The Craft of the Ancient Historian: Essays in Honor of Chester G. Starr

It is an honour and a pleasure for me to have been asked to write an introduction to this volume that pays a well-deserved tribute to Chester G. Starr. If any scholar in our field were asked who is the most distinguished ancient historian in our hemisphere, there would be little doubt of the answer. If the respondent himself lived in this hemisphere, he might (scholars being rather like ancient Greek aristocrats) put himself first, in some corner of the field, but he would put Professor Starr second. Over the whole range of Greek and Roman history, however, there could be no hesitation as to who deserves the prize. This was so clear even more than ten years ago that, when a group of ancient historians from the United States and Canada, at Harvard in May 1974, decided to formalize what had up to that point been an informal annual meeting into the Association of Ancient Historians, my nomination of Chester G. Starr to be the first President of the Association was accepted with unanimous enthusiasm.