Robert Mantle Rattenbury (9 December 1901 – 29 July 1970) was an English classical scholar and Registrary of the University of Cambridge.

His most important publication was an edition of the Aethiopica of Heliodorus of Emesa, in three volumes, with notes in French. He was editor of The Classical Review and a contributor to the Oxford Classical Dictionary.

Early life Rattenbury was a son of John Ernest Rattenbury, a doctor of divinity, one of the leading Methodist evangelists and preachers of his day, who served as President of the National Free Church Council.The Papers of the Rattenbury Family, jisc.ac.uk, accessed 11 December 2022

He was educated at Westminster School, where in 1919 he played at outside right in the school's First XI for soccer.The Elizabethan, vol. XVI, no. 10 (June 1920), p. 88 He went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, gaining First Class Honours in the Classical Tripos.

Career In 1926 Rattenbury was elected as a fellow of Trinity College and in 1953 as Registrary of the university,"RATTENBURY, Robert Mantle" in Who's Who (London, 1968), p. 2524"Lists of Officeholders: Registraries" , Cambridge University Library (2004) accessed 10 December 2022 meaning as head of its administration.Steve Denton, Sally Brown, A Practical Guide to University and College Management (2009), p. 2

Between 1935 and 1938, Rattenbury and T. W. Lumb published in Paris an edition of the Aethiopica of Heliodorus of Emesa, in three volumes, with critical notes in French.Heliodoros, Aithiopika, ed. Robert Mantle Rattenbury, Thomas Wallace Lumb (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, three volumes, 1935–1938) These were later translated into English and the work was republished in Ann Arbor in 1957."Heliodorus, Ethiopika. (ed. R. M. Rattenbury and T. W. Lamb), Paris, 1935–8. This book has been translated into English by M. Hadas, Heliodorus, Ann Arbor, 1957." in Samuel K. Eddy The King is Dead: Studies in the Near Eastern Resistance to Hellenism, 334-31 B.C. (University of Nebraska Press, 1961), p. 352

At Trinity, Rattenbury was the supervisor of Geoffrey Kirk, and an obituary of Kirk by Hugh Lloyd-Jones says of Rattenbury that he was "a sound scholar but by no means an inspiring teacher". When in 1940 Kirk said he was leaving to join the Navy, Rattenbury remarked: "Good Heavens! Well, I don't suppose I shall be seeing you again!" Nevertheless, Kirk returned to Cambridge at the end of the war and went on to become Regius Professor of Greek there.Hugh Lloyd-Jones, "Geoffrey Stephen Kirk 1921–2003" (obituary), thebritishacademy.ac.uk, accessed 11 December 2022

By 1946, Rattenbury was editor of The Classical Review, the journal of the Classical Association.Volume Information, The Classical Review, vol. LX (Cambridge University Press, 1946)

At the time of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, two Cambridge colleges, Trinity and King's, agreed to take in twenty-five Hungarian student refugees. Wielding the authority of his office as Registrary, Rattenbury took charge of the exercise, giving the Anglo-Hungarian don Robert Bolgar of King's the task of escorting the new recruits from London and helping them to settle in.Magda Czigány, "Just Like Other Students": Reception of the 1956 Hungarian Refugee Students in Britain (2009), p. 70

Rattenbury was a contributor to The Oxford Classical Dictionary, under the initials RMR.Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth, Esther Eidinow, eds., Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford University Press, 2012), p. xxiv

Rattenbury continued to serve as Registrary until 1969 but did not reach retirement as a fellow, dying suddenly in July 1970"ROBERT MANTLE RATTENBURY", trinitycollegechapel.com, accessed 10 December 2022 at Grantchester, where he lived. He left an estate valued at £29,091."RATTENBURY Robert Mantle of 55 Bridle Wy Grantchester Cambridge died 29 July 1970" in Wills and Administrations (England and Wales) 1970 (1971), p. 42

In 1934, he married Monica Mary Miller Jones, and they had three daughters. His widow continued to live in Cambridge and died there in 1998, aged 97."Monica Mary M Rattenbury" in England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007, accessed 17 December 2022

Selected publications Heliodoros, Aithiopika, ed. Robert Mantle Rattenbury, Thomas Wallace Lumb (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, three volumes, 1935–1938) "Chastity and Chastity Ordeals in the Ancient Greek Romances", Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society, Literary and Historical Section 1 (1926): 59–71 "A New Interpretation of the Chione Fragments" in Classical Quarterly 20/3-4 (1926), 181-185 "Traces of Lost Greek Novels" in J. U. Powell, New chapters in the History of Greek Literature (Oxford, 1933), 211–257 "Tacitus, Hist. i. 79" in The Classical Review Vol. 57, No. 2 (September 1943), 67-69 "An Ancient Armoured Force" in The Classical Review 56/3 (1942): 113–116 The Classical Review, LX (1946), ed. C. J. Fordyce, R. M. Rattenbury The Classical Review, X (1960), Vol. LXXIV of the Continuous Series, ed. C. J. Fordyce, R. M. Rattenbury

Notes

External links Robert Mantle Rattenbury (1901–1970), Lecturer in Classics, Cambridge, National Portrait Gallery, London