Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903) was a German historian, and the most influential specialist in ancient Rome of the XIXe century. He is the author of monumental a Roman Histoire and of a Corpus inscriptionum latinarum still updated and updated .

Biography

Born with Garding (the Schleswig-Holstein), wire of Pasteur, Mommsen was born Danish citizen but was always recognized German of origin and heart. He studies 1831 with 1838 with Altona, then at the university of Kiel, where he specializes at the same time in Histoire, Droit and Philologie.
Brillant raises, Mommsen obtains a purse which enables him to travel to France and Italy, last country where its taste and its skill continue to decipher the ancient inscriptions. He works like a navvy of 1845 to 1850 on the dialects of the Southern Italy (Marse, Osque, Messapien, etc), which makes already him a scholar of great scale.

He went on a journey in France and Italy (1844 - 1847), then engaged in the policy, supporting the novel ideas in a local newspaper whereas he teaches the right to Leipzig in 1848. Revoked shortly after because of its liberal opinions, Mommsen teaches some time with Zurich (1852), then with Breslau (1854), and finally with Berlin (1858) where it is in charge of the history in 1861.

Charged by the Prussian Academy with monumental a Corpus inscriptionum latinarum , it does this one today the base, still valid, of any epigraphic research .

This researcher except par, able to control multiple fields, founds by his work and his teaching a historical school which exceeds the German borders. Received by Napoleon III with the Tileries, it is then a recognized celebrity of the ancient history, not only by the Emperor who prepares his Histoire of Jules César (1865), but also by the scientists who support the monarch in this company, of which Victor Duruy then Minister for the State education.

Close relations of the liberal mediums, Mommsen takes part in the political life of its country. He is delighted, in 1870, of the German Unité. Very often qualified the francophobe one, it expressed certainly the greatest contempt for the French policy and this, until its death, which the French scientific community did not forgive him. He was however an admiror of Racine, Musset and of Voltaire. This germanophile was opposed politically to Bismarck, attitude which was worth to him a judgment in a few months of prison. He thus gave up the seat of deputy to the Reichstag in 1882 which he occupied since 1873.

Perpetual secretary of the Academy of Prussia since 1878, it receives in the twilight of his life, in 1902, the Nobel Prize of literature. He devoted himself then only to his work, as a professor with Berlin, and perpetual secretary of the Academy of Science of Prussia. It have sixteen children with his Marie wife of which some died in low age. Its grandchildren Hans and Wolfgang are recognized historians.

Principal works

Theodor Mommsen is a specialist in the ancient history of the 19th century. It rests only on the epigraphy, and leaves side the corpus of legends on the Roman Histoire.

Its Roman public Droit was regarded at the time as a bible, and was included in the Manuel Roman Antiquities of Marquardt;
highly skilled Philologist, it studied the dialects italiotes, and revised the editions of the Latin Agronomes and Pline the Young person;
the Histoire of the Roman currency (1860) is at the same time a coding of the whole of the Roman Monnaie, and a projection in the field combining right, Métrologie, Latin epigraphy and history.
its Roman Histoire (1854 - 1886, 8 volumes) is a monument also admired at the time, but little referred.

The Corpus inscriptionum latinarum

This Recueil of the Latin inscriptions was awaited in many universities, and some had even started work to carry it out. Those, when they did not fall through, led only to partial collections, dispersed, of unequal value. The Academy of Berlin itself had started a compilation of this kind, but by arranging the inscriptions by categories, which required much more labor, a long work of design, difficult discussions, and updates difficult.

Mommsen, at the time of its voyage in Italy, had recopied the whole of the inscriptions of the Royaume of Naples, thinking that it was more relevant to proceed by area, then by locality. It supplemented this census by many detailed tables facilitating research. Its publication had a great success, and its method was greeted by the Academy of Berlin, which charged it with continuing its work.

It directed the publication starting from 1863, writing several volumes itself, following close his collaborators for the others. He died in Charlottenburg before to have completed his task, which was continued and constantly brought up to date since.

With its death, the LASH contained more 100 000 graphic transcriptions of Latin inscriptions. The 16 volumes correspond for 14 of them to an area, except the first, reserved for the inscriptions former to died of Jules César, and sixteenth, devoted to the military diplomas.

It accepted the medal For the Merit and the Nobel Prize of literature in 1902.

His/her brother Auguste Mommsen, was also distinguished in the Archéologie.

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