Limitations of space have made it necessary to resist the urge to document every fact; instead, I have cited primary sources only where they are directly quoted or otherwise indispensable. Secondary sources in the notes are also kept to a minimum, with emphasis on more recent scholarship, and citations of standard handbooks and reference works are generally avoided; a full list of works consulted can be found in the bibliography. I chose the further reading at the end of each chapter for its accessibility to undergraduate students, and it is therefore limited to items in English. Students who desire full coverage of a given subject will need to venture into other languages. All dates in this book are bce unless otherwise specified. For Greek authors and the most familiar Greek names (Oedipus, Achilles) I use the conventional English spellings; other Greek words are transliterated. For the purposes of this book, I treat as singular the names of certain Greek festivals that are plural in form (Thesmophoria, Panathenaia). Abbreviations of journals are those used in L’Annee philologique. Abbreviations of ancient authors and other primary sources conform to the usage of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (Third edition).
In order to write this guide, I synthesized a massive amount of existing scholarship, so I must thank the colleagues, too many to name, whose specialized work in philology, epigraphy, archaeology, and other fields has made this book possible. Most are cited in the notes and/or bibliography; for any inadvertent omissions, I apologize. are owed to Christina Clark and Daniel Ogden for reading sections and offering useful comments, and to the anonymous referees for Routledge. Art Resource, Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, and the Heraklion Museum assisted with the illustrations, and Mark Rubin helped me with foreign currencies. The work was carried out with the support of the Kent State University Research Council. As always, thanks to my dear husband Bob.
Jennifer Larson Kent State University June 2006
Map 1 Greece (reproduced from Cary 1949 by permission of Oxford University Press).
Map 2 The Aegean area (reproduced from Cary 1949 by permission of Oxford University Press).
Map 3 South Italy and Sicily (reproduced from Cary 1949 by permission of Oxford University Press).
World History
