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The History of Rome (Ger: Römische Geschichte) is a multi-volume history of ancient Rome written by Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903).^[1] "The Roman History made Mommsen famous in a day."^[2] Eventually it earned him the Nobel Prize.

[edit] Publication

The History followed Mommsen's early achievements in the study of ancient Rome. He gave a public lecture on the Gracchi at Leipzig in 1850. Afterwards he was approached by the publishers Karl Reimer and Solomon Hirzel, who invited him to write on Roman history. The publishers specified that the work focus on events and circumstances, and avoid discussing the scholarly process. "It is high time for such a work," Mommsen wrote to an associate in Roman studies, "it is more than ever necessary to present to a wider audience the results of our researches."^[3]^[4]

Originally the History was conceived as a five volume work, spanning Roman history from its inception to the emperor Diocletian (284-305). The first three volumes, covering the origin of Rome to the end of the Republic, and the death of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., were published in 1854, 1855, and 1856.^[5]^[6]

A planned fourth volume covering Roman history under the Empire was delayed pending concurrent work on Roman inscriptions; however, the projected fourth volume was abandoned before completion, its manuscript apparently lost in a fire. Nota Bene: Recently a History of Rome under the Emperors by Mommsen became available, it being a reconstruction by Alexander Demandt based on notes taken of university lectures delivered by Prof. Mommsen during the 1880s, by two of his students.^[7]

In 1885 Mommsen produced a further work, translated as The Provinces of the Roman Empire, which was published in Germany as the fifth volume of the Römische Geschichte.

[edit] English Translations

The contemporary English translations were the work of Dr. William Purdie Dickson, a divinity professor at the University of Glasgow. The first three German volumes were published in 1862-1866 by R. Bentley & Son, London.^[8] Several English editions of this translation followed.^[9] Dickson's translation of Mommsen's The Provinces of the Roman Empire. From Caesar to Diocletian appeared in 1886.^[10]

Selections from the History, made in order to highlight Mommsen's sequential depiction of the prolonged social-political conflicts leading to the fall of the Roman Republic,^[11] were prepared by Dero A. Saunders and John H. Collins for a new English version in 1958. With further annotations and a revised translation, the book presents an abridgment of Mommsen's celebrated work, with rigor, sustaining the political drama and its implications.^[12]^[13]

[edit] Critical Commentary

The work won immediate, widespread acclaim, but the praise it drew was not unanimous. "While the public welcomed the book with delight and scholars testified to its impeccable erudition, some specialists were annoyed at finding old hypotheses rejected... ."^[14] There were academics who disapproved of its tone. "It was indeed the work of a politician and journalist as well as of a scholar." Before writing the History, Mommsen had participated in the unrest of 1848 in Germany, during a year of European-wide revolts; at this time he had also worked editing a periodical. Later Mommsen became a member of the Prussian legislature and eventually of the Reichstag.^[15]

About his modernist tone, Mommsen wrote: "I wanted to bring down the ancients from the fantastic pedestal on which they appear into the real world. That is why the consul had to become the burgomaster." As to his partisanship, Mommsen replied: "Those who have lived through historical events... see that history is neither written nor made without love and hate." To the challenge that he favored the political career of Julius Caesar, Mommsen referred to the corruption and disfunction of the tottering Republic: "When a Government cannot govern, it ceases to be legitimate, and he who has the power to overthrow it has also the right." He further clarified, stating the Caesar's role must be considered as the lesser of two evils. As an organism is better than a machine "so is every imperfect constitution which gives room for the free self-determination of a majority of citizens infinitely [better] than the most humane and wonderful absolutism; for one is living, and the other is dead." Thus, the Empire would only hold together a tree without sap.^[16]

Mommsen's work continues to attract a refined and popular readership. In their introduction Saunders and Collins express their admiration for Mommsen and his contribution to the study of ancient Roman history:

"Theodor Mommsen (1817-1903) was the greatest classical historian of his century or of ours. His only rival in any century was Edward Gibbon, whose monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire complements rather than competes with Mommsen's superb description of the Roman republic."^[17]

G. P. Gooch gives us these comments evaluating Mommsen's History: "Its sureness of touch, its many-sided knowledge, its throbbing vitality and the Venetian colouring of its portraits left an ineffaceable impression on every reader." "It was a work of genius and passion, the creation of a young man, and is as fresh and vital to-day as when it was written."^[18]

[edit] Abstract of Contents

With exceptions, the three volumes (in five books) of Mommsen's History of Rome give a strait chronological narration of historic events and circumstances.^[19] Mommsen carefully infers reasons and implications of the actions taken, and provides insights into the evolving conditions that surround the protagonists.

