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robert fagles, translator of the classics, dies at 74

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Robert Fagles, Translator of the Classics, Dies at 74

By CHARLES McGRATH

Published: March 29, 2008 NYT

Mr. Fagles was a renowned translator of Latin and Greek whose versions of Homer and Virgil became unlikely best sellers.  read on

Photo: Robert Fagles in 2006. Laura Pedrick for The New York Times

robert fagles’ aeneid translation

frank m. snowden jr., 95, historian of blacks in antiquity

Frank M. Snowden Jr., 95, Historian of Blacks in Antiquity, Dies

By MARGALIT FOX

Published: February 28, 2007
The New York Times

Frank M. Snowden Jr. was a historian who was a leading authority on the lives of black people in the ancient world.

“… In his work, Dr. Snowden documented Greek and Roman encounters with black Africans over many centuries, contending that racial prejudice, at least as it is defined today, was largely unknown in antiquity. His books include “Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience” (Harvard University, 1970) and “Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks” (Harvard University, 1983).

Dr. Snowden’s scholarship took in a 3,000-year period, from the middle of the third millennium B.C. to the sixth century A.D. Trained as a classicist, he mined Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Assyrian, Hebrew and early Christian texts and also visited museums around the world to examine the depictions of blacks in ancient art.”

Photo: William Philpott/Reuters, 2003
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Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience (Belknap Press)
Before Color Prejudice: The Ancient View of Blacks