András (Andreas) Ede Zsigmond Alföldi (27 August 1895 – 12 February 1981) was a Hungarian historian,
art historian
Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...
,
epigraphist
Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
,
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist in numismatics ("of coins"; from Late Latin ''numismatis'', genitive of ''numisma''). Numismatists include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholars who use coins and other currency in object-based research. Altho ...
and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
, specializing in the
Late Antique
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English has ...
period. He was one of the most productive 20th-century
scholars
A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher ...
of the
ancient world
Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cove ...
and is considered one of the leading researchers of his time. Although some of his research results are controversial, his work in several areas is viewed as groundbreaking.
Professor Alföldi contributed significantly to the massive ''
Cambridge Ancient History
''The Cambridge Ancient History'' is a multi-volume work of ancient history from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press. The first series, consisting of 12 volumes, was planned in 1919 by Irish historian J. B. Bury ...
'', including Vol. 12: The Imperial Crisis and Recovery. He became a professor at the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
in 1955.
Life and career
The son of a doctor, Alföldi was born in 1895 in the
Austro-Hungarian empire
Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...
. Although the family finances were damaged after the death of his father in 1910, Alföldi was able to begin his studies of classical history after his graduation from high school. His first area of interest was in classical numismatics, which at the time was a neglected area of study in Hungary.
Like many middle class young men of his age, Alföldi participated in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He was a highly decorated soldier, and after sustaining a severe injury, he was dismissed from the military in 1917. In later years he looked back on his service with pride and he retained an interest in military and strategic subjects throughout his life.
The
Treaty of Trianon
The Treaty of Trianon (french: Traité de Trianon, hu, Trianoni békeszerződés, it, Trattato del Trianon) was prepared at the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace Conference and was signed in the Grand Trianon château in ...
, which officially ended the war in Hungary and established its borders, was perceived as a humiliation to the country. This strengthened Alföldi's interest in regional history. In the aftermath of World War I, national ties and boundaries that had been established over hundreds of years were dissolved and rebuilt. As was not uncommon in the years between the wars, archeology served to strengthen national identity.
In 1923, Alföldi was appointed chair of Ancient History at the
University of Debrecen
ThUniversity of Debrecen( hu, Debreceni Egyetem) is a university located in Debrecen, Hungary. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest continuously operating institution of higher education in Hungary ever since its ...
. In 1930, he was appointed to a prestigious chair at the
University of Budapest
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...
. Over the next 15 years Alföldi shaped the field of ancient history and archeology in Hungary, and was also recognized as an outstanding scholar by the international community. His work transformed the Danube and Carpathian regions into some of the most thoroughly researched areas of the former
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...
. Particular areas of interest were the Roman Empire's
Crisis of the Third Century
The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensi ...
, the history and culture of
Eurasian
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago ...
herders and horsemen and the imagery and representation of
Roman emperors in late antiquity.
Alföldi's work was not interrupted by the
second world war
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, but the post-war influence of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
over the
Hungarian state
) was a short-lived state that existed for 4 months in the last phase of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848–49.
Constitutional tensions between the Hungarian parliament and Franz Joseph
On 2 December 1848 Ferdinand V of Hungary "abdicated" in fav ...
put an end to his research. He emigrated to Switzerland in 1947. Although most of his research materials remained behind in Budapest, the continued to contribute to the field of classical studies and archaeology. He was awarded the
medal of the Royal Numismatic Society The Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society was first awarded in 1883. It is awarded by the Royal Numismatic Society and is one of the highest markers of recognition given to numismatists. The President and Council award the Medal annually to an "indi ...
in 1953.
In 1956, Alföldi accepted a position in the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...
's School of Historical Studies. The position afforded better pay and more opportunities for travel, and Alföldi would continue to work on projects at Princeton even after his retirement. While at Princeton, he married his second wife,
Elisabeth Alföldi-Rosenbaum
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sc ...
, who was also a classical scholar and art historian.
After emigrating, Alföldi expanded his areas of research into early Roman history and the eventual demise of the empire. In Alföldi's obituary,
Géza Alföldy
Géza Alföldy (June 7, 1935 – November 6, 2011) was a Hungarian historian of ancient history.
Life
Géza Alföldy was born in Budapest. He studied at the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Budapest from 1953 to 1958, where he in ...
said: "He illuminated the history of Rome from the beginning to end like no other scholar in this century."
Work
Early Rome
In Afoldi's opinion, the importance of Rome in the Etruscan period was far less than was later portrayed. He attempted to compare the oldest structures of the Roman state with the Eurasian horsemen and herdsmen. Although his theories were not received with a wholly positive response, even his critics recognized the originality of his arguments. In addition to archeological and later literary sources, he employed the methods of comparative religion in his work.
The fall of the Roman Republic
Alföldi's work regarding the downfall of the Roman Republic was marked by his thesis that
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, and ...
intended to establish a monarchy along the old Roman pattern. He believed that he found evidence that confirmed this theory in the coinage of the year 44BC. Alföldi defended Caesar in this. Like
Theodor Mommsen
Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th cent ...
, Alföldi was fascinated by the personality of Caesar and disappointed by the “opportunism” of
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the estab ...
. Although he saw Cicero as the ideological instigator of Caesar's murder, he also considered Cicero to be an artist of nature. The murder of Caesar attested to the blindness and scrupulousness of the senatorial oligarchy, which in turn no way supported a republican order. In his eyes, the outrage against Caesar arose from the conflict between the Greek-influenced upper class, and with Caesar, who bore the stamp of the native Roman tradition.
He based his work on Octavian's rise primarily on literary sources. Here he highlighted not only the emotional and religious grounds for Octavian's approach after Caesar's death, but also the underlying tangible economic aspects.
