for David Sider (New York University), presented by Lee T. Pearcy (Episcopal Academy)

Hodie celebramus eruditissimum et facetissimum indigenam huius oppidi mirabilis, loci singularis sic suavis ut bis nominetur. Eum salutamus non solum ut virum sapientissimum qui illuminavit scripta sapientium antiquorum sed etiam ut studiosum civem nostrae communitatis classicae, ingentis orbis complectentis amatores amatricesque Graecorum Romanorumque ab sodalicio huius parvae insulae ipsius usque ad societatem philologicam coniungentem terram liberorum domumque fortium cum terra folii acerni. Alumnus et universitatis ubi omnes discunt ut serviant et universitatis in cuius lumine omnes videbunt lumen,* docuit apud universitatem profitentem sapientiam et doctrinam, in municipio praeclaro propter clamores ubi diutissime habitavit, et nunc apud universitatem perstantem et praestantem, in municipio illustri propter potionem potentem, ubi vehicula diutius agebat.** Huic Societati serviit magna cum diligentia, olim ut praeses, nunc ut administrator aestimandorum librorum in Mundo Classico, nostris actis quater quoque anno editis. Plaudamus igitur David Sider.

Today we celebrate an extremely learned and witty native of this “wonderful town,” New York, New York. We hail him not only as a man of immense intellectual talent who has written brilliantly on ancient philosophy, but also as an impressively engaged citizen of our classics community, a vast realm that embraces lovers of the Greeks and Romans from the New York Classical Club to the American Philological  Association. A graduate of City College and Columbia University, he has taught at Fordham University in the Bronx, where he has long made his home, and at New York University, in Manhattan where he long distinguished himself as a taxicab driver. He has served our organization with great energy, in the past as our president, and now as book review editor of our journal, Classical World. Let us therefore applaud David Sider.

Judith P. Hallett
University of Maryland, College Park

* Discimus ut Serviamus, Latin motto of City College of New York; in lumine tuo videbimus lumen, Latin motto of Columbia University.

** Sapientia et Doctrina, Latin motto of Fordham University; Perstare et Praestare, Latin motto of New York University.