Marie-Louis-Antoine-Gaston Boissier (15 August 1823 – 20 November 1908), French

classical scholar Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, and secretary of the

Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

, was born at

Nîmes Nîmes ( , ; oc, Nimes ; Latin: ''Nemausus'') is the prefecture of the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France. Located between the Mediterranean Sea and Cévennes, the commune of Nîmes has an estimated population of 148,5 ...

. The Roman monuments of his native town very early attracted Gaston Boissier to the study of

ancient history 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 ...

. He made epigraphy his particular theme, and at the age of twenty-three became a professor 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 ...

at the University of Angoulême, where he lived and worked for ten years without further ambition. A travelling inspector of the university, however, happened to hear him lecture, and Boissier was called to Paris to be professor at the

Lycée Charlemagne The Lycée Charlemagne is located in the Marais quarter of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, the capital city of France. Constructed many centuries before it became a lycée, the building originally served as the home of the Order of the Jesuit ...

. He began his literary career by a thesis on the poet Attius (1857) and a study on the life and work of

Marcus Terentius Varro Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...

(1861). In 1861 he was made professor of Latin oratory at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment (''grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris ne ...

, and he became an active contributor to the ''Revue des deux mondes''. In 1865 he published ''Cicéron et ses amis'' (Eng. trans. by AD Jones, 1897), which has enjoyed a success such as rarely falls to the lot of a work of erudition. In studying the manners of

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 B ...

, Boissier had learned to re-create its society and to reproduce its characteristics with exquisite vivacity. In 1874 he published ''La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins'' (2 vols.), in which he analysed the great religious movement of antiquity that preceded the acceptance 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 ...

. In ''L'Opposition sous les Césars'' (1875) he drew a remarkable picture of the political decadence of Rome under the early successors of

Augustus Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...

. By this time Boissier had drawn to himself the universal respect of scholars and men of letters, and on the death of HJG Patin, the author of ''Études sur les tragiques grecs'', in 1876, he was elected a member of the Académie française, of which he was appointed perpetual secretary in 1895. His later works include ''Promenades archéologiques: Rome et Pompei'' (1880; second series, 1886); ''L'Afrique romaine, promenades archéologiques'' (1901); ''La Fin du paganisme'' (2 vols, 1891); ''La Conjuration de Catilina'' (1905); ''Tacite'' (1903, Eng, trans. by WG Hutchison, 1906). He was a representative example of the French talent for lucidity and elegance applied with entire seriousness to weighty matters of literature. Though he devoted himself mainly to his great theme, the reconstruction of the elements of Roman society, he also wrote monographs on ''Madame de Sévigné'' (1887) and ''Saint-Simon'' (1892). He died in June 1908.

Main works

* ''Le Poète Attius, étude sur la tragédie latine pendant la République'' (1857) * ''Étude sur la vie et les ouvrages de Marcus Terentius Varro'' (1861) * ''La religion romaine, d'Auguste aux Antonins'' (1874) * ''L'Opposition sous les Césars'' (1875) * ''Promenades archéologiques : Rome et Pompéi'' (1880) * ''Cicéron et ses amis. Étude sur la société romaine du temps de César'' (1884) * ''Nouvelles promenades archéologiques : Horace et Virgile'' (1886). Chapitre premier, ''La Maison de campagne d’Horace'', sur wikisource.L'auteur évoque Horace et sa maison de campagne de Sabine découverte par l' abbé Capmartin de Chaupy au XVIII. * ''

Madame de Sévigné Madame may refer to: * Madam, civility title or form of address for women, derived from the French * Madam (prostitution), a term for a woman who is engaged in the business of procuring prostitutes, usually the manager of a brothel * ''Madame'' ( ...

'' (1887) * ''L'Afrique romaine. Promenades archéologiques en Algérie et en Tunisie]'' (1895) * ''La Conjuration de Catilina'' (1905) * ''La fin du paganisme : étude sur les dernières luttes religieuses en Occident au quatrième siècle'' (1891) * ''Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon'' (1899) * ''Tacite'' (1903)

Bibliography

References

External links

* * *
Notice biographique de l'Académie française

Gaston Boissier et Theodor Mommsen
Étude critique par Gaston Boissier de lHistoire romaine'' de

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 ...

.
''La Conjuration de Catilina'':
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enregistrement audio gratuit {{DEFAULTSORT:Boissier French classical scholars French scholars of Roman history École Normale Supérieure alumni Academic staff of the Collège de France Members of the Académie Française Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Members of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters Members of the Ligue de la patrie française People from Nîmes 1823 births 1908 deaths Burials at Père Lachaise Cemetery