• Date of Birth: March 19, 1926
  • Parents: George Willis & Eileen Elizabeth Webb W.
  • Date of Death: August 28, 2010
  • Death City: Branford
  • Death State/Country: CT
  • Married: Isabelle Mary Louise Law, 1 January 1951; Jeanne C. Healey, 1970
  • Education:

    A.B. Trinity Coll., Dublin, 1947; A.M., 1948; A.M., Oxford, 1953.

  • Professional Experience:

    Asst. lectr., King's Coll. London, 1948-51; lectr. University Coll., Cardiff, 1951-3; fell. & tutor, Balliol Coll., Oxford, 1953-62; prof. Humanity, U. of St. Andrews, 1963-74; vis. prof. Indiana U., 1969-79; Sather Prof., 1972-3; Thacher Prof. Lat. Lit., Yale 1974-2004. 

  • Publications:

    “The Curse of the Alkmaionidai, I,” Hermathena 78 (1951) 32-49; “The Curse of the Alkmaionidai II: Kleisthenes and the Persian Wars,” Hermathena 79 (1952) 3-21; “The Curse of the Alkmaionidai III: Themistokles, Perikles and Alkibiades,” Hermathena 80 (1952) 58-71; “Some Problems in the Construction of Plautus' Pseudolus,” Hermes 84 (1956) 424-55; “Odes I.32.15-16,” CR 8 (1958) 208-12; “Evidence for Plautus' Workmanship in the Miles Gloriosus,” Hermes 86 (1958) 79-105; “Four Notes on Propertius,” CR 8 (1958) 6-9; “Some Aspects of Roman Marriage Ceremonies and Ideals,” JRS 48 (1958) 16-29; “Some Uses of gratus et gratia in Plautus. Evidence for Indo-European?,” CQ 9 (1959) 155-63; “Dogs and Leather,” CR 9 (1959) 97-100; “Poetry in the Moral Climate of Augustan Rome,” JRS 52 (1962) 28-46; Tradition and Originality in Roman Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968). REVS: Erasmus XXI 1969 303-305 Lasserre | Latomus XXVIII 1969 717-719 Perret | REA LXXI 1969 192-195 Grimal | P&I X 1968 374-375 Frassinetti | AC XXXVIII 1969 562-564 Viarre | TLS LXVIII 1969 861-862 | CW LXIII 1969 59 Putnam | PVS VIII 1968-1969 64-67 Vessey | Vergilius XV 1969 60-62 Anderson | G&R XVI 1969 234 Sewter | CR XIX 1969 294-298 Kenney | CJ LXVI 1970-1971 164-169 Segal | JRS LX 1970 255-257 Wilkinson | StudClas XIII 1971 321-322 Piatkowski | REL XLVIII 1970 544-546 Le Bonniec | Emerita XXXIX 1971 251 Flores | DLZ XCI 891-897 Büchner | Mnemosyne XXVI 1973 302-204 Westendorp Boerma; The Third Book of Horace's Odes, ed. & trans. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969). REVS: CW LXIII 1969 128 Hulley | PVS VIII 1968-1969 62-63 Thompson | G&R XVI 1969 232 Sewter | Prudentia I 1969 53-57 Wegener | CR XX 1970 189-193 Wilkinson | JRS LX 1970 257 Huxley | AJPh XCII 1971 116-118 Reckford; The Nature of Roman Poetry (Oxford: Oxford U. Press, 1970; rev. ed. 1983). REVS: PVS IX 1969-1970 113-114 Currie | Latomus XXIX 1970 806-807 Bardon | Gymnasium LXXVIII 1971 255-259 Hoffmann | CPh LXVI 1971 196-200 Henry | AJPh XCII 1971 316-330 Otis | “A Version of Pastoral: Virgil, Eclogue 4,” in Quality and Pleasure in Latin Poetry, ed. Tony Woodman & David West (Cambridge & New York: Cambridge U. Press, 1974) 31-46, 139-46; “Horace Odes I.12 and the Succession to Augustus,” Hermathena 118 (1974) 147-55; Change and Decline. Roman Literature in the Early Empire, Sather Classical Lectures 45 (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1978). REVS: Phoenix XXXIII 1979 72-77 Kenney | CW LXXII 1979 314 Sullivan | G&R XXVI 1979 198 Woodman | Hermathena CXXVII 1979 75-76 Hinds | CR XXX 1980 41-42 Mayer | Athenaeum LX 1982 