Appian´s Keltike. Introd., text, transl. and commentary

Appians Celtic History (Keltiké), the fourth book of his twenty-four books of Roman History, deals with the military conflicts between Romans and Celts, beginning with the attack of the Celts under Brennus on Rome until the conquest of Gaul by Caesar. Although the work is only fragmentarily preserved, we have anyhow a longer epitome of the whole book, composed by an unknown Byzantine author, as well as twenty-five fragments, which have been transmitted by the Excerpta Constantiniana, the Suda and the grammatical treatise perì syntxeos. Despite its fragmentary state, the Keltiké is an important and valuable source for the history of the Celts as well as of the Roman Republic, as it offers various information documented nowhere else or significantly different to those traditions attested by other authors, since Appian has used now largely lost historians for his account. All the astonishing is that there has been no commentary published to the Keltiké so far, which might also explain why Appians Celtic History is recognized by few experts and is highly neglected even in ancient history research. The aim of the publication at hand is to resolve this deficit: After a short introduction, which informs about the structure of the work and its methodological principles, the formal commentary follows, in which for each individual fragment the Greek text and its German translation is offered. Subsequently, an in-depth analysis is made, which evaluates the individual testimonia in a cross-disciplinary manner and at the latest state of research: Not only the tradition for each fragment is discussed in detail, for which the peculiarities and the working methods of the different Byzantine excerptors were carefully examined, but also the very controversially negotiated question of Appians sources. Furthermore, the historical context in which the respective fragment belongs is presented, for which the entire parallel tradition had to be used. The coincidences as well as the deviations from the rest of the literary evidence were elaborated, which allowed a better determination of Appians position within the historiographical traditions. Finally, conjectures about the content of the last parts of the Keltiké are given in several places. The present commentary fulfils a desideratum of research about Appian and closes a gap in academic work on this author. Research on the Roman Republic and on the ancient Celts as well can benefit from this work as it makes a little regarded source accessible.