Benedikt Niese

After volunteering for the army during the Franco-Prussian War, he was awarded a PhD in 1872. After teaching for a short time in a secondary school in Flensburg, he travelled in Italy and France. In 1876 he became a lecturer at the University of Göttingen. He was a professor at the University of Marburg from 1877 to 1881, after which he became Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Breslau. In 1885 he took the same post at Marburg and was rector there in 1900/01. In 1881 he married Bertha Zimmerman (1859–1937). He became a lecturer in History at University of Göttingen and died in 1915 in the First World War. Niese is best known for his then definitive editio maior of the works of the Jewish historian Josephus (Weidmann, Berlin, 1885–1895), based on a detailed study of the best manuscripts available. His numbering system is still the most commonly used when referring to the text. His other works include Grundriß der römischen Geschichte, 1889–1905), Studien insbesondere über klassische griechische Autoren and Die Entwicklung der homerischen Poesie, 1882. Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten seit der Schlacht bei Chaeronea was published between 1893 and 1899. Niese's sister was the writer Charlotte Niese.

• De Stephani Byzantii auctoribus. Commentatio prima, etc. (A study of Stephanus of Byzantium. Kiel, 1873.) • Der homerische Schiffskatalog als historische Quelle betrachtet. (The Homeric Ship Catalogue Considered as a Historical Source) (Kiel, 1873.) • Die Entwickelung der Homerischen Poesie (The development of Homeric poetry. Berlin, 1882) • Flavii Josephi opera (Works of Flavius Josephus, 7 volumes, Weidmann, Berlin 1885–1895).[1] • De Annalibus Romanis observationes. (Marburg, 1886) • Geschichte der griechischen und makedonischen Staaten seit der Schlacht bei Chaeronea (History of the Greek and Macedonian states after the battle of Chaeronea) (Published in three parts, 1893-1903.) • Grundriss der römischen Geschichte (Sketches of Roman History) (1889–1905) • Kritik der beiden Makkabäerbücher, nebst Beiträgen zur Geschichte der makkabäischen Erhebung (Berlin, 1900) • Staat und Gesellschaft der Römer • Zur Geschichte Solons und seiner Zeit • Neue Deutsche Biographie, 1998. • Deutsche Biographische Encyclopädia, Munich, 1998

He was employed by University of Wrocław, University of Göttingen and University of Marburg. He belonged to German Archaeological Institute, Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences, Graeca Halensis and Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Lower Saxony.