Mason Hammond

Mason Hammond (born February 14, 1903 in Boston , † October 13, 2002 in Cambridge, Massachusetts ) was an American classical philologist and historian . From 1950 to 1978 he was Pope professor of the Latin language and literature at Harvard .

Life

Hammond studied at Harvard , where he received the baccalaureate summa cum laude . As a Rhodes Scholarship holder , he continued his studies at Oxford . In 1928 he went to Harvard as a lecturer. During the Second World War he served as a liaison officer in the United States Army Air Forces in Europe and ensured that works of art were preserved in the occupied territories.

After the war ended, Hammond returned to Harvard. In 1949 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1950 he was appointed Pope professor of the Latin language and literature at Harvard . During this time he was twice head of the Classics department at the American Academy in Rome (1950–1952 and 1955–1957), where he had worked from 1937 to 1939. In 1973 he retired from Harvard. In retirement, Hammond did particular research on the history of the university.

Hammond's greatest accomplishments are his work in ancient history . He was particularly concerned with the Roman Empire . His monographs The Augustan Principate in theory and practice during the Julio-Claudian era (1933), City-state and world state in Greek and Roman political theory until Augustus (first 1951) and The Antonine Monarchy (first 1959) are considered milestones to this day the research. In recognition of his services, he was awarded the Harvard Medal of the Harvard Alumni Association in 1987 and an honorary doctorate from his university in 1994.

Web links

• Entry on Mason Hammond in the Database of Classical Scholars (English)
• Article in The New York Times his death (English)
• Obituary in the Harvard Gazette (English)
• Literature by and about Mason Hammond in the WorldCat bibliographic database