The New International Encyclopædia/Becker, Wilhelm Adolf

BECKER, Wilhelm Adolf (1796-1840). A German archæologist, born in Dresden. He was professor at Leipzig, and author of the famous stories of classical antiquity, Charikles (1840) and Gallus (1838; rev. ed. by Göll, 1880-82), in which he reproduced with an extraordinary, minute learning and deftness the familiar life of the days of Pericles and of Augustus. These are translated, with modifications, by Metcalfe (1886). They were suggested by the Anacharsis of J. J. Barthélemy (q.v.). Becker wrote, also, a good Latin treatise on Roman dramatic poetry, De Comicis Romanorum Fabulis (1837), and a useful Handbuch der römischen Alterthümer (1843-46).