Andreas Alföldi
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Andreas Alföldi | |
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Alföldi András | |
Born | 27 August 1895 University of Budapest Princeton University |
András (Andreas) Ede Zsigmond Alföldi (27 August 1895 – 12 February 1981) was a Hungarian historian,
Professor Alföldi contributed significantly to the massive
Life and career
The son of a doctor, Alföldi was born in 1895 in the
Like many middle class young men of his age, Alföldi participated in World War I. He was a highly decorated soldier, and after sustaining a severe injury, he was dismissed from the military in 1917. In later years he looked back on his service with pride and he retained an interest in military and strategic subjects throughout his life.
The Treaty of Trianon, which officially ended the war in Hungary and established its borders, was perceived as a humiliation to the country. This strengthened Alföldi's interest in regional history. In the aftermath of World War I, national ties and boundaries that had been established over hundreds of years were dissolved and rebuilt. As was not uncommon in the years between the wars, archeology served to strengthen national identity.
In 1923, Alföldi was appointed chair of Ancient History at the
Alföldi's work was not interrupted by the
In 1956, Alföldi accepted a position in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Historical Studies. The position afforded better pay and more opportunities for travel, and Alföldi would continue to work on projects at Princeton even after his retirement. While at Princeton, he married his second wife, Elisabeth Alföldi-Rosenbaum, who was also a classical scholar and art historian.
After emigrating, Alföldi expanded his areas of research into early Roman history and the eventual demise of the empire. In Alföldi's obituary, Géza Alföldy said: "He illuminated the history of Rome from the beginning to end like no other scholar in this century."
Work
Early Rome
In Afoldi's opinion, the importance of Rome in the Etruscan period was far less than was later portrayed. He attempted to compare the oldest structures of the Roman state with the Eurasian horsemen and herdsmen. Although his theories were not received with a wholly positive response, even his critics recognized the originality of his arguments. In addition to archeological and later literary sources, he employed the methods of comparative religion in his work.
The fall of the Roman Republic
Alföldi's work regarding the downfall of the Roman Republic was marked by his thesis that Julius Caesar intended to establish a monarchy along the old Roman pattern. He believed that he found evidence that confirmed this theory in the coinage of the year 44BC. Alföldi defended Caesar in this. Like Theodor Mommsen, Alföldi was fascinated by the personality of Caesar and disappointed by the “opportunism” of Cicero. Although he saw Cicero as the ideological instigator of Caesar's murder, he also considered Cicero to be an artist of nature. The murder of Caesar attested to the blindness and scrupulousness of the senatorial oligarchy, which in turn no way supported a republican order. In his eyes, the outrage against Caesar arose from the conflict between the Greek-influenced upper class, and with Caesar, who bore the stamp of the native Roman tradition.
He based his work on Octavian's rise primarily on literary sources. Here he highlighted not only the emotional and religious grounds for Octavian's approach after Caesar's death, but also the underlying tangible economic aspects.
Study of the Roman Empire
“The Design of the Monarchical Ceremony at the Roman Imperial Court” (1934 ) and “Insignia and Costume of the Roman Empire” (1935) mark the pinnacle of Alföldi's work. In these two essays he describes both the religious foundations as well as the continuous development and official expressions of Roman rulers’ ideology. In these articles Alföldi again connects numismatic, literary, epigraphic, and archaeological studies. His understanding of the ancient imagery and of their abstraction to small coin designs was particularly praised. These studies provided a basis for further exploration of the world of ideas and representation within the empire.
In the absence of comprehensive written sources for Roman history in the middle and the second half of the 3rd Century, in the time of the so-called imperial crisis, Alföldi once again approached his research on the basis of numismatic sources. He reviewed great collections of material from this time. His investigation of the
Late Antiquity
Alföldi also made noteworthy contributions to the study of late antiquity and here again he made particular use of numismatic sources. Of particular importance was the cataloging of the so-called Contorniate coins, which opened up a new, hitherto almost unknown source, especially for the history of ideas of the late 4th and early 5th centuries. The coins had been almost totally misunderstood before his work.[3] This research took place during the second World War, which makes the achievement particularly noteworthy. Despite the turmoil of war Alföldi was able to obtain the materials he needed from the different museums of Europe.
What most interested Alföldi in the study of late antiquity, however, was the era between
Legacy and recognition
Probably the most important contribution that Alföldi made to the study of ancient history was the realization that epigraphic, numismatic, and archaeological sources are equal and complementary, and that literary sources should not just be treated as an auxiliary scholarly pursuit. As an opponent of excessive specialization in a field that increasingly broke down into specialist divisions, he himself was a specialist in many areas. In a historical perspective, he stood in the tradition of Mommsen, but in a methodological perspective he followed the tradition of Michael Rostovtzeff, who based his economic-historical studies on archaeological sources.
Alföldi's use of numismatic sources was also a major contribution. Ancient coins were, thanks to him, one of the main sources of ancient history. His methods, which included the study of series of coins, as well as the analysis of mintmarks and the use of coins as a source for religious studies interpretations were groundbreaking. Just as Mommsen is regarded as the great organizer in the study of Roman inscriptions, Alföldi is thought of as the doyen of numismatics. "He had a big role in ensuring that the Numismatics has become a historical science." (Géza Alföldy). Alföldi's contributions to the exploration of the Danube and Carpathian regions are also noteworthy. Through his efforts, this area which was once almost a blank spot on the "map" of the ancient world became one of its most well researched areas.
Alföldi's œuvre includes more than 300 articles, including about a dozen in the form of monographs.
In addition to his better-known research, Alföldi also pursued other studies. He wrote about the art of photographing of Greek vase paintings, the psychological foundations of witchcraft and the importance of the theriomorphic worldview among the peoples of North Asia.
In 1972, Alföldi was awarded the Order
Publications
- Alföldi, Andreas (1934). "Eine spätrömische Helmform und ihre Schicksale im Germanisch-Romanischen Mittelalter". Acta Archaeologica. V: 99–144. ISSN 0065-101X.
References
- ^ "Andrew E.Z. Alföldi | Institute for Advanced Study". Ias.edu. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
- ^ "The Society's Medal | The Royal Numismatic Society". Numismatics.org.uk. 23 May 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2016.
- ^ Ritoók, Zsigmond. (1997) "The contribution of Hungary to international classical scholarship", Hungarian Studies, 12. Archived here.