B.A., NYU, 1934; M.A., 1936; Ph.D., 1939. 

Instr. classics, NYU, 1936-45; Lieutenant, U.S. Naval Reserve, 1942-6; asst. prof., 1945-52; asso. prof. 1952-9; prof. 1959-79; Guggenheim fell., 1952-3, 1959-60; dir. summer sessions, AAR, 1963; NEH fell., 1967-8; summer seminar grant, 1978; AIA Gold Medal for Excellence, 2005.

"Nine Papyrus Texts in the New York University Collection" (NYU, 1939); printed TAPA 68 (1937) 274-91 & 69 (1938) 343-56.

“Tax-Collection Problems in Early Arab Egypt,” TAPA 69 (1938) 274-91; Latin and Greek in Current Use, with E.E. Burriss (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1939; 2^nd ed., 1949). REVS: CW XXXV 1941-1942 130-131 Tongue | CJ XXXVII 1942 235-236 Berry | CW XLIV 1950 76 Lawler | CJ XLVI 1950 109-111 Hall; “Wine Measures and Prices in Byzantine Egypt,” TAPA 70 (1939) 1-16; “Note on a Nile Boat,” AJP 63 (1942) 333-4; “Θυρών. A Note on P. Fuad Univ. 14,” TAPA 80 (1949) 425; Excavations at Nessana Vol. II (with E. l. Hettich) (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1950); “The Isis and Her Voyage,” TAPA 81 (1950) 43-56; “Speed under Sail of Ancient Ships,” TAPA 82 (1951) 136-48; “Bishop Synesius' Voyage to Cyrene,” The American Neptune 12,4 (1952) 291-6; “The Administration of Byzantine and Early Arab Palestine,” Aegyptus 32 (1952) 54-60; “Trade in the Ancient World,” Scientific American 191, 5 (1954) 98-103; “The Sails of the Ancient Mariner,” Archaeology 7 (1954) 214-19; “The Grain Trade of the Hellenistic World,” TAPA 85 (1954) 168-87; “A Sea Drama in Stone,” The American Neptune 15,3 (1955) 217-19; “The Size of Ancient Merchant Ships,” in Studi in onore di A. Calderini e R. Paribeni (Milan: Ceschina, 1956) I :231-8; “Fore-and-Aft Sails in the Ancient World,” The Mariner's Mirror 42,1 (1956) 3-5; “More Sea-Digging,” Archaeology 10 (1957) 248-57; “New Light on Maritime Loans,” in Symbolae R. Taubenschlag dedicatae, ed. G. Krókowski, V. Steffen & L. Strzelecki (Warsaw: Ossolineum, 1956) 89-93; “The Isis and Her Voyage. A Reply,” TAPA 87 (1956) 239-40; “Hemiolia and Triemiolia,” JHS 78 (1958) 14-18; The Ancient Mariners. Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times (London: Macmillan, 1959 ; 2^nd ed. Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1991; French trans.: Les marins de l'antiquité explorateurs et combattants sur la Méditerranée d'autrefois, trans. L. Ghali-Kahil (Paris: Hachette, 1961); Dutch trans.,  Scheepvaart in de oudheid, trans. K.J.A. Janson (Utrecht: Spectrum, 1964)). REVS: Isis L 1959 495 Starr | CW LII 1959 189 Seaver | AHR LXIV 1958-1959 983 Dow | Latomus XVIII 1959 838-839 Renard ; Speculum XXXV 1960 106 Downey | Archaeology XIII 1960 224 Immerwahr | Phoenix XIV 1960 55-56 Lang | JBAA XXIII 1960 125 Naish | History XLV 1960 131 Burn ; Hermeneus XXXII 1961 189 Wallinga | TG LXXIV 1961 450 Wallinga ; AJPh LXXXIV 1963 309-311 Lane | JRS LIII 1963 216 Humphreys | AC XXXII 1963 343 Dulière | LEC XXX 1962 137 Walbrecq | Latomus XXI 1962 455 | CT VIII 1960 Nᵒ 32 165-167 Foucher | RBPh XLIV 1966 1334 Verdin | BMCRev III 1992 20-22 Weiskittel | CR XLII 1992 461-462 Morrison | REL LXX 1992 339-340 A. Dubourdieu | REG CV 1992 604 Y. Vernière | LEC 1996 64 (1): 106 Jacques Vanschoonwinkel; Masters