From the Harvard Gazette:

Professor Ernst Badian, John Moors Cabot Professor of History Emeritus, died on Feb. 1.

After teaching in the universities of Sheffield, Durham, and Leeds in Britain, and at the State University of New York, Buffalo, he was appointed to Harvard’s Department of History in 1971, and was cross-appointed to the Department of the Classics in 1973. He became emeritus in 1998.

Badian was one of the great historians of Greece and Rome of the 20th century. He was born in Vienna in 1925. In 1938, in view of the growing persecution of Jews in Austria and Germany, he moved with his parents to New Zealand. There he attended Canterbury University College, Christchurch, and received a B.A. with first-class honors in 1945, and an M.A. in 1946. He then transferred to Oxford University, in England, where he received another B.A., again with first-class honors, and went on to write his doctoral dissertation under Sir Ronald Syme; he later edited two of the seven volumes of Syme’s “Roman Papers.” His dissertation formed the basis of his first book, which remains his magnum opus, his “Foreign Clientelae” of 1958. This fundamental study of Roman imperialism in a period of crucial growth and transformation is still an unreplaced classic. Roman imperialism continued to be one of Badian’s major interests, and “Foreign Clientelae” was followed by “Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic” and “Publicans and Sinners.”

Unusually for someone whose main field was Roman history, Badian was also a major force in Greek history. In particular, beginning with an article on the city of Alexandria published in 1960, he brought about a revolution in modern understanding of one of the main figures in the tapestry of ancient history: Alexander III of Macedon, often called “the Great.” Reacting against the hero worship that was still offered to Alexander in the mid-20th century, Badian forced historians to look again at the contradictory and confusing texts on which most knowledge rests, and to realize that Alexander was as ruthless as any of the Roman generals that march through the pages of “Foreign Clientelae.” Allied to Badian’s deep historical sense was an acute philological ear, especially in his mastery of Latin, and he was a superb stylist in his second language of English.

Badian’s large output comprises well over 200 items, including six books and many notices for a basic tool of classical scholarship, the Oxford Classical Dictionary. He was also a formidable and sometimes devastating reviewer. Active in the historical profession in both the United Kingdom and the United States, he helped found the Association of Ancient Historians (1974) and the American Journal of Ancient History (1978). In 1999 he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art.

Badian leaves behind a wife, Nathlie; two children, Hugh and Rosemary; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on March 22, at 1 p.m., at Harvard Hillel, 52 Mt. Auburn St.

• Ernst Badian, professor of history emeritus, 85 | Harvard Gazette.

From the Irish Times:

Former Trinity vice-provost and emeritus professor John Victor Luce died yesterday following a short illness at the age of 90.

Better known as JV Luce, he was a senior fellow of Trinity and was the 62nd vice-provost of the university from 1987 to 1989, a position which his father, Arthur Aston Luce also held between 1946 and 1952. He also acted as the public orator at Trinity for a number of years.

Mr Luce was the author of numerous books, including those on Homer and the Trojan War, a subject which he specialised in. He also wrote a book entitled Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years , published in 1992.As a young man he was an avid sportsman and played hockey for Ireland in the 1940s and was captain of the Trinity squash and hockey teams, as well as playing cricket.

• via In Short – The Irish Times – Sat, Feb 12, 2011.

Dr Badian died a few days ago and obituaries still haven’t appeared; the closest seems to be from Harvard’s Faculty page, which seems to have added a line noting his passing:

Ernst Badian was Professor of History 1971-82 and John Moors Cabot Professor of History 1982-98. He passed away on February 1, 2011, at the age of 85. A private funeral was held on February 3, in Brookline, MA, and information about a memorial service at Harvard University will be posted in the coming weeks.

Professor Badian received a B.A. in 1945 and an M.A. in 1946 from Canterbury University College, New Zealand; also a B.A. (First Class in Litt. Hum.) in 1950, an M.A. in 1954, a D. Phil. in 1956 from Oxford University, a Litt. D. from Victoria University in New Zealand in 1962, an Hon. Litt. D. from Macquarie University in Sydney in 1993, and an Hon. Litt. D. from the University of Canterbury in 1999. In 1999 he was decorated with the Cross of Honor for Science and Art by the Republic of Austria.

His publications included Foreign Clientelae 264-70 B.C. (Charendon Press, Oxford, 1958); Studies in Greek and Roman History(Blackwell, Oxford, 1964); Roman Imperialism in the Late Republic, 2nd ed. (1st commercial ed.) (Blackwell, Oxford/Cornell Univ. Press, 1968); Publicans and Sinners (Blackwell, Oxford/Cornell Univ. Press, 1972, reprinted, with corrections and critical bibliography, Cornell Univ. Press, 1983); From Plataea to Potidaea (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993); Zöllner und Sünder (Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1997).

