ΘΟΥΚΥΔΙΔΟΥ ΞΥΓΓΡΑΦΕΣ ΤΟ ΠΡΩΤΟΝ. The First Book of The History of Thucydides, From Bekker's Text; With Smith's English and Valla's Latin Translations: to Which Are Subjoined Explanatory and Critical Notes

Emilio Porto (ca. 1550-1616), late Renaissance humanist and translator. He received a humanist education under his father's guidance. Porto taught classical languages in Geneva (1569-1581) and later held a professorship at the Academy of Lausanne (1581-1592), from which he was dismissed. He relocated with his family to Frankenthal and subsequently to Heidelberg, where he enrolled at the university in 1593. He earned a Magister degree in 1596 and was appointed Professor of Greek and rhetoric, holding various academic posts until his resignation in 1609. After leaving Heidelberg, Porto taught in Kassel and later at the academic Gymnasium in Stadthagen. He published Latin translations and scholarly editions of classical authors including Thucydides (1594), Xenophon (1595), Euripides (1597), and Aristophanes (1607). He also translated works by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Proclus, and Homer, and compiled the Dictionarium Jonicum Graeco-Latinum (1603), a lexicon on Herodotus' Ionic Greek. His Latin translation of Proclus' Theologia Platonica appeared posthumously in 1618, followed by his translation of the Suda in 1619. DB

William Smith (1711-1787), classical scholar, translator, and Anglican cleric, educated at Worcester Grammar School and New College, Oxford. Early in his career, Smith became associated with the 10th Earl of Derby, who granted him the rectory of Holy Trinity in Chester (1735). His reputation as a classicist was established with Longinus de Sublimitate (1739), a widely appreciated English translation. Fluent in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, he served as chaplain to the 11th Earl of Derby and briefly held the post of headmaster at Brentwood Grammar School (1748), which he soon resigned. Smith's major scholarly work was his English translation of Thucydides, which was followed by Xenophon's Hellenica (1770). He held various ecclesiastical offices in Chester and Liverpool, culminating in his appointment as Dean of Chester (1758). After his death, his friend Thomas Crane published a posthumous volume of his Poetic Works (1788), which included minor verse and a paraphrase of John Donne. ODBN