INTRODUCTION: Polybius Was Right

At the beginning of the three-volume collection of essays entitled Rome, the Greek World, and the East, Fergus Millar, in a prologue written for volume 1, looks back at the essays collected here and contends that “Ancient History” is meaningful and intelligible to us precisely because it is comparatively so recent and we are still so close to it in so many important ways. Following the author’s prologue, the essays of Millar in this volume defend the continued significance of the study of classics, argue for expanding the definition of what constitutes classics, and challenge the dominant twentieth-century scholarly interpretation