A history with holes in it
Appian of Alexandria wrote a 24-book history of Rome in Greek before his death in the second century. Only about half of that work survives intact.
Among the survivors are five books known as The Civil Wars. They follow the Roman Republic through the conflicts of Marius and Sulla, Caesar and Pompey, and the Second Triumvirate.
Why the missing books matter
Historical evidence is not a complete recording. What survives can depend on copying, storage, war, fire, fashion, and chance. A missing book can change not only what we know, but which questions we are able to ask.
So here is the question: if you could recover one lost work from history, which would it be?
Sources
- Appian, Roman History and The Civil Wars
- Biographical and bibliographical overview: Encyclopaedia Britannica and public-domain classical reference works
This page is a starting point. A source-reviewed long version will replace these notes as the episode develops.