Classical World

As incoming coeditors of Classical World, we take great pleasure in dedicating our first issue to our predecessor, Matthew Santirocco. Twenty years ago Matthew introduced Classical World 87.1 with a tribute to his predecessor, Jerry Clack. We begin in a similar way, not from a sense that it is expected or traditional, but with gratitude and enthusiasm. For two decades Matthew has guided CW and transformed it from a slim volume of articles, notices, and short reviews appearing six times a year into an academic quarterly with substantial articles, longer, more authoritative reviews, and an international reach. Remarkably, he has done this while holding heavy administrative responsibilities, from Dean of the College at the University of Pennsylvania to his current position as Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Affairs at New York University, where he is also Professor of Classics and Angelo J. Ranieri Director of Ancient Studies.

Through his entire career (and one of us has known him for nearly fifty years) Matthew has been notable for his combination of incredible energy and unfailing generosity, and these qualities were very much in evidence during the transition in editorship this past summer. Matthew was constantly available to us as we worked to move CW from its home at NYU to new quarters at Temple University in Philadelphia, and his advice, encouragement, and administrative wisdom made difficult places smooth and helped us as we began to learn the complexities of editing an academic journal. Matthew has set a standard that it will be hard to match, and we are grateful to him for giving us the confidence to try.

We are also grateful to managing editor Sally Sanderlin, production coordinator Aaron DeLand, and the other members of Matthew’s team at NYU for their help during the transition. Longtime readers of CW will notice that these two positions are now absent from our masthead. Not the least of Matthew Santirocco’s remarkable accomplishments as editor was that during all but the last year of his tenure, CW was not only edited, but also typeset, at NYU, and that the calculation of print runs and sales of advertising were handled from its editorial offices as well. A [End Page 1] new arrangement with the Johns Hopkins University Press, which now publishes CW for the Classical Association of the Atlantic States, makes it possible to hand these and other functions over to that distinguished academic press and for CW to appear among its stable of journals.

We are also pleased to introduce an editorial board that combines long experience with CW with new perspectives on it. Judith Hallett (University of Maryland, College Park; associate editor for Latin) has been a member of CW’s editorial board since 1980. Victoria Pedrick (Georgetown University; associate editor for Greek) and James Romm (Bard College; associate editor for history) join the editorial team in this issue. We are delighted that David Sider (NYU) has agreed to stay on as book review editor; under his guidance reviews have become a consistently excellent part of CW.

Classical World will continue to publish peer-reviewed contributions on all aspects of Greek and Roman literature, history, and society; on classical tradition and reception; on the history of classical scholarship; and on the teaching of Latin, Greek, and classical civilization. In all these areas we will seek writing, ideas, and argument of the highest possible quality. Our audience will be, as it has been, teaching scholars and scholarly teachers, and we reject the idea that teaching and scholarship in Classics are somehow antithetical or separable. We believe that our profession is fortunate because many classicists see common interests and a continuum of practice between secondary and higher education; insofar as there is a gap, real or perceived, between these sectors, we hope to bridge it. Finally, we share a belief that the humanities, and Classics in particular, have an important role to play in shaping civic consciousness and forming citizens. We hope to open the pages of CW to responsible, considered discussions of the place of Classics in education and society. [End Page 2]