Richard Shilleto (25 November 1809 – 24 September 1876), English classical scholar, was born at

Ulleskelf Ulleskelf is a village and civil parish in the Selby District of North Yorkshire, England, four miles from Tadcaster on the River Wharfe. Its name comes from the Scandinavian personal name ''Úlfr'', while ''skelf'' is an Old English term mea ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. He was educated at

Repton Repton is a village and civil parish in the South Derbyshire district of Derbyshire, England, located on the edge of the River Trent floodplain, about north of Swadlincote. The population taken at the 2001 Census was 2,707, increasing to 2,8 ...

and

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

, then

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he graduated second classic in 1832. Though Shilleto did not become a fellow of Trinity, marrying Isabella S. H. Snelgar in 1834, he spent the rest of his life in Cambridge as a 'coach'(private tutor) in classics. His son Arthur Richard Shilleto was born in 1848. In 1867 he was elected a fellow of

Peterhouse Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite o ...

. Shilleto was one of the greatest

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

scholars that England has produced; in addition, he had an intimate acquaintance with the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and English languages and literature. He published little, being obliged to devote the best years of his life to private tuition. He was the most famous classical coach of his day, and almost all the best men passed through his hands. His edition of the ''De falsa legatione'' of

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 ...

will always remain a standard work, but his first two books of

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 ...

(an instalment of a long-contemplated edition) hardly came up to expectation. His pamphlet ''Thucydides or Grote?'' excited a considerable amount of feeling. While it undoubtedly damaged Grote's reputation as a scholar, it was felt that it showed a want of appreciation of the special greatness of the historian. Shilleto's powers as a translator from English into Greek (especially prose) and Latin were unrivalled; a selection of his versions was published in 1901.

References

* BH Kennedy in ''Cambridge Journal of Philology'' (1877). * 1809 births 1876 deaths People educated at Repton School People educated at Shrewsbury School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge English classical scholars People from Selby District {{UK-academic-bio-stub