 From 1803 until the end of 1808 he served as Prussian envoy (Minister Resident) to the Vatican in Rome, a post whose diplomatic chores he dispatched with skill and efficiency leaving him enough time for his own work. Besides his Basque studies he turned his attention again to ancient Greek language and literature, translating from the poetry of Pindar (Olympic Odes), Aischylos tragedy Agamemnon as well as smaller pieces from other authors (GS Vol 8: 3–270). The introduction to his German version of Agamemnon includes a succinct statement of his theory of translation where he formulated a new approach to the problem of translation and developed concepts that have been taken up again only in modern (Walter Benjamin) and contemporary translation theories. But Humboldt’s life in the Eternal City also lead him to reflect deeply about the fate of ancient culture and its history, a concern that found expression in his two essays “Latium und Hellas” 1806, and “Geschichte des Verfalls und Untergangs der griechischen Freistaaten” (“Latium and Hellas”, “History of the Decline and Fall of the Greek Republics”) 1807–1808 (GS Vol 3: 136–70; 171–218). Under the impact of Schiller’s untimely death in 1805 he composed the elegy “Rome” (published in 1806), the best known of his poems. His stay in Rome unexpectedly added yet another dimension to his linguistic interests that would become significant for his future linguistic research endeavors: the native languages of the Americas. He had already asked his brother Alexander before he set sail for the New World to be on the lookout for linguistic materials during his travels in South and Central America. In Rome he had the opportunity to meet and befriend the former chief of the Jesuit Missions in the Americas and head of the Papal Quirinal Library, the Spaniard Lorenzo Hervás (1753–1809). His new acquaintance was himself a renowned linguist with whose work (for example his Catálogo des las lenguas de las naciones conocidas, 1787) Humboldt was already familiar. He was given the chance to consult and eventually to copy the entire collection of Hervás’ extensive holdings of Native American grammars and materials. These would form the basis for his own study of the American languages. While he was perusing his linguistic researches, Humboldt’s residence in the Villa Gregoriana became a popular gathering place for the members of the European artist colony, which harbored figures like Bertel Thorwaldsen, Christian David Rauch, Gottlieb Schlick, Karl Ludwig Fernow and Johann Georg Zoega. Among the European visitors who came to see Humboldt were Madame de Staël, August Wilhelm Schlegel and the English poet Coleridge. Although he lost two of his sons in Rome (of the Humboldt’s eight children three died at an early age) he considered the Roman years as the happiest of his life.