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ERNST CURTIUS (1814-1896)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 653 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ERNST CURTIUS (1814-1896)  , German archaeologist and historian, was born at
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Lubeck on the 2nd of September 1814 . On completing his university studies he was chosen by C . A . Brandis to accompany him on a journey to
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Greece for the
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prosecution of archaeological researches . Curtius then became Otfried Miller's companion in his exploration of the Peloponnese, and on Miiller's
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death in 184o returned to Germany . In 1844 he became an extraordinary professor at the university of Berlin, and in the same
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year was appointed tutor to Prince Frederick William (afterwards the Emperor Frederick III.)—a
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post which he held till 185o . After holding a professorship at
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Gottingen and undertaking a further journey to Greece in 1862, Curtius was appointed (in 1863) ordinary professor at Berlin . In 1874 he was sent to Athens by the German government, and concluded an agreement by which the excavations at
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Olympia (q.v.) were entrusted exclusively to Germany . Curtius died at Berlin on the Iith of
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July 1896 . His best-known
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work is his
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History of Greece (18J7-1867, 6th ed . 1887-1888; Eng. trans. by A . W .

Ward, 1868-1873) . It presented in an attractive style what were then the latest results of scholarly research, but was criticized as wanting in erudition . It is now superseded (see GREECE: History, Ancient, § Bibliography) . His other writings are chiefly archaeological . The most important are: Die Akropolis von Athen (1844) ;
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Naxos (1846) ; Peloponnesos, eine historisch-geographische Beschreibung der Halbinsel (1851); Olympia (1852); Die Ionier vor der ionischen bVanderung (1855); Attische Studien (1862-'865); Ephesos (1874); Die Ausgrabungen zu Olympia (1877, &c.); Olympia and Umgegend (edited by Curtius and F . Adler, 1882); Olympia . Die Ergebnisse der von dem deutschen Reich veranstalteten Ausgrabung (with F . Adler, 1890-1898); Die Stadtgeschichte von Athen (1891); Gesammelte Abhandlungen (1894) . His collected speeches and lectures were published under the title of Altertum and Gegenwart (5th ed., 1903
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foil.), to which a third
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volume was added under the title of Unter drei Kaisern (2nd ed., 1895) . A full list of his writings will be found in L . Gurlitt, Erinnerungen an Ernst Curtius (Berlin, 1902); see also article by O . Kern in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xlvii .

(1903), to which may be added Ernst Curtius . Ein Lebensbild in Briefen, by F . Curtius (1903); T .

Hodgkin, Ernest Curtius (1905) . His
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brother, GEORG CURTIUS (1820-1885), philologist, was born at Lubeck on the 16th of
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April 1820 . After an
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education at
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Bonn and Berlin he was for three years a schoolmaster in
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Dresden, until (in 1845) he returned to Berlin University as privat-docent . In 1849 he was placed in charge of the Philological Seminary at Prague, and two years later was appointed professor of classical
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philology in Prague University . In 1854 he removed from Prague to a similar appointment at
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Kiel, and again in 1862 from Kiel to
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Leipzig . He died at
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Hermsdorf on the 12th of August 1885 . His philological theories exercised a widespread influence . The more important of his publications are: Die Sprachvergleichung in ihrem Verhaltniss zur dassischen Philologie (1845; Eng. trans. by F . H .

Trithen, 1851); Sprachvergleichende Beitrage zur griechischen and lateinischen Grammatik (1846); Grundzuge der griechischen Etymologie (1858-1862, 5th ed . 1879); Das Verbum der griechischen Sprache (1873) . The last two

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works have been translated into
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English by A . S . Wilkins and E . B . England . From 1878 till his death Curtius was general editor of the Leipziger Studien zur classischen Philologie . His Griechische Schulgrammatik, first published in 1852, has passed through more than twenty
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editions, and has been edited in English . In his last work, Zur Kritik der neuesten Sprachforschung (1885), he attacks the views of the "new" school of philology . Opuscula of Georg Curtius were edited after his death by E . Windisch (Kleine Schriften von E .

C., 1886-1887) . For further

information consult articles by R . Meister in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, xlvii . (19o3), and by E . Windisch in C . Bursian's Biographisches Jahrbuch fur Alterthumskunde (1886) .

End of Article: ERNST CURTIUS (1814-1896)
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