I have been interested for many years in the problems involved in this book, and I could not have written it without the generous help of many people, especially those who have answered my questions on topics beyond my competence. I have found it illuminating for myself to try to take account of comparative evidence, particularly from the ancient Near East, in order to put the Roman case in perspective, and I have made this comparative material part of the argument in the hope that others will also find it illuminating. Yet I am very much aware that I am technically incompetent in this comparative zone. The only script I command is the alphabet, and the only languages I know are ones that are encoded in that script. I am, then, especially grateful to the great generosity of a number of scholars who have responded with kind patience to my ignorant enquiries: Stephanie Dalley, John Dillery, Andrew George, Tom Hare, Simon Hornblower, Marwan Kilani, Barry Powell, Josephine Crawley Quinn, Tessa Rajak, Christopher Tuplin, and Michael Wachtel. I thank Stephanie Dalley in par tic u lar for inviting me to her stimulating Workshop on Translation and Bilingualism in Ancient Near Eastern Texts (Wolfson College, Oxford, March, 14–15, 2013); it was a privilege to try to learn from her and her colleagues. I have tried to be scrupulous in acknowledging my debts, yet I am aware that I may have lost track of the origin of certain points. I was