All Scholars
WALLACE, William Pitkin
- Date of Birth: May 29, 1907
- Born City: Oak Park
- Born State/Country: IL
- Parents: Malcolm William prof. Eng. & princ. University Coll. U. Toronto, & Lillie May Pitkin W.
- Date of Death: December 14, 1965
- Death City: Toronto
- Death State/Country: ON
- Married: Mary Elizabeth Barton, 15 June 1936.
- Education:
B.A. University Coll., U. Toronto, 1928; B.A. Oxford, 1932; fell. ASCSA, 1934-5; Ph.D. Johns Hopkins, 1936.
- Dissertation:
"The History of Eretria to 198 B.C." (Johns Hopkins, 1936).
- Professional Experience:
Prof, class. McMaster U., 1928-9; U. Alberta, 1935-6; U. Colorado, 1936-42, 1945-6; mem. IAS, 1945-6; prof, class. U. Toronto, 1946-65; vis. prof. ASCSA, 1960-1; frequent lctr. summ. sch. Am. Numis. Soc., New York; Guggenheim fell., 1951-2, 1960-1.
- Publications:
"An Eretrian Proxeny Decree of the Early Fifth Century," Hesperia 5 (1936) 273-84; "The Egyptian Expedition and the Chronology of the Decade 460-450 B.C.," TAPA 67 (1936) 252-60; "Meleager and the 'Soros'," with Mary Wallace, TAPA 70 (1939) 191-202; Asklepiades of Samos, with Mary Wallace (Oxford, 1941); "The Demes of Eretria," Hesperia 16 (1947) 115-46; "Greek Coins and Greek History," Phoenix 1 (1947) 30-5 = Can. Numism. Jour. 3 (1958) 330-6; "The Public Seal of Athens," Phoenix 3 (1949) 70-3; "Some Eretrian Mint Magistrates," Phoenix 4 (1950) 21-6; "The Spartan Invasion of Attica in 431 B.C.," Studies Norwood, 80-4; "Cleomenes, Marathon, the Helots and Arkadia," JHS 74 (1954) 32-5; "Impurities in Euboean Monetary Silver," with E. J. Allin, Museum Notes 6 (1955) 35-67; "The Coinage of the Euboian League," Archaeology 8 (1955) 264-7; The Euboian League and Its Coinage, American Numismatic Soc. Notes and Monographs 134 (New York, 1956); "Loans to Karystos about 370 B.C.," Phoenix 16 (1962) 15-28; "The Meeting-Point of the Histiaian and Macedonian Tetrobols," NC 7th ser., 2 (1962) 17-22; "The Early Coinages of Athens and Euboia," ibid., 23-42; "The Sixth-Century Laws from Eretria," with Eugene Vanderpool, Hesperia 33 (1964) 381-91; "The Kozani Hoard of 1955," with O. H. Dodson, Museum Notes 11 (1964) 21-8; "Thucydides," Phoenix 18 (1964) 251-61.
- Notes:
Wallace taught for 20 years at University College, Toronto, and was a member of the Phoenix Editorial Committee from 1947. "As a teacher . . . he was singularly gifted: he taught, as he wrote, with a lucidity, vigour and liveliness which aroused enthusiasm, and at the same time demonstrated and inculcated meticulous standards of accuracy, clarity of thought and expression, and independence and originality of approach." He was also known for the "stout defence of his convictions" (Phoenix) and for his hospitality to colleagues and students (he often held classes at his house). He won the British indoor mile for speed-skating while at Oxford and was a dedicated chess player. He spent considerable time in Greece thanks to his Guggenheim Fellowships. He published on a variety of problems in classical Greek history, often involving numismatics or epigraphy, with excursions into Hellenistic literature and numismatics. He practiced and taught a broad approach to Greek history, using every kind of relevant evidence, such as inscriptions, monuments, and topography, in addition to literary texts.
- Sources:
Family members; Phoenix 20 (1966) 1-2 (with bibliography).
- Author: R. M. H. Shepherd
