter collects and analyses the evidence for the biography of Appian. It considers in turn the three main sources of this evidence: letters which the second century ce intellectual Cornelius Fronto wrote concerning and to someone called ‘Appian’; a second century ce epitaph on a sarcophagus in Rome written by a man called ‘Appian’ for himself and his wife, Eutukhia; and what the historian Appian says about himself, primarily in the Preface to the Roman History, but also in scattered remarks throughout it. A plausible picture emerges, of an affluent man, married but childless, born towards the end of the first century ce, who attained eminence in Alexandria, was caught up in the Jewish uprising of the 110s, argued cases at Rome ‘before the emperors’, received an honorary procuratorship with Fronto’s help, and was a priest of Rome and Venus at Rome. In addition, it argues that Appian’s self-revelation in the Roman History, with greater detail about both himself and Alexandria emerging as the Preface progresses, is a deliberate strategy to suggest affinities between himself and his home town, and to emphasize key moments later in the History.