Charles le Beau (18 October 1701,

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

– 13 March 1778, Paris) was a French historical writer. He was born in

, and was educated at the Collège de Sainte-Barbe and the Collège du Plessis; at the latter he remained as a teacher until he obtained the chair of

rhetoric Rhetoric () is the art of persuasion, which along with grammar and logic (or dialectic), is one of the three ancient arts of discourse. Rhetoric aims to study the techniques writers or speakers utilize to inform, persuade, or motivate parti ...

in the Collège des Grassins. In 1748 he was admitted as a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, and in 1752 he was nominated professor of Latin

eloquence Eloquence (from French ''eloquence'' from Latin ''eloquentia'') is fluent, elegant, persuasive, and forceful speech, persuading an audience. Eloquence is both a natural talent and improved by knowledge of language, study of a specific subject ...

at the Collège de France. From 1755 onward, he held the office of perpetual secretary to the Academy of Inscriptions, in which capacity he edited fifteen volumes (from the 25th to the 39th inclusive) of the ''Histoire'' of that institution.Prosopo
Sociétés savantes de France He is best remembered as the author of ''Histoire du Bas-Empire, en commençant à Constantin le Grand'', in 22 volumes (Paris, 1756–1779). This is a continuation of

Charles Rollin Charles Rollin (January 30, 1661 in Paris - December 14, 1741 in Paris) was a French historian and educator, whose popularity in his time combined with becoming forgotten by later generations makes him an epithet, applied to historians such as J ...

's ''Histoire Romaine'' and JBL Crevier's ''Histoire des empereurs''. Its usefulness arises entirely from the fact of its being a faithful resume of the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

historians. Five volumes were added by H.-P. Ameilhon (1781–1811), which brought the work down to the

fall of Constantinople The Fall of Constantinople, also known as the Conquest of Constantinople, was the capture of the capital of the Byzantine Empire by the Ottoman Empire. The city fell on 29 May 1453 as part of the culmination of a 53-day siege which had begun o ...

. A later edition was produced by

Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin (17 January 1791 – 17 July 1832) was a French academic, orientalist, and pioneer in the field of what would be known as Armenian Studies. Biography Antoine-Jean Saint-Martin was born in Paris on 17 January 1791, th ...

and afterwards of Marie-Félicité Brosset.OCLC WorldCat
Histoire du Bas-Empire, en commençant a Constantin le Grand

List of works

* ''Histoire de l'Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres, avec les mémoires de littérature'', Tome XXV à XXXIX, 1759-1777. * ''Histoire du Bas-Empire en commençant à Constantin le Grand'', 27 volumes, 1757-1811 (five volumes being added by Hubert-Pascal Ameilhon). * ''Opera latina : Carmina, Fabulae et narrationes, Orationes et oratiunculae'', 3 volumes, 1782-1783. * ''Parallèle curieux des fables en vers latins de M. Lebeau avec La Fontaine, et tous les poètes latins qui ont traité les mêmes fables'', 1785 (with

Jean de La Fontaine Jean de La Fontaine (, , ; 8 July 162113 April 1695) was a French fabulist and one of the most widely read French poets of the 17th century. He is known above all for his ''Fables'', which provided a model for subsequent fabulists across Euro ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beau, Charles le Writers from Paris 1701 births 1778 deaths 18th-century French historians Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres