This book was written with – and could not possibly have been without – the support of a Pro Futura Scientia Scholarship held at the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at Cambridge and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala, funded by Stiftelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond. The staff at both institutions contributed hugely to the work I did there.

My thanks are owed to the following people, who helped me in ways great or small: Jim Adams, Moreed Arbabzadah, David Butterfield, Felice Costabile, Robrecht Decorte, Wolfgang de Melo, Emmanuel Dupraz, Benjamin Fortson IV, Marco Mancini, Alex Mullen, Philomen Probert, Giulia Sarullo, Rosanna Sornicola; and the attendees at seminars at SCAS and the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at Uppsala University, the Faculty of Classics in Cambridge and at the conference on Writing Conventions and Pragmatic Perspectives at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. No doubt I have forgotten many others. Particular gratitude goes to James Clackson, Katherine McDonald, and Stephen Oakley, all of whom read drafts of the whole thing and provided comments and advice, and to Victoria Fendel, who provided essential research assistance.

Andrea Scheibler (Scheibler Editorial) made sure the bibliography had all the right things in it and saved me from a number of mistakes. Michael Sharp, Katie Idle, Liz Davey of Cambridge University Press, and Lesley Hay of Hay Editorial provided a smooth path to publication.

Rachele De Felice and Kitty Zair ignored the book as best they could, but they get thanked anyway.