In 1983 Louise Scott and Martha Bayless, at that time students, combined forces to compel me to have another look at Virgilius Maro Grammaticus, about whom I thought I had said quite enough already. They were right: everything remained to be done. The results were tried out on various audiences from Lancaster to Naples, and preliminary reports were published in three articles. This book has benefitted greatly from the diverse comments of Gill Evans, Linda Heusser, Olga Holbek, Louis Kelly, Michael Lapidge, Line Playfair, Nick Shackleton, Patrick Sims-Williams, and an anonymous reader, who all read varying amounts of it in typescript. John Buczak, Annabel Cormack, David Dumville and Irène Rosier supplied important details. The production of camera-ready copy would not have been possible without the unflagging enthusiasm and inexhaustible expertise of Leslie French, who designed the Greek, Hebrew and Cyrillic fonts. My debt to Michael Lapidge, who introduced me to Virgilius' writings in 1974, will be apparent throughout. Whether he or anyone else who helped me, directly or indirectly, agrees with the views expressed here is quite another question. I should like to thank them all nonetheless.