Robert Flacelière (; 29 May 1904,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

– 23 May 1982,

Montpellier Montpellier (; ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of France, department of ...

) was a scholar of Classical Greek. He was educated at the

Collège Sainte-Barbe The Collège Sainte-Barbe () is a former college in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. The Collège Sainte-Barbe was founded in 1460 on Montagne Sainte-Geneviève ( Latin Quarter, Paris). It was until its closure in June 1999 the "oldest ...

, the Lycée Henri IV and the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

. From 1925 to 1930, he was a member of the French School in Athens and from 1932-1948 a Professor of the Faculty of Letters at University of Lyon. He was then appointed to the Chair of

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

Language and Literature at the

University of Paris The University of Paris (), known Metonymy, metonymically as the Sorbonne (), was the leading university in Paris, France, from 1150 to 1970, except for 1793–1806 during the French Revolution. Emerging around 1150 as a corporation associated wit ...

, a post he held until 1963 when he was appointed Director of the École Normale Supérieure.

Biography

After brilliant studies at the

Lycée Henri-IV The Lycée Henri-IV () is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges ('' lycées'') in France. The school educates more ...

, he entered the

École normale supérieure (Paris) The – PSL (; also known as ENS, , Ulm or ENS Paris) is a ''grande école'' in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL). Due to its selectivity, historical role, and influence within F ...

in 1922, and passed the agrégation in grammar in 1925. That same year, he joined the French School at Athens, where his main interest was

Epigraphy 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 ...

. His

Doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

thesis, defended in 1935 and published in 1937, was entitled Les Aitoliens à Delphes: contributions à l'histoire de la Grèce centrale au IIIe siècle av.J.-C. (The Aitolians at Delphi: contributions to the history of central Greece in the 3rd century BC). He taught Greek language and literature at the Faculté des Lettres in Lyon (from 1932 to 1948), then at the Faculté des Lettres in Paris. In 1967, he was elected 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 ...

. He headed the École normale supérieure from 1963 to 1971. President

Georges Pompidou Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou ( ; ; 5 July 19112 April 1974) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1969 until his death in 1974. He previously served as Prime Minister of France under President Charles de Gaulle from 19 ...

, himself an alumnus of the school, put an end to his duties after Maoist groups occupied the school during the “Night of the

Paris Commune The Paris Commune (, ) was a French revolutionary government that seized power in Paris on 18 March 1871 and controlled parts of the city until 28 May 1871. During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71, the French National Guard (France), Nation ...

”. He then became director of the Fondation Thiers, from 1975 to 1980. In February 1978, he was one of the founding members of the Comité des intellectuels pour l'Europe des libertés. On his return from a Mediterranean cruise, he died on May 23 1982.

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * with Jean Daniélou Jean Chrysostome, Homélies sur l'incompréhensible, Sources Chrétiennes 28

English translations (selected)

* * * *

References

École Normale Supérieure alumni French classical scholars French hellenists French philologists Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres Lycée Henri-IV alumni Scientists from Paris 1904 births 1982 deaths 20th-century French historians 20th-century philologists {{France-historian-stub