Acknowledgements
Most chapters in this volume derive from a conference entitled ‘What is Early Latin?’, held in the Department of Classics, University of St Andrews, on 10–11 July 2018. The event would not have been possible without the financial support of the University of St Andrews and of Trinity College Dublin, as well as the help and support of the colleagues in the School of Classics in St Andrews, especially Jason König and Sam Dixon. Giuseppe Pezzini conducted the bulk of the work on the volume during a period of research leave, generously funded by the Loeb Classical Library Foundation and the British Academy, to whom he is also very grateful.
A main aim of the volume has been to investigate the concept of ‘early Latin’ and whether it is meaningful to speak of the periodisation of the Latin language as it has survived in written sources. New discoveries come up, such as the inscriptions on warship rostra dating from the first Punic War: these have been duly discussed. Contributors have engaged deeply with the many facets of the question and provided new insights on a wide range of texts, from the Latin extant in texts and inscriptions of the early period to the reception of ‘early Latin’ language in the late Republic, the imperial period, late Antiquity and beyond. We are very grateful to the contributors for their enthusiastic answer to our call, for their responses to our comments and suggestions, and for their commitment and patience during the long production of the volume. Special thanks go to Charlie Kerrigan for all the work he has done on indexing and proofreading.
Finally, we are very grateful to Michael Sharp of Cambridge University Press for his support and tolerance, and to Juliet Wilberforce for her excellent copy editing.