Book I, Roman origins and the Monarchy;
Book II, the Republic until the Union of Italy;
Book III, the Punic Wars and the East;
Book IV, the Gracchi, Marius, Drusus, and Sulla;
Book V, the Civil Wars and Julius Caesar.

The exceptions are the periodic digressions in his narrative, where Mommsen inserts separate chapters devoted to particular subjects, for example: "The Original Constitution of Rome" (Book I, Chapter 5); "Law and Justice" (I, 11); "Religion" (I, 12); "Agriculture, Trade, Commerce" (I, 13); "Law - Religion - Military System - Economic Condition - Nationality" (II, 8); "Art and Science" (II, 9); "Carthage" (III, 1); "The Government and the Governed" (III, 11); "The Management of Land and Capital" (III, 12), "Faith and Manners" (III, 13); "Literature and Art" (III, 14); "The Commonwealth and its Economy" (IV, 11); "Nationality, Religion, Education" (IV, 12); "Religion, Culture, Literature, and Art" (V, 12). Mommsen's expertise in Roman studies was acknowledged by his peers as being both wide and deep, e.g., his multivolume Römisches Staatsrecht on the jurisprudence and constitutional history of Rome.

The Provinces of the Roman Empire contains thirteen chapters, being on the following areas: Northern Italy, Spain, Gaul, Germany, Britain, the Danube, Greece, Asia Minor, the Euphrates and Parthia, Syria and the Nabataeans, Judaea, Egypt, and the Africa provinces. A quarter of the way into his short "Introduction" to the Provinces Mommsen comments on the decline of Rome, the capital city: "The Roman state of this epoch resembles a mighty tree, the main stem of which, in the course of its decay, is surrounded by vigorous offshoots pushing their way upward."^[20] These shoots being the provinces he here describes.

[edit] Nobel Prize

In 1902 Theodor Mommsen became the second person to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This well-known recognition was given him with "special reference" to the Römisches Geschichte (History of Rome). The commendation called him "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing."^[21]

One encyclopaedic reference summarizes: "Equally great as antiquary, jurist, political and social historian, Mommsen [had] no rivals. He combined the power of minute investigation with a singular faculty for bold generalization... ."^[22] About the History of Rome the universal historian Arnold J. Toynbee writes, "Mommsen wrote a great book, which certainly will always be reckoned among the masterpieces of Western historical literature."^[23]

