Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/319

 A P P I A N. according to Charles Stephens, Volaterranus, and Sigonius. Photius tells, there were nine books concerning the civil wars, though there are but rive now extant. This per- formance of his has been charged with many errors and im- perfedtions ; but Photius is of opinion, he wrote with the ut- moft regard to truth, and has (hewn greater knowledge of military affairs than any of the hiftorians; for while we read him, we in a manner fee the battles which he defcribes. But his chief talent (continues that author) is displayed in his orations, in which he moves the paffions as he thinks proper, either in reviving the refolution of thofe who are tco flow, or repreflitig the impetuofity of thofe who are too precipitate. In the preface he gives a general defoription of the Roman empire. He tells us this empire was bounded on the eaft by the river Euphrates, mount Caucafus, the Greater Armenia, and Colchis, and on the north by the Danube ; beyond which, however, he obferves, thjt the Romans poflefied Dacia, as well as feveral other nations beyond the Rhine. They were matters of above half of Britain ; but neglected the reft, as he informs us, becaufe it was of no ufe Co them, and they received but little advantage from what they poflefled. There werefevtral other countries, which coft them more than they gained by them, but they thought it difhonourable to abandon them. This occafioned them to negledt the oppor- tunities of making themfelvcs matters of many other nations, and to fatisfy themfclves with giving them kings, as they did to the Greater Armenia. He afiures us likewife, that he faw at Rome, embafladors from feveral countries of the Bar- barians, who defired to fubmit to the Roman empire, but were rejected by the emperor becaufe they were poor, and confequently no advantages could be expecled from them. Appian. praef. p. 4. Of all this voluminous work there remains only what treats La of the Punic, Syrian, Parthian, Mithridatic, and Spanifh Vayer,p. 9 $. wars, with thofe againft Hannibal, the civil war?, and the wars in Illyricum, and fome fragments of the Celtic or Gallic wars. Appian was publiflied by Henry Stephens, with a Latin verfion, at Geneva 1592, in folio j and by Zol- lius at Amfterdam 1670, in two volumes, 8vo. APROSIO (ANGELICO), born at Ventimiglia, in the re- public of Genoa, 1607, was a man of great reputation among the learned, and wrote feveral books. At fifteen years of age he entered into the order of the Auguftins, where he