of Ancient Comedy: Selections from Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, Terence (trans.) (New York: Macmillan, 1960); Selected Satires of Lucian (New York: Doubleday, 1962); Six Plays of Plautus (New York: Doubleday, 1963); “Sewn Boats (Virgil, Aen. VI.413-414),” CR 13 (1963) 257-9; “The Earliest Two-Masted Ship,” Archaeology 16 (1963) 108-11; Illustrated History of Ships and Boats (New York: Doubleday, 1964); “Ancient Shipbuilding. New Light on an Old Source,” TAPA 94 (1963) 28-33; “Odysseus' Boat (Od. V.244-257),” AJP 85 (1964) 61-4; “New Light on Ancient Rigging and Boatbuilding,” The American Neptune 24, 2 (1964) 81-94; Ancient Egypt (New York: Time-Life, 1965); Masterpieces of World Literature: Classical Age (New York: Dell, 1965); “Harbour and River Boats of Ancient Rome,” JRS 55 (1965) 31-9; “Studies in Ancient Sails and Rigging,” ASPap 1 (1966) 43-58; “Galley Slaves,” TAPA 97 (1966) 35-44; “Maecius Celer's Ship,” CR 18 (1968) 261-2; “Sea-Digging off Italy,” Archaeology 21 (1968) 219-20; “The Emergency Rig of Ancient Warships,” TAPA 98 (1967) 43-8; “The Super-Galleys of the Hellenistic Age,” Mariner's Mirror 55, 2 (1969) 185-93; Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1971; rev. ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Pr., 1995). REVS: CW LXV 1971 64 Frost ; CPh LXVII 1972 215-217 Anderson | AJ CXXIX 1972 224-225 Greenhill | Gnomon XLIV 1972 688-694 Wachsmuth | AC XLI 1972 389 Raepsaet-Charlier ; DLZ 94 1973 157-9 Rudolph | Erasmus 25 1973 173-5 Kienast | Mariner's Mirror 58 (London Soc. for Naut. Res.) 1972 118-120 Morrison | GJ 139 1973 150 Preston | Archeology 26 1973 70-2 van Doorninck | ACR 2 1972 75-6 Starr | JRS 63 1973 264-5 Humphreys | AJPh XCIV 1973 400-402 Hammond | EMC XVIII 1974 54-55 Williams | Latomus XXXIII 1974 706-708 de Saint-Denis | JARCE XI 1974 107 Goedicke | BASO 1996 N° 304 : 85-86 Robert L. Hohlfelder | IJNA 1997 26 (1): 85 Anthony John Parker; The Plays of Menander (trans.) (New York: NYU Press, 1971); Plautus, Amphitryon and Two Other Plays (trans.) New York: Norton, 1971); Plautus The Menaechmus Twins and Two Other plays  (New Yor: Norton, 1971);The Men“Il Palazzo dei Conservatori,” Archaeology 25 (1972) 96-102; “The Mystery of the Trireme,” Horizon 14, 1 (1972) 110-13; “Leather Sails,” Mariner's Mirror (London Soc. for Nautical Research) 58 (1972); Travel in the Ancient World (London: Allen & Unwin, 1974); German trans., Reisen in der Alten Welt, trans. O.R. Deubner (Munich: Prestel, 1976); Viaggio e viaggiatori dell' antichità (Milan: Mursia, 2005); To taxidi ston archaio kosmo (Athens: Morphõkito Hidryma Ethnikês Thrapezês 1995; Antik çãgda seyahat (Istanbul: MB Yayinevi, 2008));  Antik ). REVS: HA VIII 1977 80). REVS: Mediterraneus VIII 1985 109-119 Matsumoto | ZJKF XVII,1 1975 72-74 Vidman | Hermeneus XLVII 1975 18 Pleket | Prometheus I 1975 286-287 Marasco | JRS LXVI 1976 233 Rawson | CR XXVI 1976 300 Ogilvie | IJNA IV 1975 400-401 Piggott | BO XXXIII 1976 9-12 Pleket | Byzantion XLIV 1974 568 | Gnomon XLIX 1977 477-485 Deubner | CW LXX 1977 334 Anderson | CPh LXXIII 1978 367-369 Borza; The Horizon Book of Daily Life in Ancient Rome (New York: American Heritage, 1975; rev. & engaged as Everyday