Study of the Roman Empire
“The Design of the Monarchical Ceremony at the Roman Imperial Court” (1934 ) and “Insignia and Costume of the Roman Empire” (1935) mark the pinnacle of Alföldi's work. In these two essays he describes both the religious foundations as well as the continuous development and official expressions of Roman rulers’ ideology. In these articles Alföldi again connects numismatic, literary, epigraphic, and archaeological studies. His understanding of the ancient imagery and of their abstraction to small coin designs was particularly praised. These studies provided a basis for further exploration of the world of ideas and representation within the empire.
In the absence of comprehensive written sources for Roman history in the middle and the second half of the 3rd Century, in the time of the so-called imperial crisis, Alföldi once again approached his research on the basis of numismatic sources. He reviewed great collections of material from this time. His investigation of the
Siscia mintmark
A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It should not be confused with a mintmaster mark which is the mark of the mintmaster.
History
Mint marks were first developed to locate ...
proved particularly important. Based on the coins he studied, Alföldi a worked out a new chronology of this period in Roman history. Among his new findings was that during the period of
soldier-emperors, many
Pannonia
Pannonia (, ) was a province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia. Pannonia was located in the territory that is now wes ...
ns held some of the highest positions in the empire. In addition, he presented
Gallienus
Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus (; c. 218 – September 268) was Roman emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260 and alone from 260 to 268. He ruled during the Crisis of the Third Century that nearly caused the collapse of the empi ...
as a great Roman emperor, which was different point of view from that hitherto presented by historical research.
Late Antiquity
Alföldi also made noteworthy contributions to the study of late antiquity and here again he made particular use of numismatic sources. Of particular importance was the cataloging of the so-called
Contorniate
A contorniate, or contourniate, is a type of ancient Roman medal or medallion of bronze issued in the fourth and fifth centuries CE, having a deep furrow on the contour or edge, as if the object had been turned in a lathe. The extant contorniat ...
coins, which opened up a new, hitherto almost unknown source, especially for the history of ideas of the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The coins had been almost totally misunderstood before his work.
[Ritoók, Zsigmond. (1997]
"The contribution of Hungary to international classical scholarship"
''Hungarian Studies'', 12
Archived here.
/ref> This research took place during the second World War, which makes the achievement particularly noteworthy. Despite the turmoil of war Alföldi was able to obtain the materials he needed from the different museums of Europe.
What most interested Alföldi in the study of late antiquity, however, was the era between Constantine I
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
and the victory of Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
over paganism
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
. His work “A Festival of Isis in Rome under the Christian Emperors of the IVth Century” (Budapest 1937), in which he writes about a festival honoring the goddess Isis
Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kingd ...
in Rome at the time of Christian emperors of the 4th century, is considered outstanding. Also his annual organization of an international colloquium to the Historia Augusta
The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, designated heirs and usurpers from 117 to 284. Supposedly modeled on the sim ...
, which was held on a regular basis for 20 years, contributed greatly to the study of late antiquity.
Legacy and recognition
Probably the most important contribution that Alföldi made to the study of ancient history was the realization that epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological sources are equal and complementary, and that literary sources should not just be treated as an auxiliary scholarly pursuit. As an opponent of excessive specialization in a field that increasingly broke down into specialist divisions, he himself was a specialist in many areas. In a historical perspective, he stood in the tradition of Mommsen, but in a methodological perspective he followed the tradition of Michael Rostovtzeff
Mikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev (russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Росто́вцев; – October 20, 1952), was a Russian historian whose career straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and who produced important works o ...
, who based his economic-historical studies on archaeological sources.
Alföldi's use of numismatic sources was also a major contribution. Ancient coins were, thanks to him, one of the main sources of ancient history. His methods, which included the study of series of coins, as well as the analysis of mintmarks and the use of coins as a source for religious studies interpretations were groundbreaking. Just as Mommsen is regarded as the great organizer in the study of Roman inscriptions, Alföldi is thought of as the doyen of numismatics. "He had a big role in ensuring that the Numismatics has become a historical science." (Géza Alföldy). Alföldi's contributions to the exploration of the Danube and Carpathian regions are also noteworthy. Through his efforts, this area which was once almost a blank spot on the "map" of the ancient world became one of its most well researched areas.
Alföldi's œuvre includes more than 300 articles, including about a dozen in the form of monographs.
In addition to his better-known research, Alföldi also pursued other studies. He wrote about the art of photographing of Greek vase paintings, the psychological foundations of witchcraft and the importance of the theriomorphic
The word ''zoomorphism'' derives from the Greek ζωον (''zōon''), meaning "animal", and μορφη (''morphē''), meaning "shape" or "form". In the context of art, zoomorphism could describe art that imagines humans as non-human animals. It c ...
worldview among the peoples of North Asia
North Asia or Northern Asia, also referred to as Siberia, is the northern region of Asia, which is defined in geographical terms and is coextensive with the Asian part of Russia, and consists of three Russian regions east of the Ural Mountains: ...
.
In 1972, Alföldi was awarded the Order Pour le Mérite for Arts and Sciences. The only other historian to receive this honor was Sir Ronald Syme. In addition, he was a member or honorary member of many scientific societies and academies. He also held honorary doctorates from several universities and earned other awards . The Historic Class of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences took accepted him as a corresponding member in 1936. In 1975 he was awarded the Austrian Decoration for Science and Art.
Publications
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alfoldi, Andreas
1895 births
1981 deaths
People from Pomáz
Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I
Hungarian art historians
Archaeologists from Budapest
Hungarian numismatists
Members of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)
Institute for Advanced Study faculty
20th-century Hungarian historians
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences