A comprehensive reference work for both students and academics. The "Edinburgh Companion" is a gateway to the fascinating worlds of ancient Greece and Rome. Wide-ranging in its approach and pragmatic in its method, it reveals the multifaceted nature of the classical enterprise and shows something of the rewards and satisfactions to be gained by drawing together the perspectives and methods of different disciplines, from philosophy to history, poetics to archaeology, art history to numismatics, and many more. The book is divided into six parts. Part 1 gives an overview of modern approaches to the various aspects of the classics. Part 2 looks at the material background to the two peoples. Part 3 concentrates on how the written evidence has come down to us (manuscripts that have been transmitted down the centuries) and materials that continue to be unearthed. Part 4 covers the wide spectrum of the written genres. Parts 5 and 6 are intended to provide a practical guide to such items as names, measures and technical terms. A chronology is included plus a full list of abbreviations which readers will find essential in finding their way through publications in the various disciplines of classics.