ABSTRACT
The most salient fact about the world of the ancient Greeks and Romans is that it no longer exists. However deeply our lives may be touched by the classical heritage, we can never speak to an ancient Greek or Roman, never visit them in their homes, never walk through their streets as they knew them. They are situated in the past, and our encounter with them is inescapably a historical one. It follows that, whatever particular aspect of their civilization we may choose to investigate, our investigation will always have to be historically informed. It is possible, though perhaps inadvisable, to discuss ancient history with only slight reference to ancient poetry, historical linguistics or ancient art; but it is hardly possible to discuss any of those subjects intelligently without at least a basic grounding in the history of the Greeks and the Romans.1