Life in Ancient Rome (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1998); The Horizon Book of Daily Life in Ancient Egypt (New York: American Heritage, 1975; rev. and expanded as Everyday Life in Ancient Egypt (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 2001);  “Bronze Age Ships. The Evidence of the Thera Wall Paintings,” IJNA 4 (1975) 3-10; “Nero, Unmaligned,” Horizon 18,4 (1976) 49-55; “The Glory That Was Thrace,” Horizon 18, 3 (1976) 70-9; “The Athenian Upper Class and New Comedy,” TAPA 106 (1976) 29-59; “Biting the Bullet in Ancient Rome,” Horizon 18, 3 (1976) 18-21; “A Passion for the Hard Workout,” Horizon 18, 2 (1976) 12-15; Mysteries of the Past with Robert Claiborne & Brian Fagan, ed. Joseph J. Thorndike, Jr. (New York: American Heritage, 1977);“The Thracians,” BMM 35, 1 (1977) 3-6; “Unemployment, the Building Trade, and Suetonius, Vesp. 18,” BASP 15 (1978) 43-51; “Odysseus and Scylla on a Roman Terracotta Mould,” IJNA 7 (1978) 99-104; “Ancient Port to Modern Zoo,” Archaeology 31, 3 (1978) 44-51; “The Thera Ships,” IJNA 7 (1978) 232-3; “More Evidence for Lead Sheathing on Roman Craft,” Mariner's Mirror (Greenwich, Eng. Soc. for Nautical Research) 64 (1978) 139-42; “Traders and Trading. Classical Athens,” Expedition 21, 4 (1979) 25-32; Die Seefahrer der Antike (Munich: Prestel, 1979); “Periplus Maris Erythraei. Three Notes on the Text,” CQ 30 (1980) 495-7; “Rome's Trade with the East. The Sea Voyage to Africa and India,” TAPA 110 (1980) 21-36; “The Role of the State in Rome's Grain Trade,” in The Seaborne Commerce of Ancient Rome. Studies in Archaeology and History, ed. J.H. D'Arms & E.C. Kopff (Rome: AAR, 1980) 21-33; “The Location of Adulis (Periplus Maris Erythraei 4),” in Coins. Culture and History in the Ancient World. Numismatic and Other Studies in Honor of Bluma L. Trell, ed. with M. Prince (Detroit: Wayne State U. Press, 1981) 113-22; The Greek Conquerors (Chicago: Stonehenge, 1981; Germ. trans. Die Griechischen Eroberer (trans. Holger Fliessbach) (Herrsching: M. Pawlak, 1984; Los conquistadores griegos (Barcelona: Folio, 1999; Les conquérants grecs (Paris: Fanal, 1984); The Pharaohs (Chicago: Stonehenge, 1981) The Barbarian Kings (Chicago: Stonehenge, 1982); “Maritime Trade in Antiquity,” Archaeology 34, 4 (1981) 37-43; “Periplus Maris Erythraei 36. Teak, not Sandalwood,” CQ 32 (1982) 181-3; “Periplus Maris Erythraei. A Suggestion,” JHS 102 (1982) 204-6; “Sakas versus Andhras in the Periplus maris Erythraei,” JESHO 26 (1983) 164-77; “Greek and Roman Clothing. Some Technical Terms,” Glotta 61 (1983) 193-207; “The Sea Route to India. Periplus maris Erythraei 57,” CQ 34 (1984) 473-9; “Egypt, Africa, Arabia, and India. Patterns of Seaborne Trade in the First Century A. D.,” BASP 21 (1985) 39-47; Ancient Trade and Society (Detroit: Wayne State U. Press, 1984). REVS: CB LXI 1985 91 Harrington | CO LXIII 1986 101 Houston; “Greek and Roman Shipbuilding. New Findings,” The American Neptune 45 (1985) 10-19; “The Location of Tabai (Periplus Maris Erythraei 12-13),” JHS 106 (1986) 179-82; “New Light on Maritime Loans. P. Vindob. G. 19792 (=SB VI 9571),” in Studies in Roman Law in Memory of A. Arthur Schiller, ed. R.S. Bagnall & W.V. Harris (Leiden: Brill, 1986) 