Gratulatio: Erich S. Gruen

Gratulatio for Erich S. Gruen, University of California at Berkeley, presented by Jeremy McInerney, University of Pennsylvania

Alia aliis placent, sed hac nocte placet nobis omnibus ut gratulemur viro studiosissimo, clarissimo et illustrissimo. Multos annos doctus in studiis historicis rerum gestarum Romanorum, necnon Graecorum et Iudaeorum, fuit manetque magister dilectus, praeceptor carissimus et investigator diligentissimus veteris orbis terrarum.1 Fama super aethera notus est.2 Olim ex oppugnata Europa pulsus, effugit ad hanc regionem, considens in capite novi mundi. Ad gradum Baccalaurei Artium apud universitatem frementium leonum adeptus est.3 Apud universitates propter dominum illuminantem veritatemque sine luce gloriantes eruditus,4 docuit summis cum laudibus prope portam auream, instruens seriem saeculumque discipularum discipulorumque prosperorum gratissimorumque. Egit vitam felicissimam in artibus, in honoribus divitissimam. Non solum duxit societatem litteris animam sanantem5 sed etiam professionem nostram liberalitate sapientiaque splendoreque mentis transfiguravit. Plaudamus igitur Erich S. Gruen.

Different things please different people, but tonight it pleases all of us to congratulate an extremely knowledgeable, renowned and distinguished man. For many years, this scholar of Roman, Greek and Jewish history has been and remains a cherished teacher and deeply engaged researcher on the ancient world. His fame soars through the planet. Forced to flee Nazi-occupied Europe as a three-year-old in 1938, he settled within the CAAS region, in Washington, DC, and then received his BA from Columbia University. Having earned degrees in ancient history—at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and then at Harvard—he taught with extraordinary distinction at the University of California at Berkeley, producing a most thankful generation of successful students.  He has led a life most fortunate in talents and extremely rich in honors. Not only has he ably guided our national professional association but also transformed our profession with his generosity, wisdom, and intellectual brilliance. Let us thus applaud Erich Gruen.

Jeremy McInerney, University of Pennsylvania and Judith P. Hallett, University of Maryland, College Park

1 Cicero, Brutus 60: Varro…diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis.

2 Vergil, Aeneid 1.379 (fama super aethera notus); 384-385 (Ipse ignotus, egens, Libyae deserta peragro/Europa atque Asia pulsus)

3 “Roar, Lion, Roar,” Columbia University fight song, which inspired Howard Dietz ’17, director of publicity for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, to adopt a lion (with a Latin motto) as its mascot.

4 Dominus Illuminatio Mea, Latin motto of Oxford University; Veritas, Latin motto of Harvard University; Lux et Veritas, Latin motto of Yale University

5 Psyches iatros grammata, Greek motto of the American Philological Association/Society for Classical Studies