George Morey Richardson Latin Translation Prize
Established in 1896
Description. The Richardson Latin Translation Prize is open to all UC Berkeley students. A first-place prize and second-place prize are awarded for the best translation of classical English into Ciceronian Latin. The Richardson Prize Passage for 2011-12 is posted below. The passage will also be available at the Classics Department Office, 7233 Dwinelle Hall. For complete information, please read the General Rules.
Prize Amounts. First-place prize is $1,500; second-place prize is $500. When only a first-place award is granted, the winner receives $2,000. Federal financial aid regulations require that all awards received by a student can not exceed their financial aid need as determined by a congressional formula. It is possible, therefore, that the cash award for a prize could reduce some component of a needy student’s package of financial aid awards. In these cases, the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office attempts first to reduce loan or work aid; fellowships, grants, or scholarships are only reduced as a last resort.
Deadline. Submissions must be hand-delivered by the author to the Undergraduate Scholarships, Prizes, and Honors Office, 220 Sproul Hall, no later than 4 p.m. on Friday, January 27, 2012. The author's name must not appear on the entry.
History of the Prize. The Richardson Latin Translation Prize was established through the will of George Morey Richardson of Berkeley, California, dated May 16, 1896: "I give and devise to The Regents of the University of California, two lots or parcels of land, situated in Highland Trust, Oakland Township, Alameda County, State of California, to expend the income therefrom or from the proceeds thereof, when sold, for an annual prize known as the 'Richardson Latin Translation Prize,' to be awarded to undergraduates (later to include graduate students) of the University of California for the best translation of classical English into Ciceronian Latin."
George Morey Richardson Latin Translation Prize Passage 2011-12
Edward Gibbon, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
I shall not, I trust, be accused of superstition; but I must remark that, even in this world, the natural order of events will sometimes afford the strong appearances of moral retribution. The first Palaeologus had saved his empire by involving the kingdoms of the West in rebellion and blood; and from these seeds of discord uprose a generation of iron men, who assaulted and endangered the empire of his son. In modern times our debts and taxes are the secret poison which still corrodes the bosom of peace; but in the weak and disorderly government of the middle ages it was agitated by the present evil of the disbanded armies. Too idle to work, too proud to beg, the mercenaries were accustomed to a life of rapine: they could rob with more dignity and effect under a banner and a chief, and the sovereign, to whom their service was useless and their presence importunate, endeavoured to discharge the torrent on some neighboring countries. After the peace of Sicily, many thousands of Genoese, Catalans, etc., who had fought by sea and land under the standard of Anjou or Arragon, were blended into one nation by the resemblance of their manners and interest. They heard that the Greek provinces of Asia were invaded by the Turks: they resolved to share the harvest of pay and plunder; and Frederick king of Sicily most liberally contributed the means of their departure. In a warfare of twenty years a ship or a camp was become their country; arms were their sole possession and property; valour was the only virtue which they knew; their women had imbibed the fearless temper of their lovers and husbands: it was reported that with a stroke of their broad-sword the Catalans could cleave a horseman and a horse; and the report itself was a powerful weapon. Roger de Flor was the most popular of their chiefs; and his personal merit overshadowed the dignity of his prouder rivals of Arragon. The offspring of a marriage between a German gentleman of the court of Frederic the Second and a damsel of Brindisi, Roger was successively a templar, an apostate, a pirate, and at length the richest and most powerful admiral of the Mediterranean.
2010-11: 4 entries; 1st place: Jared Hudson ($1,500); 2nd place: Thomas Hendrickson ($500)
2009-10: 3 entries; Jared Hudson ($2,000)
2008-09: 5 entries; 1st place: Jared Hudson ($1,500); 2nd place: Antonia Pham Young ($500)
2007-08: 3 entries; Jared Hudson and Boris Rodin ($1,000 each)
2006-07: 3 entries; Jared Hudson ($2,000)
2005-06: 5 entries; 1st place: Wilson Shearin ($1,500); 2nd place: Kurt Lampe ($500)
2004-05: 3 entries; Kurt Lampe ($2,000)
2003-04: 4 entries; 1st place: William Michael Short ($1,500); 2nd place: J. C. Geissmann ($500)
2002-03: 6 entries; William Short ($2,000)
2001-02: 1 entry; Jon Christopher Geissmann ($1,000)
2000-01: 3 entries; Dylan Sailor ($1000)
1999-00: 3 entries; 1st place: Dylan Sailor ($1,000); 2nd place: Amir Baghdadchi ($500)
1998-99: 3 entries; Dylan Sailor ($500)
1997-98: 2 entries; Dylan Sailor ($500)