Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen was a German classical scholar, jurist, journalist and archaeologist. He was one of the greatest classicists of the 19th century, his work regarding Roman history is still of fundamental importance for contemporary research. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902 for being "the greatest living master of the art of historical writing, with special reference to his monumental work, A History of Rome", after having been nominated by 18 members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, he was a prominent German politician, as a member of the Prussian and German parliaments. His works on Roman law and on the law of obligations had a significant impact on the German civil code. Mommsen was born to German parents in Garding in the Duchy of Schleswig in 1817 ruled by the king of Denmark, grew up in Bad Oldesloe in Holstein, where his father was a Lutheran minister, he studied at home, though he attended the gymnasium Christianeum in Altona for four years. He studied Greek and Latin and received his diploma in 1837.
As he could not afford to study at Göttingen, he enrolled at the University of Kiel. Mommsen studied jurisprudence at Kiel from 1838 to 1843, finishing his studies with the degree of Doctor of Roman Law. During this time he was the roommate of Theodor Storm, to become a renowned poet. Together with Mommsen's brother Tycho, the three friends published a collection of poems. Thanks to a royal Danish grant, Mommsen was able to visit France and Italy to study preserved classical Roman inscriptions. During the revolution of 1848 he worked as a war correspondent in then-Danish Rendsburg, supporting the German annexation of Schleswig-Holstein and a constitutional reform. Having been forced to leave the country by the Danes, he became a professor of law in the same year at the University of Leipzig; when Mommsen protested against the new constitution of Saxony in 1851, he had to resign. However, the next year he obtained a professorship in Roman law at the University of Zurich and spent a couple of years in exile.
In 1854 he became a professor of law at the University of Breslau. Mommsen became a research professor at the Berlin Academy of Sciences in 1857, he helped to create and manage the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. In 1858 Mommsen was appointed a member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin, he became professor of Roman History at the University of Berlin in 1861, where he held lectures up to 1887. Mommsen received high recognition for his academic achievements: foreign membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1859, the Prussian medal Pour le Mérite in 1868, honorary citizenship of Rome, elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1870, the Nobel prize in literature in 1902 for his main work Römische Geschichte. At 2 a.m. on 7 July 1880 a fire occurred in the upper floor workroom-library of Mommsen's house at Marchstraße 6 in Berlin. After being burned while attempting to remove valuable papers, he was restrained from returning to the blazing house.
Several old manuscripts were burnt to ashes, including Manuscript 0.4.36, on loan from the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. There is information that the important Manuscript of Jordanes from Heidelberg University library was burnt. Two other important manuscripts, from Brussels and Halle, were destroyed. Mommsen was an indefatigable worker. People saw him reading whilst walking in the streets. Mommsen had sixteen children with his wife Marie, their oldest daughter Maria married Ulrich von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, the great Classics scholar. Their grandson Theodor Ernst Mommsen became a professor of medieval history in the United States. Two of the great-grandsons, Hans Mommsen and Wolfgang Mommsen, were prominent German historians. Mommsen published over 1,500 works, established a new framework for the systematic study of Roman history, he pioneered epigraphy. Although the unfinished History of Rome, written early in his career, has long been considered as his main work, the work most relevant today is the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, a collection of Roman inscriptions he contributed to the Berlin Academy.
Mommsen's History of Rome, his most famous work, appeared as three volumes in 1854, 1855, 1856. Since Mommsen admired Caesar, he felt unable to describe the death of his hero, he compared the political thought and terminology of the ancient Republic during its last century, with the situation of his own time, e.g. the nation-state and incipient imperialism. It is one of the great classics of historical works. Mommsen never wrote a promised next volume to recount subsequent events during the imperial period, i.e. a volume 4, although demand was high for a continuation. Popular and acknowledged internationally by classical scholars, the work quickly received criticism; the Provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian, published as volume 5 of his History of Rome, is a description of all Roman regions during the early imperial period. Roman Chronology to the Time of Caesar written with his brother August Mommsen. Roman Constitutional Law; this systematic treatment of Roman constitutional law in three volumes has been of importance for research on ancient history
Frida Abramovna Vigdorova was a Soviet journalist and writer. She is known for her record of the trial of poet Joseph Brodsky in 1964. Vigdorova graduated from Moscow Pedagogic Institute, she was the author of a number of books on issues in education, including Diary of a Russian Schoolteacher. She worked as a correspondent for Literaturnaya Gazeta. In 1964, Vigdorova took notes during the trial of poet Joseph Brodsky, convicted for "social parasitism". Compiled without censorship, Frida Vigdorova's account circulated in samizdat and made its way to the West. Alexandra Raskina. Frida Vigdorova’s Transcript of Joseph Brodsky’s Trial: Myths and Reality // «Journal of Modern Russian History and Historiography», No. 7, pp. 144–180. Vigdorova, Frida. "The Trial of Joseph Brodsky". New England Review. 34: 183–207. Doi:10.1353/ner.2014.0022. ISSN 2161-9131. Retrieved 2016-06-02. Mayofis, Maria. ""Individual Approach" as a Moral Demand and a Literary Device: Frida Vigdorova's Pedagogical Novels". Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas.
