Fustel de Coulanges

French historian who wrote The Ancient City — arguing that Greek and Roman civilization was fundamentally shaped by ancestral religion and the cult of the dead — one of the founding figures of modern historical sociology.

Demonstrated that ancient Greek and Roman political institutions cannot be understood without understanding their religious foundations — the city, the family, property, and political authority all derived their meaning from ancestral religion and the hearth cult — making religion the key to understanding ancient civilization.