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Paul Veyne (French:[pɔlvɛn]; 13 June 1930 – 29 September 2022) was a French historian and a specialist ofAncient Rome. A student of theÉcole Normale Supérieure and member of theÉcole française de Rome, he was honorary professor at theCollège de France.
Veyne was born inAix-en-Provence. From a background which he described as "uncultured", he took up archaeology and history by chance, at the age of eight, when he discovered a piece of anamphora on aCeltic site close to the village ofCavaillon. He developed a particular interest inRoman civilization since it was the best-known in the environment in which he grew up.
The family having moved toLille, he assiduously studied the Roman collections of the archaeological museum there, where he received guidance from the curator. He maintains that his interest in the Greeks and Romans stems not from any humanist impulse or any specific admiration, but just from his chance discovery as a child.
Having come to Paris for hiskhâgne, he had a sudden moment of political awakening in front of the bas-relief that celebrates the liberation of the city at the bottom of theBoulevard St. Michel and joined theCommunist Party of France. He left the party four years later, without ever having had a true political conviction.
On the other hand, the bad treatment of the Algerians at the hands of the colonials revolted him in equal measure to the atrocities of the Nazis. Once again, however, his shock was neither social nor political, but moral.
Paul Veyne studied at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris 1951–55. He was a member of the École française de Rome 1955–1957, whereupon he settled inAix-en-Provence as a professor at theUniversity of Provence. It was in his years in Aix that he published his provocativeComment on écrit l'histoire, an essay on the epistemology of history.[1] At a time when the dominant trend in French historiography favoured quantitative methods, Veyne's essay unabashedly declared history to be a "true tale". Through his essay, he became an early representative of the interest in the narrative aspects of scientific history.
His monograph onevergetism from 1975 (Le pain et le cirque), however, demonstrated that Veyne's concept of narrative somewhat differed from its common use and that his differences with the hegemonicAnnales school was smaller than what had seemed to be the case in 1970.[2] The book is a comprehensive study of the practice of gift-giving, in the tradition ofMarcel Mauss, more in line with the anthropologically influencedhistoire des mentalités of the thirdAnnalistes generation than with "old-fashioned" narrative history.[3]
In 1975 Veyne entered the Collège de France thanks to the support ofRaymond Aron, who had been abandoned by his former heir apparentPierre Bourdieu.[4] However, Veyne, by failing to cite the name of Aron in his inaugural lecture, aroused his displeasure, and according to Veyne he was persecuted by Aron ever since this perceived sign of his ingratitude.[5] Veyne remained there from 1975 to 1999 as holder of the chair of Roman history.[6]
In 1978 Veyne's epistemological essay was reissued in tandem with a new essay onMichel Foucault as a historian: "Foucault révolutionne l'histoire."[7] In this essay Veyne moved away from the insistence on history as narrative and focused instead on how the work of Foucault constituted a major shift in historical thinking. The essence of the Foucauldian 'revolution' was, according to Veyne, a shift of attention from 'objects' to 'practices', to highlight the way the epistemological objects were brought into being, rather than the objects themselves. With this essay, Veyne established himself as an idiosyncratic and important interpreter of his colleague. The relationship between the historian of antiquities and the philosopher also influenced Foucault's turn towards antiquity in the second volume of theHistory of Sexuality,[8] as well as his reading ofliberalism in his public lectures (1978–79).[9] In 2008 Veyne published a full-length book on Foucault, reworking some of the themes from his 1978 essay, and expanding it to an intellectual portrait.[10]
Paul Veyne lived inBédoin, in theVaucluse.[11] He died there on 29 September 2022, at the age of 92.[12]
Knight of theLegion of Honour
Officer of theNational Order of Merit (France)
Officer of theLegion of Honour
Commander of theOrdre des Arts et des Lettres
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