Theodor Mommsen
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsenwas a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician, archaeologist and writer generally regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century. His work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902 for being "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome", after having been nominated by 18 members of...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionNon-Fiction Author
Date of Birth30 November 1817
CountryGermany
When Sulla died in the year 676, the oligarchy which he had restored ruled with absolute sway over the Roman state; but, as it had been established by force, it still needed force to maintain its ground against its numerous secret and open foes.
To acquire possession of Latium was of the most decisive importance to Etruria, which was separated by the Latins alone from the Volscian towns that were dependent on it and from its possessions in Campania.
The power which the Hellenes and even the Italians possessed, of civilizing and assimilating to themselves the nations susceptible of culture with whom they came into contact, was wholly wanting in the Phoenicians.
The language of the land in the Parthian empire was the native language of Iran. There is no trace pointing to any foreign language having ever been in public use under the Arsacids.
The Dalmatian tribes and the Pannonians, at least of the region of the Save, for a short time obeyed the Roman governors; but they bore the new rule with an ever increasing grudge, above all on account of the taxes, to which they were unaccustomed, and which were relentlessly exacted.
Under the Julian and Claudian emperors, the Parthians seem to have been the leading power at the mouth of the Indus.
The battle of Varus is an enigma, not in a military but in a political point of view - not in its course, but in its consequences.
Marcus Crassus cannot, any more than Pompeius, be reckoned among the unconditional adherents of the oligarchy.
Individual tribes or, in other words, races or stocks, are the constituent elements of the earliest history.
In the Roman commonwealth, even on the conversion of the monarchy into a republic, the old was as far as possible retained.
For a whole generation after the battle of Pydna, the Roman state enjoyed a profound calm, scarcely varied by a ripple here and there on the surface.
About the time of the expulsion of the Tarquins from Rome, the Etruscan power had reached its height.
The history of Rome presents various men of greater genius than Scipio Aemilianus, but none equalling him in moral purity, in the utter absence of political selfishness, in generous love of his country, and none, perhaps, to whom destiny has assigned a more tragic part.
If it was in the interest of Rome to extend her conquests towards the East, and to enter on the inheritance of Alexander the Great there in all its extent, the circumstances were never more favourable for doing so than in the year 716.