Michail Rostovtzeff als Universalhistoriker

Abstract

It is well known that astonishing diversity and universality are characteristic of Michail Rostovtzeff’s research work. Yet although he was a man of extraordinarily broad scholarly interests, Rostovtzeff always saw himself primarily as a historian. One of the most important methodological principles by which Rostovtzeff was guided throughout his academic career was a synthetic evaluation of all types of evidence, i. e. literary, epigraphic, papyrological, archaeological and numismatic. For him the main aim of historical study was the most accurate reconstruction of a historical event or phenomenon in all its diversity. On the whole, Rostovtzeff remained faithful to the theoretical and methodological attitudes he took up in his youth until the end of his life, although he further developed and improved his methods over the years. In this respect, emigration from Russia did not play a pivotal role in his scholarly fate, as it is so often claimed in Western historiography.