Year: 1943
Type: article
Abstract: If proof be needed that Rome is essentially far less a modern national capital than she is the heart and centre of the civilized and cultured world, we find it brilliantly set forth in the career and work of Mrs. Arthur Strong {nee Eugenie Sellers), who died in that city on 16th September 1943.An Englishwoman, educated at Girton College, Cambridge, one of the most distinguished of British archaeologists and art-historians of our day and of the Fellows of this Society, Mrs. Strong was also a Roman in the deepest sense of the term.She lived continuously in Rome from 1909 until her death (true to her character, she would not forsake the city when Italy entered the war), first as Assistant Director of the British School at Rome and from 1925 onwards in her own flat in the Via Balbo.Throughout these years her rooms were both the scene of unremitting study and of an uninterrupted output of published work and an intellectual and social centre for scholars, students, and distinguished persons of all types and of all nationalities.Her kindness, enthusiasm, and charm pervaded these cosmopolitan gatherings, at which the youngest tiro, just embarking upon archaeological or historical work, was no less welcome than the most learned veteran.T h e conversation, carried on in four or five different European languages, in itself served to convey to the new-comer Rome's international role.Mrs. Strong took unbounded pains to assist the work of students: many (the present writer among them) owed their entree to some of the city's collections entirely to her influence and support.
Source: The Antiquaries Journal
Author: Jocelyn M. C. Toynbee
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2314727401