11-17; “P. Vindob. G 40822 and the Shipping of Goods from India,” BASP 23 (1986) 73-9; “Periplus maris Erythraei 60,” CQ 37 (1987) 233-5; “Comment on ‘The Ship of Bishop Synesius’ (IJNA XV,67-69),” IJNA 16 (1987) 67; “Rome's Maritime Trade with the Far East,” The American Neptune 48 (1988) 149-53; "Rome's Trade with the Eastern Coast of India,” CH 33 (1988) 303-8; Periplus Maris Erythaei (Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1989); “Polybius 16.3.8. Ἀνάστειρος,” CQ 39 (1989) 262-3; “South Arabia's Maritime Trade in the First Century A.D.,” in L'Arabie préislamique et son environment historique et culturel. Actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 24-27 juin 1987, ed. Fahd Toufic (Leiden: Brill, 1989) 187-94; “New Light on Maritime Loans: P. Vindob. G 40822,” ZPE 84 (1990) 195-206; “Documentary Evidence for Graeco-Roman Shipbuilding (P. Flor. I 69),” BASP 27 (1990) 15-19;The Athlit Ram 9ed. with J. Richard Steffy) (College Station, TX: Texas U. A & M Press, 1991);  “Ancient Naval Technology and the Route to India,” in Rome and India: The Ancient Sea Trade, ed. Vimala Begley & Richard Daniel De Puma (Madison: U. of Wisconsin Press, 1991) 8-11; “The Nautical Imagery in the Anthologia Graeca 10.23,” CQ 42 (1992) 555-7; “Odysseus' Boat (Od. 5.244-5),” IJNA 21 (1992) 73-4; “A Petrie Papyrus and the Battle of Raphia,” BASP 30 (1993) 87-92; “Antieke zeevaart in de Indische Oceaan,” Lampas 26,3 (1993) 184-93; “Ptolemy II and the Hunting of African Elephants,” TAPA 123 (1993) 247-60; “A Trireme for Hire (Is. 11.48),” CQ 45,1 (1995) 241-5; “The Feeding of the Trireme Crews and an Entry in IG II² 1631,” TAPA 125 (1995) 261-9; Ships and Seafaring in Ancient Times (Austin: U. of Texas Press, 1994). REVS: AC 1996 65 : 540-541 Georges Raepsaet | Antiquity 1995 69 N° 263 : 408-411 David Gibbins | CW 1997-1998 91 (5) : 415-416 John Peter Oleson | Gnomon 1998 70 (5) : 460-461 Arvid Göttlicher; “New Evidence for Greek Merchantmen,” IJNA 25, 3-4 (1996) 262-4; Everyday Life in Ancient Rome, rev & expanded ed. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins U. Press, 1998). REVS: LEC 2000 68 (4): 407-408 B. Clarot; “Ex itinere lux: The Trials of Travel in Ancient Italy,” in New Light from Ancient Cosa: Classical Mediterranean Studies in Honor of Cleo Rickman Fitch, ed. Norma Wynick Goldman (Bern & Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 2001) 219-25; Libraries in the Ancient World (New Haven: Yale U. Press, 2001; German trans. Bibliotheken in der Antike (Munich & Zurich: Artemis und Winkler, 2002; Spanish trans., Las bibliotecas del mundo antiguo, trans. María José Aubet] (Barcelona: Bellaterra, 2003)). REVS: BMCRev 2001 (4): n. p. James J. O'Donnell | ElectronAnt 2001-2002 6 (1): n.p. George W. Houston | AC 2002 71: 383-384 Marie-Thérèse Isaac | JRA 2002 15 (2): 469-478 T. Keith Dix | SCI 2002 21: 278-280 David J. Wasserstein | CJ 2002-2003 98 (4): 456-458 Kathryn A. Simonsen | CO 2001-2002 79 (2) : 85-86 Anthony Oddo | M&H 2002 N. S. 29: 126-128 Charles Witke | CB 2002 78 (1): 95-99 P. G. Naiditch | Topoi (Lyon) 2005 12-13 (2) : 605-611 Michel Sève | Klio 2004 86 (2) : 450 Markus Schauer ; HistLit 2003 1 (1): 65-69 Konrad Vössing | Nova Tellus 2006 24 (1): 263-277 Carolina Olivares Chávez | AFC 2005-2006 18-19: 163-166 Pablo A. Cavallero; “Which End is Which?,” IJNA 35,2 (2006) 331.

