This book is substantially revised and expanded from its original incarnation as my Cambridge Ph.D. thesis begun in 1991 and there are many debts of gratitude to record for help and support with the project since then. But there are people who deserve thanks for inspiration and teaching long before I started the thesis, particularly Andrew Wilson (formerly of Bedford Modern School) and Ewen Bowie (in Oxford).

The thesis was supervised by Simon Goldhill: my warmest thanks to him for intellectual stimulation, patience, humour, good advice and for not putting up with any rubbish. Several scholars read and usefully criticised drafts of chapters which are still in this book, providing encouragement along the way: thanks to Richard Hunter, John Henderson, Malcolm Schofield, Helen Morales and Paul Cartledge. My Ph.D. examiners were Richard Buxton and Paul Millett: their comments, criticisms and advice were most helpful and much-appreciated.

More recently, I have received friendly advice from Stephen Halliwell: thanks to him for reading the first three chapters and for boosting my confidence. I must also thank the three anonymous readers appointed by Cambridge University Press for swift and extremely good advice on structure, tone and content.Audiences in Oxford, Exeter, London, Bristol, Washington, Glasgow and St Andrews have heard and given useful responses to seminar papers containing material which ended up in this book.