Background
He was born in Naumburg, in the Electorate of Saxony.
university professor classical philologist
He was born in Naumburg, in the Electorate of Saxony.
Two years afterwards, on the recommendation of Gronovius, he was chosen to succeed that scholar at Deventer. In 1662 he moved to the University of Utrecht, where he occupied first the chair of rhetoric, and in addition, from 1667 until his death, that of history and politics. Graevius enjoyed a very high reputation as a teacher, and his lecture-room was crowded by pupils, many of them of distinguished rank, from all parts of the world.
He was visited by Lorenzo Magalotti and honoured with special recognition by Louis XIV, and was a particular favourite of William III of England, who made him historiographer royal.
His two most important works are the Thesaurus antiquitatum Romanarum (1694–1699, in 12 volumes), and the Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae published after his death, and continued by the elder Pieter Burmann (1704–1725), although these have not always been looked upon favourably. His editions of the classics, although they marked a distinct advance in scholarship, are now for the most part superseded.
They include Hesiod (1667), Lucian, Pseudosophista (1668), Justin, Historiae Philippicae (1669), Suetonius (1672), Catullus, Tibullus et Propertius (1680), and several of the works of Cicero, which are considered his best. He also edited many of the writings of contemporary scholars.
Graevius died in Utrecht in 1703.