The Historians' History of the World 04

Ernst Curtius was born at Lübeck, Germany, September 2, 1814; died July 12, 1896. When K. O. Müller undertook that tour of Greece which began so auspiciously and ended so disastrously, he had as an assistant a young German of kindred genius to his own, afterwards to be known perhaps even more widely than himself as an historian of Greece, in the person of Ernst Curtius. The work which Müller was not permitted to complete was carried on by Curtius, who devoted his entire life to the study of classical antiquities as his master had done before him. It was Curtius who, many years later, conceived the idea of making excavations at the famed site of Olympia. Curtius himself, acting as envoy for the German government, secured to that country the monopoly of excavating there. The results of these excavations which Curtius for a time personally conducted are full of importance and interest, and were given to the world in a series of ponderous volumes.

Much of the work of Curtius had this technical character, but the one book through which he became best known, and by which he will probably be longest remembered, was an essentially popular history of Greece—by far the most popular exposition of the subject that has ever been written in Germany. It is a work essentially un-German, so to say, in its plan of execution. It is a condensed running narrative of the events of Grecian history, and, what is strange indeed in a German work, it is quite unmarred by footnotes: notes there are, to be sure, but these are relatively few in number and are placed by themselves at the end of each volume, where they may be easily found by the few who care to seek them out, without marring the interest and distracting the attention of the mass of readers of the text. It is interesting to note that this most delightful and popular history was written at the instance of a publisher as a companion work to Professor Mommsen’s equally famous history of Rome. The similarity of treatment and general identity of plan of these two famous works suggest that the publisher perhaps had no small share in predetermining their character and scope; if so, the world owes him two of the most important histories that have come out of the land of historians.

Professor Curtius’ personal point of view may be described at once as sympathetic and critical; he had the ripest scholarship, and he early imbibed much of Müller’s enthusiasm, but he perhaps brought to his subject a shade more of practicality than his great master. The combination of traits made him almost a perfect historian. As a teacher he was long regarded as one of the most successful in the land of great teachers. Professor Boyesen, in a popular article on the Berlin University, written for an American magazine some years ago, described at some length a seminar of Professor Curtius, and expressed his surprise and admiration at the ease and fluency with which Professor Curtius carried on what might be styled a familiar conversation in classical Latin. Such an incident is far less novel in Germany than it would be in France, or England, or America; for in Germany the student is still taught to speak Latin—after a fashion—in the Gymnasium, and the scholars are not few who learn to handle it with relative ease as a spoken language. In the case of Professor Curtius, then, this mastery of classical languages is perhaps less remarkable than his practical mastery of his mother-tongue; for there are many German professors who can speak Latin fluently where there is one who can write German that anyone who is not a German can read with pleasure.

Curtius, Quintus, De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni, Venice, 1471; The Wars of Alexander (trans. by William Young), London, 1747.

Dahlmann, F. C., Forschungen auf dem Gebiete der Gesch., Altona, 1822-1824.—Daremberg

, C. V., and Saglio, E., Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, Paris, 1873; La Médecine dans Homère, Paris, 1865.—Dares, the Phrygian, Daretis Phrygii de Excidio Trojæ Historia, L’hist. véritable de la guerre des Grecs et des Troyens, faite française par Ch. de Bourgueville, 1893.—Dauban, C. A., Extraits des auteurs anciens sur l’hist. grecque, Paris, 1888.—

Deltour, N. F., Histoire de la littérature grecque, Paris, 1885.—Diodorus, Siculus, Βιβλιοθήκη ἱστορική, edited by L. Dindorf, Leipsic, 1828, 6 vols. The Historical Library, London, 1700.—Diogenes, Laertius, φιλόσοφοι βίοι, edited by H. G. Hübner, Leipsic, 1828, 6 vols.—Lives and Opinions of the Most Eminent Philosophers (trans. by C. D. Yonge), London, 1848.—Dodge

, T. A., Great Captains; History of Origin and Growth of Art of War, Boston, 1890.—Donaldson, J., Modern Greek Grammar, Edinburgh, 1853.—Dragoumes, N., Souvenirs historiques, Paris, 1890.—Droysen, J. G., Geschichte Alexanders des Grossen, Gotha, 1892; Gesch. des Hellenismus, Gotha, 1877-1878.