A. B. (Anders Björn) Drachmann

Born in Copenhagen on February 27, 1860, Anders Bjørn Drachmann became one of Denmark’s notable scholars of classical philology. He studied the field seriously from an early age, spent time in Strasbourg in 1881–82, and later built a long academic career at the University of Copenhagen.

He earned his doctorate in 1891 and went on to serve as docent, then extraordinary professor, and finally ordinary professor. Alongside his university work, he also taught and edited scholarly material, and he was elected to the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, later serving as its president in 1933–34.

Drachmann wrote widely on the ancient world, with books and studies on Pindar, Catullus, Virgil, Roman administration, Greek and Roman religion, atheism in pagan antiquity, and the origins of Christianity. He died on August 22, 1935, in Bagsværd. He was also part of a remarkable family: a half-brother of the poet Holger Drachmann and the educator Erna Juel-Hansen.