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A History of the Ancient World 1: The Orient and Greece
Авторът на тази история, чието ново издание на български език е в ръцете на читателите, е добре познат както на специалистите по антична история, така и на по-възрастното поколение на българската интелигенция. Роден на 28 октомври 1870 г. в Киев, той се оформя като специалист по класическа филология и стара история в родния си град и в Петербург. Следва продължителна академична кариера в Русия, прекъсната от преврата през 1917 г. Принуден да емигрира, М. Ростовцев е поканен през 1920 г. да оглави катедрата по Стара история на Уискънсинския университет в Медисън, САЩ. През 1925 г. се премества в престижния Йейлски университет.
През дългия си и плодотворен жизнен и творчески път (той почива през 1952 г.), проф. Ростовцев развива активна академична, проучвателска и научна дейност. Ръководи археологически разкопки, чете лекции и води семинари в различни области на науката за Древността, обявен е за почетен член на редила престижни академии на науките: Британската, Българската, Норвежката, Полската, Понтификалната, Пруската, Руската, Френската. Научните му занимания не е възможно да бъдат дори бегло проследени в един такъв предговор и са обект на специални проучвания и публикации, залегнали в основата на всички световни специализирани справочни издания.
"Историята на Стария свят" на М. Ростовцев излиза през 1924 г. и оттогава претърпява множество издания и преводи на много езици. Първото издание на български се появява през 1932 (Историята на Изтока и Гърция) и 1937 г. (Историята на Рим) в превод от руски на И. Раев, под редакцията на едни от най-големите български специалисти в тази област — проф. Г. Кацаров и проф. Я. Тодоров.
През дългия си и плодотворен жизнен и творчески път (той почива през 1952 г.), проф. Ростовцев развива активна академична, проучвателска и научна дейност. Ръководи археологически разкопки, чете лекции и води семинари в различни области на науката за Древността, обявен е за почетен член на редила престижни академии на науките: Британската, Българската, Норвежката, Полската, Понтификалната, Пруската, Руската, Френската. Научните му занимания не е възможно да бъдат дори бегло проследени в един такъв предговор и са обект на специални проучвания и публикации, залегнали в основата на всички световни специализирани справочни издания.
"Историята на Стария свят" на М. Ростовцев излиза през 1924 г. и оттогава претърпява множество издания и преводи на много езици. Първото издание на български се появява през 1932 (Историята на Изтока и Гърция) и 1937 г. (Историята на Рим) в превод от руски на И. Раев, под редакцията на едни от най-големите български специалисти в тази област — проф. Г. Кацаров и проф. Я. Тодоров.
418 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 1926
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About the author
Michael Rostovtzeff
94 books18 followersMikhail Ivanovich Rostovtzeff, or Rostovtsev (Russian: Михаи́л Ива́нович Росто́вцев; November 10 [O.S. October 29] 1870 – October 20, 1952) was a Russian historian whose career straddled the 19th and 20th centuries and who produced important works on Ancient Roman and Greek history. He was a member of the Russian Academy of Science.
Rostovtzeff was the son of a Latin teacher. Upon completing his studies at the universities of Kiev and St. Petersburg, Rostovtsev served as an assistant and then as a full Professor of Latin at the University of St. Petersburg 1898–1918. In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, he emigrated first to Sweden, then to England, and finally in 1920 to the United States. There he accepted a chair at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before moving to Yale University in 1925 where he taught until his retirement in 1944. He oversaw all archaeological activities of the latter institution in general and the excavations of Dura-Europos in particular. He is believed to have coined the term "caravan city".
While working in Russia, Rostovtzeff became an authority on the ancient history of South Russia and Ukraine. He summed up his knowledge on the subject in Iranians and Greeks in South Russia (1922) and Skythien und der Bosporus (1925). His most important archaeological findings at Yale were described in Dura-Europos and Its Art (1938).
Glen Bowersock described Rostovtzeff's views as having been largely formed by the age of thirty, developing mainly only in the quality of execution in later life, and making him "the last of the nineteenth-century ancient historians". Rostovtzeff was known as a proud and slightly overpowering man who did not fit in easily. In later life, he suffered from depression.
The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire:
Rostovtzeff was notable for his theories of the cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire which he expounded in detail in his magisterial The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (1926). Scarred by his experience of fleeing from the Russian Revolution, he attributed the collapse of the Roman Empire to an alliance between the rural proletariat and the military in the third century A.D. Despite not being a Marxist himself, Rostovtzeff used terms such as proletariat, bourgeoisie and capitalism freely in his work and the importation of those terms into a description of the ancient world, where they did not necessarily apply, caused criticism.
Rostovtzeff's theory was quickly understood as one based on the author's own experiences and equally quickly rejected by the academic community. Bowersock later described the book as "the marriage of pre-1918 scholarly training and taste with post-1918 personal experience and reflection." At the same time, however, the detailed scholarship involved in the production of the work impressed his contemporaries and he was one of the first to merge archaeological evidence with literary sources.
Rostovtzeff was the son of a Latin teacher. Upon completing his studies at the universities of Kiev and St. Petersburg, Rostovtsev served as an assistant and then as a full Professor of Latin at the University of St. Petersburg 1898–1918. In 1918, following the Russian Revolution, he emigrated first to Sweden, then to England, and finally in 1920 to the United States. There he accepted a chair at the University of Wisconsin–Madison before moving to Yale University in 1925 where he taught until his retirement in 1944. He oversaw all archaeological activities of the latter institution in general and the excavations of Dura-Europos in particular. He is believed to have coined the term "caravan city".
While working in Russia, Rostovtzeff became an authority on the ancient history of South Russia and Ukraine. He summed up his knowledge on the subject in Iranians and Greeks in South Russia (1922) and Skythien und der Bosporus (1925). His most important archaeological findings at Yale were described in Dura-Europos and Its Art (1938).
Glen Bowersock described Rostovtzeff's views as having been largely formed by the age of thirty, developing mainly only in the quality of execution in later life, and making him "the last of the nineteenth-century ancient historians". Rostovtzeff was known as a proud and slightly overpowering man who did not fit in easily. In later life, he suffered from depression.
The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire:
Rostovtzeff was notable for his theories of the cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire which he expounded in detail in his magisterial The Social and Economic History of the Roman Empire (1926). Scarred by his experience of fleeing from the Russian Revolution, he attributed the collapse of the Roman Empire to an alliance between the rural proletariat and the military in the third century A.D. Despite not being a Marxist himself, Rostovtzeff used terms such as proletariat, bourgeoisie and capitalism freely in his work and the importation of those terms into a description of the ancient world, where they did not necessarily apply, caused criticism.
Rostovtzeff's theory was quickly understood as one based on the author's own experiences and equally quickly rejected by the academic community. Bowersock later described the book as "the marriage of pre-1918 scholarly training and taste with post-1918 personal experience and reflection." At the same time, however, the detailed scholarship involved in the production of the work impressed his contemporaries and he was one of the first to merge archaeological evidence with literary sources.
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November 30, 2025
This was often required reading in upper-division undergraduate classes, before the antediluvian-wave, from the 1980s up to the present. R's breath of knowledge is still widely appreciated.
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