CURTIUS, ERNST (1814-1896), German archaeologist and historian, was born at Lubeck on Sept. 2, After travel ling in Greece he became, in 5844, an extraordinary professor at the University of Berlin, and in the same year was appointed tutor to Prince Frederick William (afterwards the Emperor Frederick III.)—a post which he held till 185o. In 1874 he concluded an agreement by which the excavations at Olympia (q.v.) were en trusted exclusively to Germany. Curtius died at Berlin on July I I, 1896.
His best-known work is his History of Greece (18J7-67, 6th ed. 1887-88; Eng. tran. by A. W. Ward, 1868-73) now superseded (see GREECE: History, Ancient, § Bibliography) . His other writings are chiefly archaeological. The most important are: Die Akropolis von Athen (1844) ; Naxos (1846) ; Peloponnesos, eine historisch-geograph ische Beschreibung der Halbinsel (1851) ; Olympia (1852) ; Die lonier vor der ionischen Wanderung (1855) ; Attische Studien (1862 65) ; Ephesos (1874) . His collected speeches and lectures were pub lished under the title of Altertum and Gegenwart (5th ed. 1903 et seq.). A full list of his writings will be found in L. Gurlitt, Erinnerungen an Ernst Curtius (1902) ; see also article by O. Kern in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xlvii. (1903) , to which may be added F. Curtius, Ernst Curtius, ein Lebensbild in Brie/en (19o3) ; T. Hodgkin, Ernst Curtius (19o5) .
His brother, GEORG CURTIUS (1820-1885), philologist, was born at Lubeck on April 16, 182o. He held philological appoint ments at Prague, Kiel and Leipzig. He died at Hermsdorf on Aug. 12, 1885. His philological theories exercised a widespread in fluence. The more important of his publications are : Die Sprach vergleichung in ihrem V erhaltniss zur classischen Philologie (1845 ; Eng. tran. by F. H. Trithen, 1851) ; Sprachvergleichende Beitrage zur griechischen and lateinischen Grammatik (1846) ; Grundziige der griechischen Etymologie (1858-62, 5th ed. 1879); Das Verbum der griechischen Sprache (18 7 3 ). The last two works have been translated into English by A. S. Wilkins and E. B. England. From 1878 till his death Curtius was general editor of the Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie. His Griechische Schulgrammatik, first published in 1852, has passed through more than 20 editions, and has been edited in English. In his last work, Zur Kritik der neuesten Sprach f orschung (1885), he attacks the views of the "new" school of philology.