Elements of Latin Prosody and Metre, Compiled from the Best Authors: Together with a Synopsis of Poetic Licenses Occurring in the Versification of ... the Scanning of the Mixed Trimeter and Dim
An Introduction To Greek Prose Composition: With Copious Explanatory Exercises, In Which All The Important Principles Of Greek Syntax Are Fully Elucidated
A new classical dictionary of Greek and Roman biography, mythology and geography: partly based upon the Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology by William Smith
A Grammar of the Greek Language: Principally from the German of Kühner, with Selections from Matthiæ, Buttman, Thiersch, and Rost; For the Use of Schools and Colleges (Classic Reprint)
Charles Anthon was an American classical scholar. He produced a large number of classical works for use in colleges and schools.
Background
Charles Anthon was born on November 19, 1797 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Dr. George Christian Anthon and Genevieve Jadot. He grew up in a large family of intelligent young people, with five brothers and two sisters, and inherited the persistent industry of the German and the quick perception of the French.
Education
Charles Anthon attended the best schools of the city and in 1811 entered Columbia College, where he was awarded so many distinctions that his name was withdrawn from competition and therefore is not found among those of the recipients of honors at graduation.
Charles Anthon studied law for four years in the office of his brother John, and in 1819 was admitted to the bar of the supreme court of the state. His college duties occupied a large part of the day, and the rest was carefully divided, with a liberal allowance for modern languages.
Career
In 1820 Charles Anthon was chosen adjunct professor of Greek and Latin in Columbia College, and thus entered upon his life-work. While preparing for the bar he had adopted the habit, which he retained for many years, of rising at 4 a. m. and devoting the early hours of the morning to his literary labors. His college duties occupied a large part of the day, and the rest was carefully divided, with a liberal allowance for modern languages. His Saturdays were spent in careful and exhaustive preparation for the next week's classes.
According to the system then in vogue, the memorizing of inflections and rules of syntax formed a great part of the work which he demanded of his students, and he was an exacting teacher, even in his later years, when he had adopted a different system of instruction.
In 1830 Anthon was put in charge of the Grammar School of Columbia College, and about the same time, when the professorship of Greek and Latin in the College was divided, he was made Jay Professor of the Greek Language and Literature.
As Professor in the College Anthon was greatly liked, chiefly because of his faculty of uniting with the text under discussion a series of facts artfully grouped so that they remained fixed in the memory of his pupils. In the grammar school he was too much feared to be generally liked. He often raised a laugh at the expense of his pupils, and employed Greek, Latin, and English nicknames in ridicule of delinquents. His own nickname among the boys was "Bull. "
He visited libraries and bookstores rarely, but knew and bought books from catalogues. His library was large and well chosen. For years he never left New York City. Once only, in 1831, he visited his mother's birthplace, Detroit, returning by way of Montreal, Quebec, and the White Mountains. Even after the first attack of the illness which finally caused his death, he would not give up his work, but returned to his classes and continued to conduct them until prevented by a second attack. He rallied slightly after this, but grew more and more feeble, and died July 29, 1867.
One of Anthon's earliest works was the first American edition of Lemprière's Classical Dictionary. In this he did not change the text, but made many additions. In a subsequent edition, finished in 1833, which still bore the name of Lemprière, almost every article was rewritten or enlarged, and many additions were made, especially in the field of geography.
The third edition, published in 1842, was again greatly changed, and was called Anthon's Classical Dictionary. He also edited and revised Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, and Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography, Mythology, and Geography, Zumpt's Latin Grammar, and the English-Latin Lexicon of Riddle and Arnold. He was the author of A System of Latin Prosody and Metre (1838) and A System of Ancient and Mediæval Geography for the Use of Schools and Colleges (1850).
Almost immediately after his appointment to his professorship he began to prepare text-books which should aid the student to understand the ancient authors. By these he was chiefly known, judged, and misjudged.
Anthon edited the texts on the basis of foreign, chiefly German, editions, and added copious explanatory notes, often translating entire sentences or even longer passages. For this reason his editions, in spite of the scholarship which they exhibit, were more popular with pupils than with teachers.
He continued for thirty years to prepare at least a volume annually, editing for school and college use the works, in whole or in part, of Homer, Xenophon, Caesar, Cicero, Horace, Juvenal, Sallust, Tacitus, and Virgil.
Charles Anthon had no political associations, though during the Civil War he exhibited warm patriotism.
Personality
Anthon was a large, strongly built man, of imposing presence. His head was large, his forehead high and massive, his eyes black and deeply set. The lower part of his face was square, massive, and firm. His voice was clear and sonorous. He was always carefully dressed, and his manuscripts were models of neatness.
Though brilliant in conversation and of a cheerful disposition, he had few familiar friends and almost never appeared in general society or in places of public amusement. His walks for exercise were usually taken after dark or within the college grounds.
Connections
Charles Anthon never married, but was devotedly attached to his sisters, who lived with him.