Lionel Casson was head of the Classics Dept at NYU and he taught the intro course. I was lucky enough to have him as my prof when I took the course (back then, even as a bio major and pre-med, I had to take a full slate of liberal arts courses and graduate with a BA). He was an extraordinary teacher.
I think I remember this... for one of your classes, did he do a solo performance of one of the classic Greek plays?