THEODORE MOMMSEN.« 



Bv Emil Reich. 



On November 1 (Sunda}^), at 8.45 in the morning, Mommsen died, 

 and in him the world of erudition has lost one of its very greatest rep- 

 resentatives. It is no exaggeration to say that what Joseph Sealiger 

 was to the world of scholars at the end of the sixteenth and in the 

 beginning of the seventeenth century Mommsen was to all the students 

 of Roman antiquity in our own time. The name "Roman antiquity" 

 must be taken in its widest sense. Mommsen made personal and inde- 

 pendent researches into every aspect of Roman civilization, history, 

 law, and private life. In a series of works, which already in 1887 

 counted 949 numbers, representing 6,8^4 folio pages, 1,402 quarto, 

 and 19,319 octavo pages, the great scholar investigated all the prob- 

 lems of Roman political history, chronology, numismatics, law, reli- 

 gion, etc. In fact, of him it may have been said what with less justice 

 was said of eJustus Lipsius: ""Felicem hominem, qui per ea qure rep- 

 perit qua' disposuit qute scivit, et vixit antequam nasceretur, et ita 

 natus est ut nunquam sit moriturus." 



Mommsen's life was as simple, and with few exceptions as unevent- 

 ful, as that of most scholars. He was born November 30, 1817, at 

 Garding, in the Duchy of Holstein. His father was the vicar of the 

 place and had destined him for the study of philology and law. From 

 1844 to 1847 Mommsen, aided by a stipend from the Berlin Academy, 

 made an extensive archaeological journey through France and Italy. 

 In 1848 he received a call as professor of law to Leipzig. However, 

 on account of his participation in the revolutionary movement of the 

 time, he was dismissed from his post. Two years later, in 1850, he 

 became professor of Roman law at Zurich, and in 1854 he taught 

 Roman law at the University of Breslau. Finally, in 1858, he was 

 appointed professor of ancient history at Berlin. Within a year or 

 two before his death he continued to teach ancient history at the tirst 

 Universit}' of Priissia, and he must, at the lowest calculation, have 



« Reprinted by permission from Monthly Review, London, No. 39, Dec, 1903. 

 pp. 74-84. 



851 