13: 19–41. Doi:10.1353/pan.2015.0007. ISSN 1936-9247. Retrieved 2016-06-02
Thriller was a short-lived comic book series published by DC Comics beginning in November 1983. The series was written by Robert Loren Fleming and drawn by Trevor Von Eeden, it was sold only through the direct market. The taglines for the series were, "She has 7 seconds to save the world " and "You can't read it fast enough"; the "she" in question was protagonist Angie Thriller. The "7 seconds" referred to a team of operatives. Thriller ran for 12 issues. After the first seven issues, Fleming left the series and Von Eeden left after issue #8; the series ran four more issues by artist Alex Niño. Angeline Marietta Salvotini Thriller was the leader of a team of adventurers called the Seven Seconds, who were based in New York City a subjective "fifty years in the future". Angeline had the power to become one with any inanimate object, thus control it, she could cause her face to appear on an object or in the sky. The only living beings she could merge with were her twin brother Tony, the artificially created Beaker Parish.
Angeline could see visions of possible future events. Much in the vein of pulp heroes such as The Shadow or Doc Savage, Angie Thriller was described in early publicity as being "like a cross between Jesus Christ and my Mom" by Fleming, she served as the ethereal leader for her team. Salvo was Angeline's brother, Tony Salvotini, a former mercenary soldier and member of the U. S. Marines' Rapid Deployment Force. After mistakenly killing an innocent man, Salvo vowed to never again shoot to kill, he would instead only wound his targets, his motto being "Only flesh wounds, only out-patients." Beaker Parish - the test tube experiment of two renegade college science students resulted in a 7-foot-tall red-headed priest with unexplained psychic abilities. Beaker was a childhood friend of Angie. Crackerjack - a youthful Honduran pickpocket, the ward of Angie's husband, Edward Thriller, he had no given name, assists with the care of Angie and Edward's son and served as an all around "gopher" for the team. Daniel Grove - A photojournalist who filmed his brother's execution by the villain Scabbard.
Grove was saved from Scabbard by Angie, offered the chance to join the Seven Seconds. Data - Freddie Martin was the son of the President of the United States, he was the team's communications and information expert, worked with the team from an enhanced computer system built into his limo, one which Data was physically interfaced with and could never leave. Proxy - Robert Furillo, Tony's best friend. Bob was an actor. Proxy used a synthetic spray on skin to create new disguises for the team's more covert requirements. Salvo - Tony Salvotini was Angie's brother and a superhumanly expert marksman. White Satin - Janet Valentine was Tony's girlfriend, Quo's ex-wife, she could disrupt a person's physiology and mental state with a touch. She was a jet pilot, hence the nickname "Jet", coined by Salvo. Edward Thriller - Edward was Angie's scientist husband, whose experiments with alien DNA resulted in his merging bodies with his wife, resulted in her attaining godlike powers, they could not co-exist in the same place at the same time.
Kane Creole - A second generation clone of Elvis Presley. He started out as an actor doing bank robberies for publicity, but ran afoul of the Seven Seconds and was taken in by Edward. Mallochia - Scabbard's lover, a woman with psychic powers, she had once served as Scotty's nanny. Marietta Salvotini - Tony and Angie's widowed Mother, who operates a diner named "Home", she was blinded in a fire which claimed the life of her husband, gained eyesight and hypnotic powers due to the machinations of Quo. Quo - Richard Quorum, former husband of Janet Valentine. Quo ascended to a higher state and appears when events are at a crisis point of some sort. Scotty Thriller - Angie and Edward's baby boy, who appeared to be normal in every way; the Seven Seconds investigated cases involving unusual menaces, some bordering on the supernatural. On their most notable mission, they were able to thwart Moses Lusk's attempt to bring about a nuclear holocaust and destroy all life on Earth. Thriller at the Comic Book DB Thriller fan website Extra content from Ed Catto's Thriller interview, at Comicmix.com