Robert A. Kaster


Robert A. Kaster FBA is an American classicist and retired academic. He was a professor of classics and the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin at Princeton University from 1997 to 2018.

Life

Born in 1948, Robert A. Kaster graduated from Dartmouth College in 1969, then secured an MA and a PhD from Harvard University.
Kaster was a teaching fellow in classics at Harvard from 1972 to 1973, then an instructor at Colby College until 1974. He joined the faculty at the University of Chicago in 1975 as an assistant professor; promoted to associate professor in 1982 and a full professorship in 1989, Kaster was appointed Avalon Foundation Distinguished Service Professor in the Humanities at Chicago in 1996. In 1997, he moved to Princeton University to take up the positions of professor of classics and Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin. He retired in 2018, and remains an emeritus professor at Princeton as of 2024. Kaster's research has focused on "Roman rhetoric, the history of ancient education, Roman ethics, and textual criticism".

Published works

Monographs

  • Robert A. Kaster, Guardians of Language: The Grammarian and Society in Late Antiquity, The Transformation of the Classical Heritage, vol. 11
  • Robert A. Kaster, The Tradition of the Text of the Aeneid in the Ninth Century, Harvard Dissertations in the Classics
  • Robert A. Kaster, Studies on the Text of Suetonius' De Grammaticis et Rhetoribus, The American Philological Association: American Classical Studies, vol. 28
  • Robert A. Kaster, Emotion, Restraint, and Community in Ancient Rome
  • Robert A. Kaster, Studies on the Text of Macrobius' Saturnalia, The American Philological Association Monograph Series
  • Robert A. Kaster, The Appian Way: Ghost Road, Queen of Roads, Culture Trails
  • Robert A. Kaster, Studies on the Text of Suestonius' De Uita Caesarum
  • Robert A. Kaster, Studies on the Text of Seneca's De Beneficiis

    Edited collections of essays

  • Ruth R. Caston; Robert A. Kaster, Hope, Joy, and Affection in the Classical World, Emotions of the Past

    Editions of classical texts

  • Suetonius; Robert A. Kaster, Suetonius: De Grammaticis et Rhetoribus
  • Cicero; Robert A. Kaster, Cicero: Speech on Behalf of Publius Sestius, Clarendon Ancient History
  • Seneca; Robert A. Kaster, Seneca: Anger, Mercy, Revenge
  • Macrobius; Robert A. Kaster, Macrobius: The Saturnalia, The Loeb Classical Library
  • Macrobius; Robert A. Kaster, Macrobii Ambrosii Theodosii Saturnalia, Oxford Classical Texts
  • Suetonius; Robert A. Kaster, C. Suetoni Tranquilli De Uita Caesarum Libri VIII et De Grammaticis et Rhetoribus Liber, Oxford Classical Texts
  • Servius; Charles E. Murgia ; Robert A. Kaster, Serviani in Vergili Carmina Commentarii: Commentarii in Aeneidos Libros IX–XII, Special Publications of the Society for Classical Studies
  • Cicero; Robert A. Kaster, Cicero: Brutus and Orator
  • Lucius Annaeus Seneca; Robert A. Kaster, Lucius Annaeus Seneca: De Beneficiis, De Clementia, Apocolocyntosis, Oxford Classical Texts
  • Seneca; Robert A. Kaster, How to Do the Right Thing: An Ancient Guide to Treating People Fairly, Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers