Martha Davis

Hodie celebramus optimam et beneficissimam magistram, cuius tempus laborque curaque communitatem atque societatem nostras maxime muniverunt. Vires, artes, mores in civitate apricissima splendidissime coluit, ubi gradus Baccalaureae Artium Magistraeque Artium est adepta.¹ Postquam doctrinam antiquitatis classicae et in terra cladis Varianae et civitate sideris solius persequebatur, tandem, “bona ire eruditione per medios hostes,”² in oppido nomine patriam Ulixis in memoriam redigenti, Doctoris Philosophiae gradum adepta est, carmine epico inquirendo aetatis Flavianae de Argonautis. Multos annos docuit in hac urbe, praeclara propter caseum fervidum et liquescentem super carnem bovis, et perseverantia vicit in aedificandis et sustinendis studiis classicis apud Universitatem quae appellatione sacram aedem evocat;³ operam studiosissimam dedit societati notae per litteras Graecas, sed salutari praeceptoribus discipulisque linguae Latinae. Ob merita extraordinaria in fovendis nutriendisque discipulis suis disciplinaque nostra habebatur in maximum honorem. Plaudamus igitur Martha A. Davis.

Today we celebrate a most excellent and generous teacher, whose time, labor, and care have immeasurably strengthened our classics community and our classical association. Exhibiting stellar qualities that personify its motto, she received her B.A. and M.A. degrees at Florida State University. After pursuing the study of classical antiquity in Germany and Texas, she triumphantly braved the challenges of higher learning to earn her doctorate at Cornell University, with a dissertation on Valerius Flaccus. She has taught in this renowned city of Philadelphia for many years, and emerged victorious, through perseverance, in building and sustaining the classics program at Temple University; she has accorded special attention to the undergraduate classics honor society, Eta Sigma Phi. For her outstanding accomplishments on behalf of her students, and our field, the American Philological Association has recognized her with its award for excellence in teaching. Let us thus applaud Martha A. Davis.