Alexander Demandt – författare

This book caused a sensation when it was published in Germany in 1992, and was front page news in many newspapers. For readers of English, it will be an authoritative survey of four centuries of Roman history, and a unique window on the German tradition of the last century.Theodor Mommsen (d. 1903) was one of the greatest Roman historians of the nineteenth century, and the only one ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His fame rests on his History of Rome as well as his work on Roman law and on the Roman provinces. But the work that would have concluded his history of Rome - which ran to the reign of Augustus - was never completed. This book represents that great lost work.In 1980 Alexander Demandt discovered in an antiquarian bookshop a full and detailed handwritten transcript of the lectures on the Roman Empire, which Mommsen gave for many years from 1863 to 1886, made by two of his students. This transcript has been edited to provide the authoritative reconstruction of the book Mommsen never wrote, A History of Rome Under the Emperors.Barbara and Alexander Demandt have carefully edited the text and provided detailed annotation and explanatory references. For the English edition, Professor Thomas Wiedemann has written an introduction which surveys Mommsen''s position and influence in nineteenth century German scholarship and introduces his work for English speaking readers.

This book caused a sensation when it was published in Germany in 1992, and was front page news in many newspapers. For readers of English, it will be an authoritative survey of four centuries of Roman history, and a unique window on the German tradition of the last century.Theodor Mommsen (d. 1903) was one of the greatest Roman historians of the nineteenth century, and the only one ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His fame rests on his History of Rome as well as his work on Roman law and on the Roman provinces. But the work that would have concluded his history of Rome - which ran to the reign of Augustus - was never completed. This book represents that great lost work.In 1980 Alexander Demandt discovered in an antiquarian bookshop a full and detailed handwritten transcript of the lectures on the Roman Empire, which Mommsen gave for many years from 1863 to 1886, made by two of his students. This transcript has been edited to provide the authoritative reconstruction of the book Mommsen never wrote, A History of Rome Under the Emperors.Barbara and Alexander Demandt have carefully edited the text and provided detailed annotation and explanatory references. For the English edition, Professor Thomas Wiedemann has written an introduction which surveys Mommsen''s position and influence in nineteenth century German scholarship and introduces his work for English speaking readers.

Die Auflösung des Römischen Reiches und das Ende der antiken Kultur bilden die tiefste Krise der europäischen Geschichte. Sie hat immer wieder zu Erklärungsversuchen und zu Parallelisierungen mit der eigenen Gegenwart geführt. Die vorgelegten Aufsätze thematisieren wesentliche Aspekte der politischen, kulturellen und militärischen Geschichte der Spätantike vom ausgehenden 4. bis zum frühen 6. Jahrhundert. Behandelt werden Fragen der Chronologie, der Prosopographie und der Institutionen sowie Fragen der Rezeption und der Wissenschaftsgeschichte. Einen eigenen Schwerpunkt bilden die Rolle der Germanen und ihr Verhältnis zu Rom. Der Anhang bietet ein Gesamtverzeichnis der Schriften des Autors zur Spätantike seit 1965.

Theodor Mommsen, who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902 for his “Roman History” is one of the outstanding German historians of all time. His scholarship is as impressive as it is seminal, and is appreciated even today: every path in Roman historical studies leads to him. However, Mommsen’s importance is not limited to his work as an historian and organiser of historical research; as a convinced liberal, he also took an energetic part in political affairs of his time.

The present volume contains lectures delivered by renowned scholars from Germany, Italy and Norway at the Free University of Berlin to mark the 100th anniversary of Mommsen’s death on 1st November 2003. The authors pay tribute to the various aspects of Mommsen''s personality and work – from his scholarly achievements to his political commitment and his private life and the verdict of posterity – and thus provide a vivid and multi-facetted picture of this great scholar and his age.