All Scholars

Ludwig Friedländer grew up in a prosperous Jewish household. Unlike his siblings, who were drawn to the sciences, Friedländer delved into art and literature. Among his teachers at the Collegium Fridericianum and at the Albertina was the Latinist Karl Lachmann (1793-1851). At the latter he was taught by the Hellenist Karl Lehrs (1802-78) and the chair of rhetoric and ancient literature, Christian August Lobeck (1781-1860) He moved to Leipzig and studied with Gottfried Hermann (1772-1848) for three semesters. His interest in the daily lives of Romans arose as an offshoot of the Totalitätsideal: to appreciate any one aspect of the ancient world one must master all of them. Lobeck enhanced his interest in Greek religion, while his habilitation was an epigraphical study. His frequent trips to Italy, about which he wrote several articles, increased his knowledge of topography and led to his inclusion of archaeology in his early writings on Homer. The influence of Karl Lehrs, who believed the Iliad was written by one man, shows in Friedländer’s editions of Nikanor and Aristonicus. Conversion to Christianity allowed him to secure a position at his alma mater, where he spent the entirety of his working career. He moved from Homer to Roman life but continued to insist on the connection of philology and archaeology, literature, and culture. His great work was the Darstellungen aus der Sittengeschichte Roms, which brought an enormous amount of information together in a readable format. The work was so popular that it ran to eight editions and was translated into English, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian and was reprinted in America as late as the 1960s.