Claire Préaux

Claire Préaux ( born December 21, 1904 in Liege, † March 28, 1979 in Ixelles ) was a Belgian classical philologist and Althistorikerin. She is an outstanding representative of classical antiquity studies in their home country.

Claire Préaux grew up in Brussels and graduated from the Ecole Normale Émile André trained as a teacher. This is followed by a study of classical philology at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB ) joined. In 1927 she was awarded his doctorate with the work Sentiments de famille dans l' Égypte GRECO romaine, d'après les papyrus and put here already the basis for the additional focal point in their careers, the study of the papyri and ostraca of the Greco -Roman Egypt. 1939 there followed the Habilitation ( de l' enseignement supérieur Agrégation ). The monumental work on the economy of Ptolemaic Egypt follows the findings of Michael Rostovtzeffs concerning a monarchical -driven economy in Egypt. In 1978, she led this opinion in a monograph on the Hellenistic Egypt again en détail, but expressly disclaims Johann Gustav Droysens model of a mixed Hellenistic culture. 1944 Préaux was a full professor at the ULB. In addition to the Greco-Roman Egypt Préaux also dealt with the Greek literary and cultural history. In a monograph she worked the terms of the Greeks out to the moon, where she covered the theme of the natural sciences to social, cultural and psychological aspects. 1953 she was awarded with the Prize of the highest Francqui Belgian Science Award. She was a member of several scientific academies, including the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Belgique, and an honorary doctor of several universities.