Why I have written this book is set out in the Introduction. Here is rather the place to acknowledge debts and give thanks to those who have helped in one way or another, and I hope that Alan Cameron, Susan Moore, Peter Parsons and two anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press will accept this small token of my gratitude for their much larger help. Parts of this book have been inflicted on many audiences over the past few years on both sides of the Atlantic. I have got far more from this experience than they have; where I am conscious of a particular debt, I have sought to acknowledge it, but these occasions have often identified weaknesses and obscurities in ways which I can no longer associate with a particular individual. The final version was prepared during an idyllic few months at Princeton University as a guest of The Council of the Humanities and the Department of Classics; I am deeply indebted to Elaine Fantham, Froma Zeitlin and all their colleagues for offering me the chance to work in such a locus amoenus, for the warmth of their welcome and the stimulus of their company.

As I read over what I have written, I recognise one debt which outweighs all others. For many years now I have been lucky enough to have the chance to discuss ancient literature week in and week out with a group of Cambridge friends.