Quotes:Niebuhr, Barthold Georg

Boris de Zirkoff

Niebuhr, Barthold Georg. German statesman and historian, b. at Copenhagen, Aug. 27, 1776; d. at Bonn, Jan. 2, 1831. Studied at Univ. of Kiel; became private secretary to Count Schimmel-mann, Danish minister of finance; in 1799, entered state service. Chief director of the National Bank from 1804 to 1806, when he took a similar appointment in Prussia. In 1810, was made royal historiographer and professor at Berlin University, and two years later published two volumes of his Romische Geschichte (Engl. transl., 1847-51). In 1816, while on his way to Rome to take up post as ambassador, discovered in the cathedral of Verona the long-lost Institutes of Gaius. While in Rome, he discovered and published fragments of Cicero and Livy, and collaborated with Cardinal Mai and von Bunsen. He retired in 1823 and went to Bonn.

Niebuhr's Roman History (to which he added a 3rd vol. in 1832) counts among epoch-making historical works for its momentous influence on the general conception of history.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 1, p. 503