Auguste Bouché-Leclercq (30 July 1842 – 19 July 1923) was a French historian.

Life

Auguste Bouché-Leclercq was born in 1842 at Francières, Oise as son of Louis-Thomas Bouché and Marie-Joséphine Leclercq. His parents were farmers. He was educated at seminaries and took his school-leaving exam in 1861 in Paris. Later he travelled as private tutor several months through Italian and German cities. In 1866 he was grammar school teacher at

Meaux Meaux () is a Communes of France, commune on the river Marne (river), Marne in the Seine-et-Marne Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, Franc ...

. In 1872 he received his doctorate in

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and was from 1873-1878 professor of ancient literature at the philosophical faculty of Montpellier. In 1876 he married Marie Julie Guillaume and had with her three sons and one daughter. He became professor of ancient history in Paris in 1887, member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres The () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the . The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigraphy) and historical literature (see Belles-lettres). History ...

in 1898 and officer of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

in 1903. He retired in 1918 and died in 1923 at

Nogent-sur-Marne Nogent-sur-Marne () is a Communes of France, commune in the eastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, centre of Paris. Nogent-sur-Marne is a ''Subprefectures in France, sous-préfecture'' of the Val-de-Marne ''Depar ...

. Bouché-Leclercq’s research centred on the ancient history of religion and the history of Hellenism. He wrote important works about the

Ptolemaic dynasty The Ptolemaic dynasty (; , ''Ptolemaioi''), also known as the Lagid dynasty (, ''Lagidai''; after Ptolemy I's father, Lagus), was a Macedonian Greek royal house which ruled the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Ancient Egypt during the Hellenistic period. ...

and the

Seleucid Empire The Seleucid Empire ( ) was a Greek state in West Asia during the Hellenistic period. It was founded in 312 BC by the Macedonian general Seleucus I Nicator, following the division of the Macedonian Empire founded by Alexander the Great ...

and translated the works of German historians into French, for example, 1883-1885 the ''Geschichte des Hellenismus'' by

Johann Gustav Droysen Johann Gustav Bernhard Droysen (; ; 6 July 180819 June 1884) was a German historian. His history of Alexander the Great was the first work representing a new school of German historical thought that idealized power held by so-called "great" men. ...

Works (incomplete)

*1871 ''Les pontifes de l’ancienne Rome'' (thesis) *1879 ''Histoire de la divination dans l'antiquité'' *1883 ''Histoire grecque'' *1886 ''Manuel des institutions romaines'' *1888 ''Histoire de la Grèce sous la domination des romains'' *1899 ''L’astrologie grecque'' *1900 ''Leçons d’histoire grecque'' *1903 ''Histoire des Lagides'' *1913 ''Histoire des Séleucides (323-64 avant J.-C.)''

References

* M. Prévost: ''Bouché-Leclercq, Auguste''. In: ''Dictionnaire de Biographie française'', vol. 6 (1954), col. 1195.

External links

Historians of Astrology - by Lester Ness (Changchun University of Technology)
at cura.free.fr People from Oise 1842 births 1923 deaths Academic staff of the University of Montpellier 19th-century French historians 20th-century French historians French scholars of Roman history Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Officers of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus Officers of the Legion of Honour French hellenists Academic staff of the University of Paris {{France-historian-stub