George Dennis was a British explorer of Etruria

Etruria

Etruria—usually referred to in Greek and Latin source texts as Tyrrhenia—was a region of Central Italy, an area that covered part of what now are Tuscany, Latium, Emilia-Romagna, and Umbria. A particularly noteworthy work dealing with Etruscan locations is D. H...

; his written account and drawings of the ancient places and monuments of the Etruscan civilization combined with his summary of the ancient sources is among the first of the modern era and remains an indispensable reference in Etruscan studies.

Early life

George Dennis left school at the age of 15. He never went to college, and yet he interested himself in languages, studying ancient Greek and Latin on his own and eventually becoming a polyglot in French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, modern Greek, Turkish and some Arabic. A strongly physical man as well, he often went for 40-mile hikes in the uplands of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. He resolved to become an explorer; however, he worked mainly alone.

Solitary Explorer

At age 22 Dennis conducted his first explorations in Portugal and Spain, writing his first work, A Summer in Andalucia, in 1839. Dennis roughed it in Etruria between 1842, at age 28, and 1847, in the company of artist Samuel Ainsley in 1842 and 1843. Etruria of the times had reverted to a semi-wilderness state, rural, depopulated, malarial and infested with bandits. There were few roads. Dennis hiked about the country living in the outdoors or in rural quarters infested with insects studying and recording the monuments he found and any traditions about them.

The result of his travels was his 1,085 page treatise Cities and cemeteries of Etruria, published in 1848 by the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 and including sketches by Dennis and Ainsley. Dennis captures Etruscan civilization and Tuscan landscapes in able prose with scholarly detail. It was nevertheless generally unknown and unappreciated by the British public, partly because of Dennis' lack of academic credentials. He did make some fast friends among the academics who read his work, such as Austen Henry Layard

Austen Henry Layard

Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB, PC was a British traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud.-Family:...

.

Colonial officer

As his book did not receive the recognition and remuneration it deserves, George used his contacts to obtain work with the Colonial Service, which shipped him off to British Guiana

British Guiana

British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.The area was originally settled by the Dutch at the start of the 17th century as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice...

. He married there but he found life dreary. After 14 years he asked his friend Austen Henry Layard to mediate with Lord John Russell to get him out of Guiana. The ploy was successful and in 1863, at age 50, Dennis went as vice-consul to Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

, subsequently to Benghazi

Benghazi

Benghazi is the second largest city in Libya, the main city of the Cyrenaica region , and the former provisional capital of the National Transitional Council. The wider metropolitan area is also a district of Libya...

 and Smyrna

Smyrna

Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...

 in Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

, accompanied by his wife. He had no children.

Recognition

Meanwhile his magnum opus became widely read and was appreciated for the masterpiece it is.
Oxford University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law for it. He was made a Companion of the Order of St. Michael and St. George. His lack of a formal education was a stigma that prevented higher honors. He endured shallow reviews and comments for the rest of his life.

End

George Dennis died alone in London at age 84 officially of "senile decay." At some time before his death second third editions of his work had come out.

External links

• Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, complete, at LacusCurtius
  LacusCurtius
  LacusCurtius is a website specializing in ancient Rome, currently hosted on a server at the University of Chicago. It went online on August 26, 1997; in January 2008 it had "2786 pages, 690 photos, 675 drawings & engravings, 118 plans, 66 maps." The site is the...