Richard Shilleto

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Richard Shilleto (November 25, 1809 - September 24, 1876), English classical scholar, was born at Ulleskelf in Yorkshire.

He was educated at Repton and Shrewsbury schools, and Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1867 was elected a fellow of Peterhouse. His whole life was spent in Cambridge.

Shilleto was one of the greatest Greek scholars that England has produced; in addition, he had an intimate acquaintance with the Latin and English languages and literature. He published little, being obliged to devote the best years of his life to private tuition. He was the most famous classical coach of his day, and almost all the best men passed through his hands.

His edition of the De false legatione of Demosthenes will always remain a standard work, but his first two books of Thucydides (an instalment of a long-contemplated edition) hardly came up to expectation. His pamphlet Thucydides or Grote? excited a considerable amount of feeling. While it undoubtedly damaged Grote's reputation as a scholar, it was felt that it showed a want of appreciation of the special greatness of the historian. Shilleto's powers as a translator from English into Greek (especially prose) and Latin were unrivalled; a selection of his versions was published in 1901.

See BH Kennedy in Cambridge Journal of Philology (1877).


This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.