ON THE TRAINING OF HISTORIANS: Mommsen

Abstract

[Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903), jurist, epigrapher, and historian, made incomparable contributions to the study of Roman history. Universally acclaimed for his History of Rome (3 vols., 1854–1856 plus a fifth volume on the Roman Provinces from Augustus to Diocletian 1885)1 his more specialized work included a history of Roman coinage (1860) and a monumental treatise on Roman Public Law (Römisches Staatsrecht, 3 vols., 1871–1876). He originated, supervised, and contributed to the Corpus inscriptionum Latinorum, a collection of all the known Roman inscriptions. The bibliography of his own works listed 1,500 items. Mommsen’s History exceeded in scope and scholarship anything that had been done before: using a variety of sources, including inscriptions, laws, and coins, he reconstructed the history of the Roman Republic from its origins to the reign of Caesar. Mommsen’s History was a literary masterpiece as well, and in 1902 he received the Nobel Prize. His frequent allusions in this work to the contemporary scene—to Junkers, journalists, and proletariat, for example—and his undisguised admiration of Caesar whom he depicted as a democratic leader, attested his intense involvement in German politics, his hope for a liberal Germany.