Lionel Casson, known to his friends as "Jimmy," spent most of his life at New York University, where he received his undergraduate and graduate education and the entirety of his professional career (1936-79), interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant in the Department of Naval Intelligence during World War II, where he was a specialist in interrogation.  His early scholarly speciality was papyrus and his first major book described the papyrus of Nissan. His interest in sailing may have begun as early as his teenaged years when he and a friend navigated Long island Sound in their small sailboat, but it was allied to his interest in antiquity in 1953 when he met the oceanographer Jacques Yves Cousteau who was salvaging amphoras from an ancient wreck. "I knew at once that I was in on the beginning of a totally new source of information about ancient maritime matters and I determined then and there to exploit it." The invention and widespread use of he aqualung enabled archaeologists to discover much new evidence about how the ancients built their ships. Casson recognized the use of "shell first construction" and that fore and aft sail rigging had come into use much earlier than previously thought. Using evidence from literature, papyri, coins, and iconography, along with his own familiarity with the sea, to build up a picture of ancient ships and seamanship and to become the undisputed master of the field. Casson could be learned and still appeal to the non-specialists, as Sterling Dow noted in his review of The Ancient Mariners: "The treatment, lacking footnotes, is intended to be 'popular'...and in the text a compulsion to be spectacular is often evident....such defects disappear when the author is in the midst of god sound exposition or narrative." Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World spanned the era from Egypt to Byzantium and remains standard. His subsequent books, like his commentary on the Periplus Mari Erythrae and Travel in the Ancient World made the maritime story of the ancient world available to both the scholar and to the non-specialist.  In the first exploration of the Deep Sea using robots in 1989 with the "Jason Project" that reached about 225,000 school children, Casson participated in the training program for both American and Canadian teachers. He was also instrumental in gaining an NEH grant for the AIA to train high-school teachers on ancient trade.

The popularity of his books is attested by the number and variety of translations. In addition to his prolific publication at both the scholarly and popular levels, he was a dedicated teacher and hard-working administrator. In the words of his colleague Larissa Bonfante, "He was twice chair of the Classics Department, but his leadership was crucial for a much longer time, and the practical sense and decisiveness I admired in later years as his colleague helped the Department to survive the difficult years of the Depression."

Larissa Bonfante, CW 102,4 (Summer 2009) 495-6; Citation, AIA 2005 Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement