Jon D Mikalson

A Slightly Hagiographic History of Classics at the University of Virginia Jon D Mikalson

This brief account traces the history of Classics at the University of Virginia largely through biographies of the faculty from the University's first session in 1825 to 1970. 1970 was chosen as the terminus because the author joined the Department of Classics that year, and he prefers to write of the past, as Herodotus did, not of the present, as Thucydides. He also prefers the rambling, somewhat disorganized, anecdotal, and picaresque character of Herodotus' Histories. He has chosen not to follow Professor Ward Briggs who, in his 1986 essay on Gildersleeve and the University, sternly notes that "information is available, but much of the biographical rubbish that finds its way into self-serving university histories and old-boy memoirs must be judged severely." The author has not only not avoided such "biographical rubbish" but has embraced it warmly. Classicists, if any readers, should appreciate the charm and power of mythology, ancient or modern. Caveat Lector. Like Herodotus the author seldom gives or attempts seriously to verify his sources. Some may be found in the bibliography, but many are scrounged from nooks and crannies of the Internet and the University of Virginia Special Collections Library. The author hopes, however, that like Herodotus' Histories, much more of this "history" will be found to be "true" than not, and that this "history" will at least provide an enjoyable read for the University of Virginia's classicists of the past, present, and future.