Pierre Willems (January 6, 1840, in

Maastricht Maastricht ( , , ; ; ; ) is a city and a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands. It is the capital city, capital and largest city of the province of Limburg (Netherlands), Limburg. Maastricht is loca ...

– February 23, 1898, in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

) was a Dutch

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and historian of

Ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. Following the custom of Belgian students he did not confine himself to the courses at

Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (; ) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) * Katholieke Universiteit Leuven or KU Leuven (1968 ...

(French: ''Louvain'') but went to Paris to hear Julius Oppert,

Émile Egger Émile Egger (18 July 18131 September 1885) was a French scholar. Life Émile Egger was born in Paris. From 1840 to 1855, Egger was assistant professor, and from 1855 until his death he was professor of Greek literature in the Faculté des Let ...

, and Henri Patin, and to Berlin,

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

, and

Leyden Leiden ( ; ; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 127,046 (31 January 2023), but the city forms one densely connecte ...

, where he followed the courses of Cobet. On his return in 1865 he was appointed professor of Latin philology at the

; here he spent the remainder of his life, the only events being his lectures and his works. His two chief works are ''Le droit public romain'' (Roman Public Law), first issued under the title, ''Les antiquités romains envisagées au point de vue des institutions politiques'' (Louvain, 1870; 7th ed. by his son Joseph Willems, Louvain, 1910), and ''Le sénat de la republique romaine'' (3 vols., Louvain, 1878–85). The first work is a handbook which stops at

Constantine I Constantine I (27 February 27222 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was a Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337 and the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity. He played a Constantine the Great and Christianity, pivotal ro ...

in the first three editions and now goes as far as

Justinian I Justinian I (, ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovatio imperii'', or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was ...

. The author combined systematic and historical order by dividing the history of Roman institutions into "epochs" and "periods", viz., epoch of royalty, epoch of the republic, epoch of the empire, subdivided into the period of the

Principate The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate. The principate was ch ...

and that of monarchy. In each of these sections Willems studies the conditions of persons, government, and administration. The book on the

Roman Senate The Roman Senate () was the highest and constituting assembly of ancient Rome and its aristocracy. With different powers throughout its existence it lasted from the first days of the city of Rome (traditionally founded in 753 BC) as the Sena ...

shows more evidence of personal research. It contains a new opinion concerning the recruiting of the Senate; Willems does not admit that there were

plebeian In ancient Rome, the plebeians or plebs were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words "commoners". Both classes were hereditary. Etymology The precise origins of the gro ...

senators in the century following the expulsion of the kings. It was by the exercise of the ''curule'' magistracies that the plebs entered the Senate, in fact after 354-200; a

plebiscite A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a direct vote by the electorate (rather than their representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either binding (resulting in the adoption of a new policy) or adv ...

proposed by the

Tribune Tribune () was the title of various elected officials in ancient Rome. The two most important were the Tribune of the Plebs, tribunes of the plebs and the military tribunes. For most of Roman history, a college of ten tribunes of the plebs ac ...

Ovinius and accepted at the end of the fourth century hastened the introduction of the plebeians, and, in short, made the Senate an assembly of former magistrates. He completed his work by a series of studies on the composition of the Roman Senate in 575-179, in 699-55 in his great work, and in A. D. 65 in the ''Musée belge'' (published by his son, 1902). He also contributed to the ''Bulletins'' of the Brussels Academy a memoir on the municipal elections of

Pompeii Pompeii ( ; ) was a city in what is now the municipality of Pompei, near Naples, in the Campania region of Italy. Along with Herculaneum, Stabiae, and Villa Boscoreale, many surrounding villas, the city was buried under of volcanic ash and p ...

(1902). He assisted in the foundation of the second Belgian periodical for classical philology, ''Le Musée belge'' (1897), and organized a ''Societas philologa'', at Louvain, one of the oldest members of which was the Liège professor, Charles Michel, author of the ''Recucit d'inscriptions grecques'' (1900–12). He belonged to the

Flemish Flemish may refer to: * Flemish, adjective for Flanders, Belgium * Flemish region, one of the three regions of Belgium *Flemish Community, one of the three constitutionally defined language communities of Belgium * Flemish dialects, a Dutch dialec ...

party and collected materials for a work on the Flemish dialects, which remains unfinished.

References

* cites: **

Victor Brants Victor Leopold Jacques Louis Brants (1856–1917) was a Belgian economic and social historian, professor at the Catholic University of Leuven. Life Brants was born in Antwerp on 23 November 1856. He taught at the Catholic University of Leuven f ...

in ''l'Annuaire de l'Academie de Bruxelles'' (1889);

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Willems, Pierre 1840 births 1898 deaths 19th-century Dutch historians Classical philologists Writers from Maastricht Catholic University of Leuven alumni Academic staff of KU Leuven