Lionel Casson (July 22, 1914 – July 18, 2009) was a

classicist Classics or classical studies is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, classics traditionally refers to the study of Classical Greek and Roman literature and their related original languages, Ancient Greek and Latin. Classics ...

, professor emeritus at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

, and a specialist in

maritime history Maritime history is the study of human interaction with and activity at sea. It covers a broad thematic element of history that often uses a global approach, although national and regional histories remain predominant. As an academic subject, it ...

.Professor Lionel Casson's Acceptance Speech to the AIA
/ref> He earned his B.A. in 1934 at New York University, and in 1936 became an assistant professor. He later earned his Ph.D. there during 1939. In 2005 he was awarded the

Archaeological Institute of America The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is North America's oldest society and largest organization devoted to the world of archaeology. AIA professionals have carried out archaeological fieldwork around the world and AIA has established re ...

Gold Medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have bee ...

Early years

He was born Lionel I. Cohen on July 22, 1914, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, and later changed his last name to "Casson". As a teenager he owned a sailboat that he would use on

Long Island Sound Long Island Sound is a marine sound and tidal estuary of the Atlantic Ocean. It lies predominantly between the U.S. state of Connecticut to the north and Long Island in New York to the south. From west to east, the sound stretches from the Eas ...

. He attended

for all of his collegiate studies, earning a bachelor's degree there in 1934, a master's in 1936 and his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

in 1939 and was employed at NYU as an instructor. He served as an officer of the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, responsible for the interrogation of

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

.Hevesi, Dennis
"Lionel Casson, Who Wrote of Ancient Maritime History, Dies at 94"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', July 24, 2009. Accessed July 29, 2009. After completing his military service, Casson returned to NYU, where he served as a professor of classics from 1961 to 1979. The author of 23 books on maritime history and

classic literature A classic is a book accepted as being exemplary or particularly noteworthy. What makes a book "classic" is a concern that has occurred to various authors ranging from Italo Calvino to Mark Twain and the related questions of "Why Read the Cla ...

, Casson used ancient material ranging from

Demosthenes Demosthenes (; el, Δημοσθένης, translit=Dēmosthénēs; ; 384 – 12 October 322 BC) was a Greek statesman and orator in ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prow ...

's speeches and works by

Thucydides Thucydides (; grc, , }; BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientifi ...

to cargo manifests and archeological studies of ancient shipwrecks and the contents of the

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

e they carried to develop a framework for the development of shipbuilding, maritime trade routes and naval warfare in the ancient world.

Classics

In a 2005 speech to the

accepting its Gold Medal, Casson recalled a visit to

Southern France Southern France, also known as the South of France or colloquially in French language, French as , is a defined geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi ...

in 1953 when he had the opportunity to visit

Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau, (, also , ; 11 June 191025 June 1997) was a French naval officer, oceanographer, filmmaker and author. He co-invented the first successful Aqua-Lung, open-circuit SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). Th ...

, who was performing an investigation of an ancient shipwreck. Once he visited the warehouse with the hundreds of amphorae that had been brought to the surface, Casson said that he immediately knew that he "was in on the beginning of a totally new source of information about ancient maritime matters and I determined then and there to exploit it" and integrate this new trove of data with the information he had been able to assemble from ancient writings. His 1959 book ''The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times'' told how civilizations along the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

began by having their ships travel along the coast and then advanced to voyages across the sea, far from the sight of shore. Commerce and military ventures resulted in journeys to such remote locales as

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

with more specialized crafts designed that expanded the original flat-bottomed boats into vessels such as the

trireme A trireme( ; derived from Latin: ''trirēmis'' "with three banks of oars"; cf. Greek ''triērēs'', literally "three-rower") was an ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean S ...

propelled by hundreds of oarsmen to speeds of seven knots by its 170 oars. ''Illustrated History of Ships and Boats'', published by Doubleday in 1964, provided a history of boats from ancient craft carved from wood or made from animal skins up to the day's most modern

nuclear submarine A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed. Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion, ...

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

published Casson's 2001 book ''Libraries in the Ancient World'' that uses references in ancient works and archeological evidence in the Middle East and the

Greco-Roman world The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...

to follow the development of writing, the creation of the first books and the process of copying them by hand and assembling them into libraries. In the book, Casson puts

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

at the top of a most-popular author list, "with the ''

Iliad The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odysse ...

'' favored over the ''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

''" on his best-seller list. He documents the transitions from clay tablets, to papyrus and parchment scrolls, and the development of the

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

as the precursor of the modern book. Casson rejects the accepted wisdom that the

Library of Alexandria The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, th ...

was destroyed in 48 BC and argues that evidence shows that it continued in existence until 270 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor

Aurelian Aurelian ( la, Lucius Domitius Aurelianus; 9 September 214 October 275) was a Roman emperor, who reigned during the Crisis of the Third Century, from 270 to 275. As emperor, he won an unprecedented series of military victories which reunited t ...

. He was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the

Trap Door Spiders The Trap Door Spiders are a literary male-only eating, drinking, and arguing society in New York City, with a membership historically composed of notable science fiction personalities. The name is a reference to the reclusive habits of the trapdoo ...

.Asimov, Isaac. ''I. Asimov, a Memoir'', New York, Doubleday, 1994, pp. 377–378. Casson died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

at age 94 on July 18, 2009. He was survived by his wife, the former Julia Michelman, as well as two daughters and two grandchildren.

Bibliography

*Casson, Lionel (1959). ''The Ancient Mariners : Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times''. Victor Gollancz. *Casson, Lionel (1991). ''The Ancient Mariners'' (Second Edition). Princeton University Press. *Casson, Lionel (1960). ''Masters of Ancient Comedy''. The MacMillan Co. *Casson, Lionel (1980). ''Masters of Ancient Comedy: Selections from Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence''. Funk & Wagnalls Co. *Casson, Lionel (1962). ''Selected Satires of Lucian''. (Translated and edited by Casson.) *Casson, Lionel (1964). ''Illustrated History of Ships & Boats''. Doubleday & Company, Inc. *Casson, Lionel (1974). ''Travel in the Ancient World''. George Allen & Unwin Ltd. *Casson, Lionel (1994). ''Travel in the Ancient World'' (Second Edition). The Johns Hopkins University Press. *Casson, Lionel (1975). ''The Horizon Book of Daily Life in Ancient Rome''. Simon & Schuster. *Casson, Lionel (1999). ''Everyday Life in Ancient Rome'' (Revised and Expanded Edition). The Johns Hopkins University Press. *Casson, Lionel (1977). ''Mysteries of the Past''. American Heritage Publishing Co. *Casson, Lionel (1983). ''Great Ages of Man: Ancient Egypt''. Random House Value Publishing. *Casson, Lionel (1995). ''Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World''. The Johns Hopkins University Press. *Casson, Lionel (2001). ''Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt'' (Revised and Expanded Edition). The Johns Hopkins University Press. *Casson, Lionel (2002). ''Libraries in the Ancient World'' (New Edition). Yale University Press.

References

External links

Interview with Lingua Franca on Libraries in the Ancient World
{{DEFAULTSORT:Casson, Lionel 1914 births 2009 deaths American classical scholars United States Navy personnel of World War II Deaths from pneumonia in New York City People from Brooklyn New York University alumni Classical scholars of New York University United States Navy officers Classical archaeologists Historians of libraries