He wrote about 200 articles in journals and composite volumes, plus contributions to encyclopaedias, etc. He edited a number of books, including Ancient Society and Institutions. Studies Presented to Victor Ehrenberg (Blackwell, Oxford, 1966); Polybius. Selected passages in translation, with an introduction of 12,000 words (Washington Square Press, NY, 1966); Sir Ronald Syme, Roman Papers (vols. 1 & 2) (Oxford Univ. Press, 1979); Translated Documents of Greek and Rome, vols. 1, 2, 3, edited jointly with Robert K. Sherk (Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, then Cambridge Univ. Press; various dates).

He was the founder and, until 2001, the editor of The American Journal of Ancient History. He also founded the Association of Ancient Historians and the New England Ancient History Colloquium.

He was a Fellow of the British Academy; Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Fellow of the American Numismatic Society; Honorary Fellow of University College, Oxford; Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; Corresponding Member of the German Archaeological Institute; Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences; Honorary Member of the Roman Society (London).

• Ernst Badian | Harvard

From Le Monde (tip o’ the pileus to Dorothy King):

L’académicienne Jacqueline de Romilly, spécialiste de la civilisation et de la langue grecques, est morte samedi à l’âge de 97 ans, indique, dimanche, son éditeur Bernard de Fallois. Née le 26 mars 1913 à Chartres (Eure-et-Loir) d’un père professeur de philosophie et d’une mère romancière, Jacqueline David a très vite été première : deux fois lauréate du Concours général, ouvert pour la première fois aux femmes en 1930, elle sera la première femme reçue à l’Ecole normale supérieure en 1933, puis à l’agrégation de lettres en 1936.

Professeur de lycée à partir de 1939, elle est nommée maître de conférences (1949), puis professeur titulaire (1951) à la faculté des lettres de Lille, avant d’être professeur de langue et littérature grecques à la faculté des lettres de Paris (1957-1973).

Elle a été la première femme professeur au Collège de France pour chaire “La Grèce et la formation de la pensée morale et politique” (1973-1984) puis la première femme élue à l’Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres (1975). Spécialiste de la civilisation et de la langue grecques, elle est l’auteur de très nombreux ouvrages sur cette période, notamment sur l’historien Thucydide, le théâtre d’Eschyle et d’Euripide et la guerre du Péloponnèse.

Jacqueline de Romilly, qui incarnait l’enseignement des études grecques classiques en France ainsi qu’une conception exigeante et humaniste de la culture, a écrit, en plus de 60 ans, de très nombreux ouvrages. En 1988, elle était devenue la deuxième femme élue à l’Académie française, après Marguerite Yourcenar. Elle en était la doyenne depuis la mort de Claude Lévi-Strauss en 2009. Membre correspondant étranger de l’Académie d’Athènes, elle avait obtenu la nationalité grecque en 1995 et avait été nommée ambassadrice de l’hellénisme en 2000.

“C’est une perte pour notre pays”, a réagi sur France Info Hélène Carrère d’Encausse, secrétaire perpétuel de l’Académie Française. “C’est une femme qui a porté toute sa vie la langue et la culture grecques parce qu’elle considérait (…) que c’était une éducation (…) à la compréhension de la liberté de l’individu, de l’attachement à la démocratie”, a-t-elle souligné.

“Elle a souffert énormément depuis quelques dizaines d’années de voir l’étude de cette langue décliner, et cela a été pour elle un immense chagrin”, a-t-elle ajouté, jugeant que le meilleur hommage à lui rendre “serait d’attacher plus d’importance désormais à la langue grecque dont elle a été le plus grand défenseur dans notre pays”.

• Jacqueline de Romilly, helléniste et académicienne, est morte | Le Monde

From Athens News:

Professor Yannis Sakellarakis was born in Athens in 1936. He studied at the University of Athens and read for a PhD at Heidelberg University.

He was an instructor at the universities of Athens, Heidelberg, and Hamburg. He gave lectures and presented papers in symposiums and conferences around the world, including Oslo and Petra, Tokyo, New York, Oxford, London, Princeton, and Harvard. He has published widely in Greek and foreign scientific magazines, including Archeology in 1967.

He was director of the Archaeological Museum of Iraklion, Crete, and the second director of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Also, he was a member of the Archaeological Society at Athens, the Deutsches Archäogisches Institut, and the Society of Antiquaries of London.

He excavated at Archanes, the Idaean Cave, and Kithira, and in recent years has been systematically excavating, along with his wife, Dr Efi Sapouna-Sakellarakis, the archaeological site of Zominthos.

He has received awards from the Academy of Athens, the Technological Education Institute of Crete, and the National Bank of Greece Cultural Foundation. Also, he was honoured with the Gold Medal of the University of Crete and the Gold Cross of the Order of Honour of the Greek Republic.

• via: Papandreou-Gruevski meeting in “good climate” Archeologist Yannis Sakellarakis dies at 74

Athens News also had a link to a nice little video at YouTube with Dr Sakellarakis showing us the Zominthos site: