Arnold Wycombe Gomme

Arnold Wycombe Gomme (born November 16, 1886 in London , † January 17, 1959 in Glasgow ) was a British classical philologist and ancient historian who worked at the University of Glasgow from 1911 to 1956 .

Life

Arnold W. Gomme, son of folklorists Laurence and Alice Gomme , studied Classics at Trinity College of Cambridge University . From 1911 he taught at the University of Glasgow as an Assistant Lecturer in Greek and Greek History .

During the First World War he served as 2nd Lieutenant in the Interpreter's Corps . From November 1914 to November 1915 he was deployed with the British Army Expeditionary Corps in France, then moved to the Army Service Corps and the secret service in Thessaloniki , where he was promoted to lieutenant in April 1916. After being wounded, he was released from duty for a short time. The remainder of the war (until January 1919) he spent with the General Service Corps in Athens and Constantinople. Unlike his two brothers, he survived the war and returned to Glasgow.

He was appointed Professor of Greek in 1946 and elected to the British Academy the following year . In 1951/1952 the University of California, Berkeley invited him as a Sather Professor , in 1955 he was a visiting fellow at the British School at Athens . Gomme retired in 1957 at the age of 70. He died two years later.

Gomme was particularly concerned with Greek history and its literary foundations in historiography. His magnum opus was a historical commentary on the history of Thucydides , which appeared in several volumes from 1945. Adverse circumstances - Gomme had a suitcase with numerous records stolen - prevented him from completing the work before his death. The last volumes were written by Antony Andrewes and Kenneth Dover based on Gommes' designs.

Fonts (selection)

• The Population of Athens in the Fifth and Fourth Centuries BC . Oxford 1933
• Essays in Greek History and Literature . Oxford 1937
• Greece . Oxford 1945
• A Historical Commentary on Thucydides . Five volumes, Oxford / Toronto 1945–1981
  • Volume 1: Introduction and Commentary on Book I . Oxford / Toronto 1945
  • Volumes 2-3: The Ten Years' War (Books II-III and Books IV-V) . Oxford / Toronto 1956
  • Volume 4: Books V.25 – VII (with A. Andrewes and K. Dover). Oxford 1970
  • Volume 5: Book VIII (with A. Andrewes and K. Dover). Oxford 1981
• The Greek Attitude to Poetry and History . Berkeley / Los Angeles 1954 ( Sather Classical Lectures 27)
• David A. Campbell (Ed.): More Essays in Greek History and Literature . Oxford 1962

literature

• Humphrey Davy Findley Kitto : Arnold Wycombe Gomme, 1886-1959 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . Volume 45 (1960), pp. 335-344

Web links

• Biography at the University of Glasgow (English)