  The discovery of a population of massive, compact and quiescent early-type
galaxies has changed the view on plausible formation scenarios for the present
day population of elliptical galaxies. Traditionally assumed formation
histories dominated by 'single events' like early collapse or major mergers
appear to be incomplete and have to be embedded in the context of hierarchical
cosmological models with continuous gas accretion and the merging of small
stellar systems (minor mergers). Once these processes are consistently taken
into account the hierarchical models favor a two-phase assembly process and are
in much better shape to capture the observed trends. We review some aspects of
recent progress in the field.
