MOMMSEN, mom'ze'n (Christian Mat thias) Theodor, German epigraphist and his-, torian: b. Garding, Schleswig, 30 Nov. 1817; d. Charlottenburg, near Berlin, Prussia, 1 Nov. 1903. He was a student of jurisprudence and philology at the University of Kiel; took his Ph.D. in 1842; published with his brother Tycho and his friend Storm a volume of verse which was scathingly condemned by the reviewers (1843) ; began more successfully his career as historian with the treatise (De Collegiis et Sodalitiis Romanorum' (1843), commended for its thoroughness and a clarity of style new to German works of this kind; and in 1844-47 was in France and Italy under commission of the Berlin Academy, collating manuscripts and inscriptions. On his return he edited for a short while the Sch'eswig-Holsteinische Zeitung, and in 1848 became professor of Roman law at Leipzig. He entered politics as an advocate of constitutional progress, was arrested for inciting to revolt, and though acquitted by the courts was deprived of his professorship. From that time he was an eager if not invariably judicious disputant in many political contro versies. He was appointed to the professor ship of Roman law at Zurich in 1852, at Bres lau in 1854; and from 1858 until his death was professor of ancient history in the University of Berlin. In 1873 he was elected perpetual secretary of the Berlin Academy; but this post he resigned in 1895. For 10 years (1873-82) he was a Liberal member of the lower house of the Prussian parliament, where he bitterly at tacked Bismarck's domestic policy. In an elec tion speech at Charlottenburg in 1882 he characterized the Iron Chancellor's tariff meas ures as a ePolitik von Schwindel.' Such bold ness could not go unrebuked, and Mommsen was brought to trial for slander. His ac quittal by both a lower and an appeals court was one of his great triumphs. He sternly advised the Teuton element in Austria in the struggle with the Czechs; made some caustic observations in a North Americas Review article on British treatment of minor nations; to the last was quite as belligerent as ever.
But he was only incidentally the politician. He was pre-eminently what Freeman called greatest scholar of our times, well nigh the greatest scholar of all times' of Historical Study'). He was distinguished as a epigraphist, jurisl,ir atist and logian. None n the 9t en he almost spanned, has, as Freeman goes on to say, in so wide a range of subjects, all brought with the happiest effect to bear upon and to support one another' To the edu cated reader at large he will probably continue to be best known for his (3 vols., 1854-56; 8th ed., 1889), to the battle of
Thapsus; together with Vol. V on the provinces from Cmsar to Diocletian (1885). Volume IV, on Imperial Rome, was unfinished at his death. There are English renderings by W. P. Dickson (Vols. I-III 1862-66; Vol. V 1886). This work opened a new epoch in historiography. Though written with great spontaneity, without even references to original sources, it was based on unrivaled knowledge, and presented its ma terial with extraordinary clearness and at times with brilliancy. It is of course somewhat dogmatic, is certainly unfair to Cicero, and has been blamed, by Freeman among several, for undue glorification of mere power and success. To scholars Mommsen is above all the editor of the great Inscriptionum Latinarum' (1863 et seq.; Vols. I, III, VIII, IX, by him self ; others under his immediate supervision). Every inscription of this monumental collec tion was taken down from the original. The errors and falsities of predecessors were cleared away, and a scientific foundation was supplied for the study of Roman antiquities. Momm sen's preface to the series is said to be thought by critics one of the finest specimens of Latin prose written in modern times. For a com plete list of his writings, Zangemeister's als Schriftsteller' (Heidelberg 1887; new edition by Jacobs, with additions, 1905) should be consulted. Mention may be made of (118misches Miinzweser0 (1850), (Ramische Chronologie (1859) and (Romisches Staatsrecht> (1871-88). All are standard, but the last, particularly, by the breadth and com pleteness of his exposition of the Roman con stitution, places Mommsen among the foremost of constitutional writers. He also edited the Gestm Divi Augusti ex Monumentis Ancyrano et ApolliensP (1865; new ed. 1883); the in Vol. I of the Juris Civilis> (6th ed.,, 1893), and many other pub lications. His library, when partially burned in 1880, was replenished by gifts from foreign scholars. In 1902 he was awarded the Nobel prize in literature. Consult Hirschfeld, O., auf Theodor Mommsen) (1904); Sandys,. E., (A History of Classical Scholarship' (Vol. III, Cambridge 1908); Wachsmuth, C., zum Gedichtniss an Theodor Mommsen> (Leipzig 1904).