author of _Etudes sur les tragiques grecs_, in 1876, he was elected a
member of the French Academy, of which he was appointed perpetual
secretary in 1895.
His later works include _Promenades archeologiques: Rome et Pompei_
(1880; second series, 1886); _L'Afrique romaine, promenades
archeologiques_ (1901); _La Fin du paganisme_ (2 vols., 1891); _Le
Conjuration de Catilina_ (1905); _Tacite_ (1903, Eng. trans, by W.G.
Hutchison, 1906). He was a representative example of the French talent
for lucidity and elegance applied with entire seriousness to weighty
matters of literature. Though he devoted himself mainly to his great
theme, the reconstruction of the elements of Roman society, he also
wrote monographs on _Madame de Sevigne_ (1887) and _Saint-Simon_ (1892).
He died in June 1908.
BOISSONADE DE FONTARABIE, JEAN FRANCOIS (1774-1857), French classical
scholar, was born at Paris on the 12th of August 1774. In 1792 he
entered the public service during the administration of General
Dumouriez. Driven from it in 1795, he was restored by Lucien Bonaparte,
during whose time of office he served as secretary to the prefecture of
the Upper Marne. He then definitely resigned public employment and
devoted himself to the study of Greek. In 1809 he was appointed deputy
professor of Greek at the faculty of letters at Paris, and titular
professor in 1813 on the death of P.H. Larcher. In 1828 he succeeded
J.B. Gail in the chair of Greek at the College de France. He also held
the offices of librarian of the Bibliotheque du Roi, and of perpetual
secretary of the Academie des Inscriptions. He died on the 8th of
September 1857. Boissonade chiefly devoted his attention to later Greek
literature: Philostratus, _Heroica_ (1806) and _Epistolae_ (1842);
Marinus, _Vita procli_ (1814); Tiberius Rhetor, _De Figuris_ (1815);
Nicetas Eugenianus, _Drosilla et Charicles_ (1819); Herodian,
_Partitiones_ (1819); Aristaenetus, _Epistolae_ (1822); Eunapius, _Vitae
Sophistarum_ (1822); Babrius, _Fables_ (1844); Tzetzes, _Allegoriae
Iliados_ (1851); and a _Collection of Greek Poets_ in 24 vols. The
_Anecdota Graeca_ (1829-1833) and _Anecdota Nova_ (1844) are important
for Byzantine history and the Greek grammarians.
A selection of his papers was published by F. Colincamp, _Critique
litteraire sous le premier Empire_ (1863), vol. i. of which contains a
complete list of his works, and a "Notice Historique sur Monsieur B.,"
by Naudet.
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