Life and Letters in the Ancient Greek World

This survey of Greek letter writing from a well-known and respected author introduces students to the whole range of letter writing in the Greek world, and its problems. Greeks wrote letters to each other for business and diplomatic purposes, as teacher to pupil, and as addresses to the wider world.

"From the first ''murderous symbols'' scratched on a tablet instructing the recipient to kill the one who delivered it, to the letters of St Paul to the early Church, and to later literary experiments, this comprehensive study examines the range of letter-writing in the ancient Greek world. Containing extensive translated examples from both life and fiction, it looks at personal and private letters, providing a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people, letters used in administration and government, letters used as vehicles for the dissemination of philosophy and religion, and letters which played a part in the development of several literary genres. It considers the way in which letters were written and with what materials, how they were delivered, and how it is that, for certain limited periods and locations, so many of them have survived, and how they were rediscovered.".