Robert B. Strassler

Strassler attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, a prep school in the Bronx, where he was introduced to the classics.{{Cite web |last=Upbin |first=Bruce |date=2007-01-13 |title=Homemade Herodotus |url=https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2007/0129/111.html |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Forbes |language=en}} He then pursued a history degree at Harvard. During his undergraduate studies, he arranged for an individual tutorial with classics instructor George Nadel, Ph.D. '55, meeting in Nadel's Lowell House quarters for three hours weekly to discuss his papers and readings.{{Cite web |last=Udel Lambert |first=Miriam |date=1997 |title=The Alumni - Robert Strassler: A Modern Athenian |url=https://www.harvardmagazine.com/sites/default/files/html/1997/05/alumni.athenian.html#:~:text=This%20characterization%20might%20well%20apply%20to%20Robert%20B.,new%20edition%20of%20this%20classic,%20The%20Landmark%20Thucydides. |access-date=2024-09-08 |website=Harvard Magazine}}

After completing his history B.A., he attended Harvard Business School, graduating with his M.B.A. in 1961 as a Baker Scholar in the top 5% of his class.{{Cite web |last=Rahe |first=Paul A. |date=2009 |title=Rediscovering Herodotus |url=https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/rediscovering-herodotus/ |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Claremont Review of Books |language=en-US}}

After obtaining his M.B.A., Strassler went into business with his father and brother. Initially, they focused on oil-field equipment, where he made his fortune, and later moved into securities management.{{Cite news |last=Rothstein |first=Edward |date=2007-12-10 |title=Herodotus Now: 'Omnivorous Curiosity' and Double Vision |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/arts/10conn.html |access-date=2024-11-08 |work=The New York Times}} Strassler helped manage various companies over 20 years, including a marine shipyard, a steel mill, a printing press manufacturer, a retail department store, a die-casting company, a plastic extrusion firm, a shoe machinery company, and a small company in the oil-field equipment business.

In 1983, he restructured the oil-field equipment business, sold it, and retired. After retirement, he moved to Massachusetts, where he helped his brother start a family-run investment fund based in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |last=Aisner |first=James E. |date=1997-04-01 |title=Learning from the Past |url=https://www.alumni.hbs.edu/stories/Pages/story-bulletin.aspx?num=6121 |access-date=2024-11-07 |website=Harvard Business School Alumni |language=en}}

Strassler retained an interest in ancient history, and in 1976 he became affiliated with Simon's Rock College (now Bard College at Simon’s Rock) in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.{{Cite web |title=Outreach Prize Citation: Robert Strassler |url=https://classicalstudies.org/awards-and-fellowships/outreach-prize-citation-robert-strassler |access-date=2024-09-11 |website=Society for Classical Studies}} The provost asked him to teach a course on ancient Greek history, and he served as a trustee for many years. He saw that students had difficulty working with existing editions of ancient works, and despite being nontenured at any university and unable to read Greek or Latin, in 1989 he decided to start working on new reader-friendly editions. Strassler also published articles in the peer-reviewed academic journal The Journal of Hellenic Studies in 1988 and 1990.

Strassler's editions have received generally positive reviews. For example, in The New Yorker Daniel Mendelsohn described The Landmark Herodotus (2007) as "bristling with appendices, by a phalanx of experts, on everything from the design of Athenian warships to ancient units of liquid measure", although he said the translation was "pedestrian".

In 1996, Bard College at Simon's Rock awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humanities and Letters. In 2014, the Society for Classical Studies awarded Strassler their Outreach Prize for conceiving, initiating, and editing the Landmark Ancient Histories.

Strassler has participated in the volunteer fire department in Alford, Massachusetts, and chaired the Aston Magna Foundation for Music and the Humanities.

Strassler edited the following books:

1. The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War (1996){{Cite web |last=Waldron |first=Arthur |date=1997-06-01 |title=From ancient grudge. On 'The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War' edited by Robert B. Strassler. |url=https://newcriterion.com/article/from-ancient-grudge/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=The New Criterion |language=en-US}}
2. The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories (2007){{Cite journal |last=Lefkowitz |first=Mary R. |date=2009 |title=A Herodotus for Our Time |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25621419 |journal=History and Theory |volume=48 |issue=3 |pages=248–256 |issn=0018-2656}}{{Cite news |last=Mendelsohn |first=Daniel |date=2008-04-21 |title=Arms And the Man |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/28/arms-and-the-man-3 |access-date=2024-11-08 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}
3. The Landmark Xenophon's Hellenika (2009){{Cite journal |last=Gish |first=Dustin A. |date=2011-10-17 |title=The Landmark Xenophon’s Hellenika (with a new translation by John Marincola) |url=https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2011/2011.10.17/ |journal=Bryn Mawr Classical Review |issn=1055-7660}}

He served as series editor for the following books:

1. The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander (2010){{Cite web |last=Hanson |first=Victor Davis |date=2011-03-01 |title=Ancient ancient history |url=https://newcriterion.com/article/ancient-ancient-history/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=The New Criterion |language=en-US}}
2. The Landmark Julius Caesar: The Complete Works (2017){{Cite web |last=Hill |first=John |date=2018-03-08 |title=Landmark Series offers casual reader entry to Caesar's world |url=https://www.providencejournal.com/story/entertainment/books/2018/03/09/review-landmark-series-offers-casual-reader-entry-to-caesars-world/13336158007/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=The Providence Journal |language=en-US}}
3. The Landmark Xenophon's Anabasis (2021){{Cite web |last=Brennan |first=Shane |date=2021-12-17 |title=On the Enduring Appeal of Xenophon’s Anabasis |url=https://lithub.com/on-the-enduring-appeal-of-xenophons-anabasis/ |access-date=2024-11-08 |website=Literary Hub |language=en-US}}

Strassler wrote the following articles in The Journal of Hellenic Studies:

1. The opening of the Pylos campaign{{Cite journal |last=Strassler |first=Robert B. |date=November 1990 |title=The opening of the Pylos campaign |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0075426900021017/type/journal_article |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=110 |pages=110–125 |doi=10.2307/631735 |jstor=631735 |issn=0075-4269|url-access=subscription }}
2. The harbor at Pylos, 425 B.C.{{Cite journal |last=Strassler |first=Robert B. |date=November 1988 |title=The harbor at Pylos, 425 B.C. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0075426900011721/type/journal_article |journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies |volume=108 |pages=198–203 |doi=10.2307/632646 |jstor=632646 |issn=0075-4269|url-access=subscription }}

{{reflist}}

• [https://thelandmarkancienthistories.com/ The Landmark Ancient Histories]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strassler, Robert B.}}

Category:American book editors

Category:Harvard Business School alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)