founded in 1804, had as its aim to research the Celtic language and the ancient
monuments of the Gauls, setting the example for many other academies
organized throughout France from 1824 (Pomian 1996: 29). Similarly, the
Danish Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries was atWrst a literary society,
which only became more archaeological from the 1840s (Jørgen Jensen, pers.
comm.).
Classical archaeologists, as well as Egyptologists, also became interested in
linguistic and racial studies. Discussions of race and ancient Egypt and the
connections of the ancient Egyptians with prehistoric populations of Europe
and America occupied an important part in the literature of scholars, espe-
cially those with links to anthropology (Champion 2003). In Germany,
Niebuhr’s and Ranke’s rigorous methods would be emulated by the ancient
historian Theodor Mommsen (1817–1903). He was a liberal nationalist who
identiWed, like Niebuhr before him, race, language, and nation. His involve-
ment in the revolution of 1848–9 had led to his dismissal from his post of
Professor of Law at the University of Leipzig in 1850. He was later appointed
to the chair of Ancient History at the University of Berlin in 1858. Mommsen
based hisHistory of Romeof 1854–5 on epigraphical, numismatic and arch-
aeological sources. In contrast to Ranke, however, Mommsen did not believe
in the historian’s objectivity, but thought that historians should engage with
the politics of their time. This identiWcation became intermingled with the
feeling, held by many, that the Roman presence in Germany had been
antithetic to the national essence, a belief expressed as early as theWfteenth
century (Marchand 1996a: 156–62). A similar tension between the prestige
conferred by both the classical past and the national indigenous past was felt
in Britain. As Lord Acton (John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron
Acton, 1834–1902), the renowned British liberal historian and philosopher,
stated in around 1859:
Two great principles divide the world and contend for the mastery, antiquity and
the Middle Ages. These are the two civilizations that have preceded us, the two
elements of which ours is composed. All political as well as religious questions
reduce themselves practically to this. This is the great dualism that runs through
our society.
(Lord Acton in Turner 1981: xi).In his 1854–5History of RomeMommsen saw civilization as passing from the
Mediterranean world to the Aryans. He also introduced the idea of history as
guided by evolutionist cycles, an idea that will be explored in the next chapter.
As he put it, at the end of antiquity the cycle of Thebes, Carthage, Athens, and
Rome
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