Appiānus

, a Greek historian of Alexandria, who flourished A.D. 123. His universal history, which consisted of 24 books, was a series of history of all the nations that had been conquered by the Romans, in the order of time; and in the composition, the writer displayed, with a style simple and unadorned, a great knowledge of military affairs, and described his battles in a masterly manner. This excellent work is greatly mutilated, and there is extant now only the account of the Punic, Syrian, Part hi an, Mithridatic, and Spanish wars, with those of Illyricum and the civil di ensions, with a fragment of the Celtic wars. In his preface, Appian has enlarged on the boundaries of that mighty empire, of which he was the historian. The best editions are those of Tollius and Variorum, 2  vols. , 8vo, Amsterdam, 1670, and that of Schweigheuserus, 3  vols. , 8vo, Lipscomb, 1785. He was so eloquent that the emperor highly promoted him in the state.