Fustel de Coulanges, Numa-Denis

(1830-1889)

   historian

   Born in Paris, Fustel entered the École normale supérieure in 1850 and, in 185 3, attended the French School in Athens, Greece, where he wrote his first thesis on the history of the Greek island of Chios. In 1855, he began his teaching career at the lycée in Amiens, France, and later at the Lycée Saint-Louis in Paris. In 1860, Fustel de Coulanges joined the faculty of the University of Strasbourg, where he became known for his lectures in ancient history. in 1864, he published his first important work, La Cité antique, a comparative study of Greek and Roman societies. He later (1870) returned to Paris, where he lectured at the École normale supérieure. In 1875, he became a member of the faculty of the university of Paris and, in 1880, was named director of the École normale supérieure. Fustel de Coulanges's most important work was the six-volume L'Histoire des institutions politiques de l'ancienne France (1875-92), in which he contended that the true foundation of European society was more Roman than Germanic. Many of Fustel del Coulanges's writings, including his Questions historiques, in which he contended that history was a science and not an art, were edited by Camille Jul-lian, one of his best students.