A History of Rome under the Emperors

A full and detailed transcript of Mommsen's famous lectures - made by two of his students - has been edited to provide an authoritative reconstruction. Includes detailed notes and references, and an introduction by Thomas Wiedemann.
This survey of four centuries of Roman history throws light on the German tradition of the 19th century. Theodor Mommsen (d. 1903) was one of the greatest Roman historians of the 19th century, and the only one ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. His fame rests on his "History of Rome" as well as his work on Roman law and on the Roman provinces. But the work that would have concluded his history of Rome - which ran to the reign of Augustus - was never completed. This text represents that lost work. In 1980 Alexander Demandt discovered in an antiquarian bookshop a full and detailed handwritten transcript of the lectures on the Roman Empire, which Mommsen gave for many years from 1863 to 1886, made by two of his students. This transcript has been edited to provide a reconstruction of the book Mommsen never wrote, "A History of Rome under the Emperors".