Theodor Mommsen

Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was born 30 November 1817 in Germany and trained as a jurist before pivoting to classical scholarship. His multi-volume The History of Rome became the work that defined him: rigorous, expansive, and readable enough that 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences nominated him for the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he won in 1902. Beyond the archive, he served in both the Prussian and German parliaments and wrote extensively on Roman law, shaping the German civil code in the process. He worked as archaeologist, journalist, and historian until his death o…