Rollin, CHARLES

Rollin, CHARLES, born at Paris, January 30, 1661, studied at the Collège du Plessis, and became professor there, next at Paris, and was chosen rector of the university of Paris in 1694. In 1699 he was appointed coadjutor to the principal of the College of Beauvais, but was ejected from this situation twelve years later owing to his Jansenistic sympathies. He was re-elected rector of the university in 1720, and died September 14, 1741. His Traité des Études (4 vols. 1726-31) has been pronounced by Villemain 'a monument of good sense and taste; his Histoire Ancienne (13 vols. 1730-38), long popular and much translated, is feeble in its philosophy, jejune in its criticism, and often inaccurate in its facts. Yet it has opened the study of ancient history to many men since the young prince Frederick the Great. His Histoire Romaine (16 vols. 1738-48) was a much inferior work, long since deservedly forgotten.