Drakenborch

, a distinguished Dutch classical scholar, was born at Utrecht, January 1st, 1684. He studied at both Utrecht and Leyden, receiving the degree in law in 1706. His attention, however, had been very strongly attracted to the study of archaeology and history, and in 1704 he had already won much commendation by his treatise De Praefectis Urbis, dealing with the city government of Rome. In 1716, he became Professor of History and Eloquence at the university of his native town, succeeding Burmann, who had accepted a call to Leyden. This post he held until his death, which occurred on January 16th, 1748. Besides the treatise De Praefectis, mentioned above, of which a third edition appeared at Bayreuth in 1787, Drakenborch published a dissertation on the advantages to be derived from classical study (1715), an edition of Silius Italicus (Utrecht, 1717), and his magnum opus, an edition of Livy in seven volumes (Amsterdam, 1738-46). This work is still often cited and contains much valuable material, though marred by a lack of definite method, so that Scipio Maffei even said of it that “the only thing that gave it value was the high price at which it was sold.” A portrait of Drakenborch is given at the commencement of the first volume of his Livy.