Definition: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was born on November 30, 1817, at Garding / Schleswig, and died in Berlin on November 1, 1903. Typifying the expression "German scholar," Mommsen wrote authoritative works in ancient Roman history and related fields.
He wrote a history of Roman financial systems in 1860, published
- 3 volumes of Die Römische Geschichte 'The Roman History' between 1854-56,
- Römisches Staatsrecht 'Roman Law of States', in 3 volumes, between 1871 and 1888,
- Römisches Strafrecht 'Roman Penal Law' in 1899 and
- worked on the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum 'Body of Latin Inscriptions' (CIL) the authoritative work on Roman epigraphy (inscriptions), making its focus archaeological/historical rather than philolological/textual.
In 1902 Mommsen won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Main source: Theodor Mommsen.
