John Barsby
University of Otago Emeritus Prof John Barsby was the
only New Zealand scholar invited to a recent dinner at Harvard
University, in the United States, marking the centenary of a
prestigious series of classical texts.
About 20 scholarly writers, mostly based in the United States
or Canada, attended the event, to mark the beginning of the
widely respected Loeb Classical Library series in 1911.
A former president of the New Zealand Association of
Classical Teachers, Prof Barsby has been the only New Zealand
classics scholar to prepare an edition in the Loeb series,
contributing a two volume edition of the plays of Terence,
the ancient Roman playwright, in 2001.
Prof Barsby said it was "an honour" to be invited to the
event, which was fully funded by organisers.
Several hundred volumes have been published in the classics
series, which is widely viewed as the leading series of Greek
and Latin texts accompanied by English translations.
Auckland University graduate Prof Richard Thomas, who chairs
the Loeb Classical Library trustees, and is a classics
professor at Harvard, spoke at the dinner.
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