In this volume E.-D., who takes over from P. Goukowsky, continues the edition of Appian's Roman History with Book 17. This book corresponds to the fifth tome of the Civil Wars and relates to the events that occurred between the aftermath of the battle of Philippi (42 b.c.) and Sextus Pompeius' death (35 b.c.). This new edition and the French translation are a valuable work, but E.-D. also provides a sizeable introduction (321 pp.), which is a book in itself. This introduction is divided into six parts.

The first part presents the main characteristics of Appian's book, with an overview of the events recounted and some considerations about the place of the book within Appian's Civil Wars – with particular attention to its pivotal role between the civil wars strictly speaking on the one hand and what Appian calls the Αἰγυπτιακά on the other hand, namely the struggle led by Octavian against Marcus Antonius and Cleopatra.

The second chapter is particularly compelling. It deals with the way the late Republican period – especially 42–35 b.c. reported in Book 5 of the Civil Wars – was treated within ancient historiography. E.-D. pays attention successively to Livy (Periochae 125–31), Velleius Paterculus, Florus and Cassius Dio, but what makes this review worthwhile is the continuous comparison with Appian. The chapter ends with a useful table where events are presented in chronological order with reference to Appian and/or Cassius Dio. There is no doubt that this chart will simplify the heuristic research of any scholars studying the Roman Civil Wars.

In the third chapter, which is by far the lengthiest, E.-D. analyses the historical value of Book 5. First she discusses not only the sources used by Appian for each important event, but also his methodology – E.-D. thinks that Appian did not use unique sources successively, but compared multiple sources before writing, and her argument is convincing. E.-D. also briefly points out some weak points, amongst which the most problematic is the lack of precise chronological marks. After this discussion, E.-D. almost exclusively bases her assessment of the historical value of Book 5 on a well-balanced analysis of the characters that play a part in the historical epic painted by Appian. Once again, E.-D. does not content herself with a mere description, but proceeds in a clear and subtle way, assembling a number of quotations (often very short) from the whole book in order to present as accurate a picture of the characters as Appian's text allows. The first section is, as expected, dedicated to the triumviri and E.-D. shows how Appian presents these three powerful men with relative equity and without being overly influenced by the clichés spread by Augustan propaganda, especially concerning Marcus Antonius in Egypt. E.-D. devotes the second section to the two great rivals of the triumviri, Lucius Antonius – Marcus's brother, who fought against Octavian during the Perusian War, which described in much more detail by Appian than by other historians – and Sextus Pompeius – whom Appian, unlike other ancient historians, does not confine himself to presenting as the opposite of his father; he also shows, not explicitly but in suggestive outline, some relevant reasons why he was for a time so successful against Octavian. The influence of gender history is marked in the third section, where the reader will find some exclusively feminine characters. Cleopatra, whose importance is undeniable, is presented alongside Fulvia (Marcus Antonius' wife) and Octavia, women who play an admittedly noteworthy but less salient part within Appian's account. The fourth and last section is quite interesting as its main subject is not individuals but collective characters such as people, army, freedmen and slaves. This section allows E.-D. to highlight the social dimension that Appian obviously inserted into his account. The argument is well balanced and displays a sound knowledge of Appian's work.

Chapter 4 briefly looks at the historiographical principles that Appian would have followed and models that could have influenced him in his writing. E.-D. goes back over the possible imitation of the siege of Alesia in Caesar's Bellum Gallicum as inspiration for the siege of Perusia in Appian, but she concludes there is no obvious link between these two accounts and her argument seems convincing. E.-D. prefers to compare the Cornificius retreat in Sicily (BC 5.113–15) and that of Nicias related by Thucydides (7.75–86). One section also deals with naval actions, the descriptions of which are made up of a number of topoi and are tinged with rhetoric. E.-D. finally goes through various other topoi used by Appian in the descriptions of extraordinary events, such as the volcanic activity of Etna and above all the storms.

After this historical and historiographical analysis, the last chapter presents the manuscripts and the principles of the edition. A particularly notable point is that this edition is based on two ‘new’ manuscripts of which the previous editors were unaware (White's translation, revised by Robinson in LCL, relies on the text edited by Mendelssohn and amended by Viereck [Teubner]). The first of these manuscripts is Laurentianus LXX-5 (abbreviated L), copied around the third quarter of the fourteenth century. As the stemma codicorum shows, L would have been at the origin of most of the preserved manuscripts, including Laurentianus LXX-33. The other new manuscript used in this edition is Vaticanus Graecus 2156, initially kept in Perugia and dating from the mid-fifteenth century. It belongs to a branch parallel to that of L, like B (Marc. Gr. 387) and J (Vat. Gr. 134) but separate from them. The edition, mainly based on these four primary manuscripts, is rigorous, with clear and detailed explanation of the editor's choices in each important situation illustrated with a number of concrete examples. Within the text itself, an apparatus criticus in the footnotes clearly states the variant readings found in the manuscripts or suggested by other editors. The French translation that faces the text is pleasant while being rather close to the structure of the Greek text, which can nevertheless be very helpful in some circumstances. Finally a great number of notes at the end of the book shed appreciable light on the text, editorial choices and the historical background. E.-D. confesses here to the influence of Gabba's commentary on Book 5, and indeed it is perceptible.

The volume is well-done, the result of long and serious work, with a valuable new edition integrating readings from two new important manuscripts, a clear and thorough French translation and a sizeable introduction, which considerably improves the understanding of Appian's text. In short, it is a volume to which anyone carrying on research on Appian's work and/or the Roman civil wars should refer.