ABSTRACT
Among the illusions with which we approach the ancient world is the illusion that we know, at least in those works that are still extant, what the ancient authors wrote.This is never the case.There is not a single work of ancient literature for which we have the author’s autograph. Even the items inscribed on stone, which though rarely of literary value were at least recorded almost immediately upon composition, were inscribed by a mason, not by the author, and stonemasons make mistakes.1 The earliest manuscripts we have were generally written hundreds of years-often more than a thousand years-after the work of which they claim to be copies. There are always discrepancies among different manuscripts,2
usually minor but often significant or even quite substantial. A copy of Caesar that puts before us, as this or any other modern book does, a single text that can be read from start to finish without significant uncertainties is seriously misrepresenting what we know about Caesar.
