10 Facts About Lionel Casson

Lionel Casson was a classical archaeologist, professor emeritus at New York University, and a specialist in maritime history.

Lionel Casson was born Lionel I Cohen on July 22,1914, in Brooklyn, and later changed his last name to "Casson".

Lionel Casson attended New York University for all of his collegiate studies, earning a bachelor's degree there in 1934, a master's in 1936 and his Ph.

Lionel Casson served as an officer of the United States Navy during World War II, responsible for the interrogation of prisoners of war.

The author of 23 books on maritime history and classic literature, Lionel Casson used ancient material ranging from Demosthenes's speeches and works by Thucydides to cargo manifests and archeological studies of ancient shipwrecks and the contents of the amphorae they carried to develop a framework for the development of shipbuilding, maritime trade routes and naval warfare in the ancient world.

Once he visited the warehouse with the hundreds of amphorae that had been brought to the surface, Lionel Casson said that he immediately knew that he "was in on the beginning of a totally new source of information about ancient maritime matters and I determined then and there to exploit it" and integrate this new trove of data with the information he had been able to assemble from ancient writings.

Lionel Casson rejects the accepted wisdom that the Library of Alexandria was destroyed in 48 BC and argues that evidence shows that it continued in existence until 270 AD during the reign of Roman Emperor Aurelian.

Lionel Casson was a member of the all-male literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders.

Lionel Casson died of pneumonia in Manhattan at age 94 on July 18,2009.

Lionel Casson was survived by his wife, the former Julia Michelman, as well as two daughters and two grandchildren.