309-310 Venini | JRS LXXII 1982 210-213 Bramble | AJPh 101 1980 223-226 J. Zetzel; Figures of Thought in Roman Poetry (New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1980). REVS: TLS LXXIX 1980 1266 Bramble | LEC XLIX 1981 78 Delaunois | G&R XXVIII 1981 99-100 DuQuesnay | Helmantica XXXIII 1982 182 Oroz | Latomus XLI 1982 366-368 Desbordes | RPh LVI 1982 346-349 Duret | Phoenix XXXVI 1982 89-92 Quinn | DUJ XLIII 1982 277-278 Sheppard | CPh LXXVIII 1983 175-177 Fitch | G&R XXXI 1984 86-87 Roberton | Emerita LII 1984 176-177 Anglada | Mnemosyne XXXVIII 1985 229-231 Schrijvers | Athenaeum LXIV 1986 273-274 Frassinetti; “The Importance of Aspect in Virgilian Similes,” in Vindex humanitatis. Essays in Honour of John Huntly Bishop, ed. B. Marshall (Armidale, N.S.W., Australia: Univ. Press of New England, 1980) 177-95; Technique and Ideas in the Aeneid (New Haven: Yale U. Press, 1983). REVS: TLS LXXXII 1983 380 Horsfall | CW LXXVII 1983 58-59 Dee | EClás XXV 1981-1983 305 Cristóbal López | AJPh CV 1984 228-231 Putnam | CR XXXIV 1984 31-33 Mayer | DUJ XLVI 1984 97-98 Townend | Vergilius XXIX 1983 78-80 Rexine | LEC LII 1984 89 | EMC XXIX 1985 189-191 Burnell | Phoenix XXXIX 1985 172-174 Warden | Latomus XLIII 1984 461-463 Perret | Athenaeum LXV 1987 286-287 Frassinetti | Emerita LV 1987 366-367 Ramírez de Verger | Mnemosyne XLI 1988 432-435 Schrijvers; “Roman Poets as Literary Historians. Some Aspects of imitation,” ICS 8 (1983) 211-37; “Pete nobiles amicos. Poets and Patrons in Late Republican Rome,” in Literary and Artistic Patronage in Ancient Rome, ed. B.K. Gold (Austin, TX: U. of Texas Press, 1982) 28-49; “Statius and Vergil. Defensive Imitation,” in Vergil at 2000. Commemorative Essays on the Poet and His Influence, ed. John D. Bernard (New York: AMS Press, 1986) 207-24; “A Look at Theocritus Idyll VII through Virgil's Eyes,” Hermathena 143 (1987) 107-20; “Did Maecenas ‘Fall from Favor?”: Augustan Literary Patronage,” in Between Republic and Empire: Interpretations of Augustus and His Principate, ed. Kurt A. Raaflaub & Mark Toher (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1990) 258-75; “Poet and Audience in Senecan Tragedy: Phaedra 358-430,” in Author and Audience in Latin Literature, ed. Tony Woodman & Jonathan Powell (Cambridge: Cambridge U. Press, 1992) 138-49; “Theocritus' Idyll 7 from a Virgilian Perspective,” in Innovations of Antiquity, ed. Ralph Hexter & Daniel Selden (London: Routledge, 1992) 541-56; “Public Policies, Private Affairs, and Strategies of Address in the Poetry of Horace,” CW 87 (1993-4) 395-408; “Libertino patre natus: True or False?,” in Homage to Horace: A Bimillenary Celebration, ed. Stephen J. Harrison (Oxford & New York: Oxford U. Press, 1995) 296-313; “Die grosse Dichtung der augusteischen Zeit, I,” in Propyläen-Geschichte der Literatur: Literatur und Gesellschaft der westlichen Welt, I: Die Welt der Antike: 1200 v. Chr.-600 n. Chr., ed. E. Wischer (Berlin: Propyläen-Verlag, 1981) 464-84; The Gnat and Other Minor Poems of Virgil, trans. David R. Slavitt (foreword) (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 2011). Festschrift: Essays in Honor of Gordon Williams: Twenty-Five Years at Yale, ed. Elizabeth Ivory Tylawsky (New Haven, CT: Schwab, 2001).

  • Sources:

    WhAm (2010).

  • Author: Ward W. Briggs, Jr.