William Ridgeway

William Ridgeway (1853–1926) was an Irish classical scholar and archaeologist. Born in County Offaly and educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and Cambridge, he was professor of Greek at Queen's College, Cork, from 1883 and Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge from 1892 until his death. His Origin of Metallic Currency and Weight Standards (1892) argued that money and weights began with the value of the ox, and The Early Age of Greece, The Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse and The Origin of Tragedy followed, each marked by bold hypothesis and wide learning.