Background

Theodor Mommsen was born in Denmark and spent most of his life studying, teaching and living in Germany. While he advocated for progressive causes in the German legislature and took the controversial opinion of the time that Jewish people aren’t horrible monsters, he probably would have preferred to live elsewhere.

That elsewhere would be ancient Rome. Mommsen got a degree in Roman law. Became a professor of Roman history. Wrote a still cited book compendium of everything you ever wanted to know about Rome forever and even, once (according to some) had to be physically restrained from running into a burning building in order to retrieve documents related to…ROME.

As a historian, he is an unusual laureate, and, as with first ever winner Sully Prudhomme, a large segment of academics disliked that he was selected instead of Leo Tolstoy and Henrik Ibsen (who this time were at least nominated) for being “the greatest living master of the art of historical writing”. If Wikipedia (citing Nobel Prize historian Gustav Källstrand) is to be believed, the chairman of the time (Carl David af Wirsen) nixed the two better known candidates because they were “too radical”. Mommsen definitely was not radical…but he was cool enough to make Mark Twain turn into a fan boy.

Works

I will confess, I did not read Mommsen’s complete 7 volume history of Rome. (I probably would just poke the pages of Roman history with a long stick to try to save them…sorry Teddy.) But even the small samples I found were well worded and impressively thoughtful.

“The grandest system of civilization has its orbit, and may complete its course, but not so the human race, to which, just when it seems to have reached its goal, th eold task is ever set anew with a wider range and with a deeper meaning.”

“The great problem of man–how to live in conscious harmony with himself, with his neighbor, and with the whole to which he belongs–admits of as many solutions as their are provinces in our Father’s kingdom; and it is in this, and not in the material sphere, that individuals and nations display their divergence of character”

Message

I’m sure there’s more to it if I read more of the 7 volumes and the life’s work Mommsen dedicated to the Eternal City. Perhaps you could even see the parallels between his work and his progressive views (I was impressed that he took time to specify ways that Rome only reached its heights due to ancient tribes of India). But realistically, the primary message he seems to have is: “Did you know that Rome was super cool?” (Also that lets me link Mommsen to Momoa)

Position: #1 Goalkeeper

Mommsen’s traditional mindset and emphasis on the past aligned him with my other Goalkeepers in this project. He’s not a terribly adventurous guy (despite being politically progressive), so I likened him to some of the strongest shot-stopping keepers of his native Germany’s Bundesliga. While some folks might fan out about him, he’s more of an acquired taste and a deep cut from Nobel lore, so I put him in line with many of the good spot starters (rather than true stars of international soccer).

Next Time, we start off the 2026 class with one of the 2020 honorees we haven’t covered yet: Abdulrazak Gurnah