Concordia

Concordia Winter 2019 11 there has never been a time when one or another branch of Classics did not have an OMT among its world-leading figures. There was Arnold Wycombe Gomme, whose most important work, though unfinished in his lifetime, was his commentary on the great Greek historian Thucydides. There was Marcus Niebuhr Tod, a Greek historian and epigraphist known to generations of students for his edition of Greek inscriptions. There was Max Laistner, whose interests ran from classical Greece to the early Middle Ages, and he went on to become John Stambaugh Professor of History at Cornell University. There was Adrian Nicholas Sherwin-White, one of the finest Roman historians of the twentieth century. Besides a comprehensive commentary on Pliny, he produced major works on Roman citizenship, law, racial prejudice, and foreign policy. How many other scholars have shown such a broad scope? There was Colin Henderson Roberts, a distinguished papyrologist who was jointly responsible for the fundamental study of the origin of the codex, and was later revealed to have worked at Bletchley Park. It was also in this period that Merchant Taylors’ School had a distinguished classical scholar as its Head Master, Dr John Arbuthnot Nairn. Among editions of Homer and the fourth- century Archbishop of Constantinople, St John Chrysostom, Nairn’s most notable work was an edition of the Mimiambi of the Hellenistic poet Herodas, beloved enough by the French to be added to the Collection Budé. Nairn, finding it impossible to combine research with the duties of a Head Master, achieved all this either before 1907 or after 1926. Francis Storr, the school’s first Head of Modern Studies, amassed a truly formidable portfolio of writings. His forte was producing annotated editions of works in English, French, German, Russian and Latin; not to mention that he was editor of the Journal of Education. Storr also added to the tally of Merchant Taylors’ classical translations by producing two of the earliest volumes in the Loeb Classical Library, containing the seven surviving plays of Sophocles. The design of the Sandy Lodge site implied, for the first time, a rough equality between arts and sciences. In my own time (1958-65) the Classical Side was nominally one-fifth of the school, which inevitably reduced the number of OMTs who went on to make an academic mark in Classics. I know of only three. There is Richard Carden, who edited The Papyrus Fragments of Sophocles, but then joined the civil service: a sad loss to the discipline of Classics. The next name – with apologies – is my own. Encouraged by the then Head Master, Hugh Elder, I went up to Cambridge to read Classics, and did “Encouraged by the then Head Master, Hugh Elder, I went up to Cambridge to read Classics, and did well, particularly in language and linguistics.” well, particularly in language and linguistics. I was soon elected as a fellow of King’s College, with membership of the theoretical linguistics team at its research centre, and I spent the next four years writing two books on the subject (which I sincerely hope no one now reads). By the end of those four years, I was also the translator of a heavy- selling (but academically pretty ropey) Penguin Classic, the designated editor and translator of Aristophanes for the Loeb Classical Library, a married man, soon to be a father, and soon to be unemployed. The Classics job at Nottingham, with a speciality in Greek drama, wasn’t quite the last throw of the dice, but I was apprehensive. My publication record in the field consisted of the Penguin Classic and one short journal article which had been publicly brushed aside as worthless by Hugh Lloyd-Jones. Also, I’d had hardly any sleep the night before the interview, as my wife had gone into labour at 2am. I got the job. Since then, most of my work has been on Athenian drama, especially Aeschylus and Aristophanes, but increasingly also Sophocles and Menander. Altogether I reckon I have edited the texts of 19 surviving Greek dramas and the fragments of at least 75 lost ones. Since then, I think only one other OMT has joined the ranks of professional academic classicists: Tom Nelson, whom I hope and believe to be destined for great things in the field of Hellenistic Greek poetry. To return to notable teaching staff: Martin Lowry was the most inspiring teacher I have ever had. He later joined the History Department at the University of Warwick, specializing in the history and culture of Renaissance Venice and the early days of the printed book. Douglas MacDowell was the best classical scholar ever to have taught at Merchant Taylors’ School. He must already, while teaching here, have been working on his commentary on a little-read speech of Andocides, as well as an article about a crucial and difficult passage of Aristophanes’ Frogs. Moving to academia, MacDowell was a world-leading figure in both Greek law and Greek comedy in a career lasting over half a century, thirty years of which were spent as Professor of Greek at Glasgow, the successor to Murray and to Gomme. At his death in 2010, MacDowell left nearly two million pounds to the university to re-establish and endow the professorship, which is now known accordingly as the MacDowell Chair of Greek. Merchant Taylors’ School since its foundation has been a grammar school in both senses: of selectivity, but also of high academic standards in Latin and Greek. Long may it continue! Concordia Winter 2019 10 Classical sixth, 1928