[edit] Reference Notes

^ First published by Reimer & Hirsel, Leipzig, starting in 1854.
^ G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (London: Longmans, Green 1913, 4th impr. 1928) at 456.
^ Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (1913, 1928) at 456, and quoting Mommsen.
^ Sauders and Collins, "Introduction" at 1-17, 5-6, to their edition of Mommsen, History of Rome (New Haven: Meridian Books 1958).
^ Although published in three volumes, this part of the History Mommsen organized into five "books".
^ Subsequently, these three volumes, which soon became popular, were kept in print by eight German editions.
^ Published by Routledge, London, 1992.
^ Dickson's translation of Mommsen's first three volumes were published in four English volumes.
^ Dickson, "Preface by the Translator" at viii, in the 1995 English edition.
^ Translation later revised by F. Haverfield circa 1909.
^ Selected from Mommsen's Book IV and Book V. History of Rome. An account of events and persons from the conquest of Carthage to the end of the Republic (New Haven: Meridian Books 1958).
^ Concerning his writing about this period of Rome: "Mommsen reaches full stride with Marius and Sulla, and portrays the dying struggles of the Republic with incomparable power and brilliance." Gooch (1913, 1928) at 456.
^ Saunders and Collins state that in several areas Mommsen's work has become misleading: the ethnic origins of the earliest history of Rome; and the Roman party system during the late Republic. History of Rome (1958), "Introduction" at 13, and at 8. They discuss their abridgement and their revision of the translation, "Introduction" (1958), at 12-15 and 15-16.
^ Mommsen omits much of the foundation legends and other tales of early Rome, preferring events known from ancient historians or inscriptions, or by modern archeology.
^ Gooch, History and Historians of the Nineteenth Century (1913, 1928) at 456-457, 455, 464-465.
^ Gooch, History and Historians (1913, 1928) at 457-458, quoting Mommsen the four times.
^ Mommsen, History of Rome (New Haven: Meridian Books 1958), edited by Saunders and Collins, at 2.
^ History and Historians (1913, 1928) at 456 and 458.
^ To mark the date in his History Mommsen uses the ancient Roman calendar, which was based on the accepted date for the founding of the city of Rome, i.e., 753 B.C. Some editions give such dates in our Gregorian calendar as well.
^ Mommsen, The Province of the Roman Empire (London: Macmillan 1909) at 4-5.
^ [1]
^ Encyclopaedia Britannica, cited by Saunders and Collins, "Introduction" at 2, to Mommsen, History of Rome (1958).
^ Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, volume one (Oxford University 1934, 2d ed. 1935, 1962) at I: 3.

[edit] External links

[0] First published by Reimer & Hirsel, Leipzig, starting in 1854.

[1] G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (London: Longmans, Green 1913, 4th impr. 1928) at 456.

[2] Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century (1913, 1928) at 456, and quoting Mommsen.

[3] Sauders and Collins, "Introduction" at 1-17, 5-6, to their edition of Mommsen, History of Rome (New Haven: Meridian Books 1958).

[4] Although published in three volumes, this part of the History Mommsen organized into five "books".

[5] Subsequently, these three volumes, which soon became popular, were kept in print by eight German editions.

[6] Published by Routledge, London, 1992.

[7] Dickson's translation of Mommsen's first three volumes were published in four English volumes.

[8] Dickson, "Preface by the Translator" at viii, in the 1995 English edition.

[9] Translation later revised by F. Haverfield circa 1909.

[10] Selected from Mommsen's Book IV and Book V. History of Rome. An account of events and persons from the conquest of Carthage to the end of the Republic (New Haven: Meridian Books 1958).

[11] Concerning his writing about this period of Rome: "Mommsen reaches full stride with Marius and Sulla, and portrays the dying struggles of the Republic with incomparable power and brilliance." Gooch (1913, 1928) at 456.

[12] Saunders and Collins state that in several areas Mommsen's work has become misleading: the ethnic origins of the earliest history of Rome; and the Roman party system during the late Republic. History of Rome (1958), "Introduction" at 13, and at 8. They discuss their abridgement and their revision of the translation, "Introduction" (1958), at 12-15 and 15-16.

[13] Mommsen omits much of the foundation legends and other tales of early Rome, preferring events known from ancient historians or inscriptions, or by modern archeology.

[14] Gooch, History and Historians of the Nineteenth Century (1913, 1928) at 456-457, 455, 464-465.

[15] Gooch, History and Historians (1913, 1928) at 457-458, quoting Mommsen the four times.

[16] Mommsen, History of Rome (New Haven: Meridian Books 1958), edited by Saunders and Collins, at 2.

[17] History and Historians (1913, 1928) at 456 and 458.

[18] To mark the date in his History Mommsen uses the ancient Roman calendar, which was based on the accepted date for the founding of the city of Rome, i.e., 753 B.C. Some editions give such dates in our Gregorian calendar as well.

[19] Mommsen, The Province of the Roman Empire (London: Macmillan 1909) at 4-5.

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[21] Encyclopaedia Britannica, cited by Saunders and Collins, "Introduction" at 2, to Mommsen, History of Rome (1958).

[22] Arnold J. Toynbee, A Study of History, volume one (Oxford University 1934, 2d ed. 1935, 1962) at I: 3.

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