In more ways than one, the production of this book has been encouraged by many friends and scholars. Above all, I would like to express my profound and heartfelt thanks to Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones, the editor of this series, for his comments, his kind assistance and for guiding my approach to Edinburgh University Press. I am also grateful for the helpful suggestions and useful feedback received during fruitful discussions over the years on various forms of some of the ideas presented here. Special thanks go to Fred Brenk, Edward Dąbrowa, Ken Dowden, Joseph Geiger, Thomas Harrison, Amelie Kuhrt, John Marincola, Christopher Pelling, Tim Rood, Jacek Rzepka, Donald Russell, Nicholas Sekunda, Joseph Skinner, Rex Stem, Rolf Strootman, Christopher Tuplin, Luc Van der Stockt, Tim Whitmarsh and Alexei Zadorojnyi. I am also indebted to the many colleagues and friends who heard presentations of my methodology on various occasions and responded with inspiring remarks and observations.

As the distant origins of this book lie in my PhD dissertation (‘Plutarch's Artaxerxes: Historical and Literary Commentary’, the Hebrew University), I would also like to convey my deepest and continuous gratitude and appreciation to my supervisors, Deborah Gera and Doron Mendels, for their help and support, for reviewing that version and for their valuable comments on it. The errors that remain in this version are, of course, entirely my own. I am deeply grateful to Carol Macdonald for her aid and encouragement during the stages of composition and preparation of the text, and to Camilla Rockwood and James Dale. I would like to thank Nili for helping me put ideas into comprehensible and communicative phrases, and Hilly for her patience and loving care – and for being there.