Becker

A well-known writer on classical subjects, born at Dresden in 1796. Entering the University of Leipzig in 1816, he studied at first theology, and subsequently classical philology. In 1840, he travelled and studied in Italy, returning in 1842 to take the professorship of archaeology at Leipzig, where his lectures were very largely attended. His lively imagination, prompted by his minute knowledge of antiquity, led him to write his two famous works, which have so successfully reproduced pictures of the ancient society of Greece and Rome, while giving in detail a vast amount of archaeological information. These works are Gallus (Leipzig, 1838), a quasi-narrative of life at Rome under Augustus; and Charikles (Leipzig, 1840), a story of society in ancient Greece. These two works have been revised, re-edited, and translated by numerous scholars, and have been a storehouse of information to students in all lands. His formal treatise, De Comicis Romanorum Fabulis (Leipzig, 1837), is another valuable production, as is also his hand-book of Roman antiquities, carried on after his death by Marquardt. Becker died at Meissen, Sept.29thSept., 1846.