Did the Greeks find it amusing, irritating, or threatening when they heard another Greek speaking in a different dialect? This book exploits the evidence of ancient Greek comedy in an attempt to answer some of the questions about ancient language attitudes. Colvin draws conclusions from a comparative study of the language of dialect speaking characters and other foreigners in Old Comedy, and on an examination of linguistic attitudes in other genres of Greek literature.

Focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean world in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, this collection of essays draws on new discoveries in archaeology and epigraphy. It illustrates how methods and interpretations have developed over the last two decades. The essays cover a wide range of social and historical issues, including processes of Hellenization and acculturation, the permeability and flexibility of political boundaries, the interaction of civil and religious authority, and the operation of networks of patronage and power.

Focusing on the Eastern Mediterranean world in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, this collection of essays draws on new discoveries in archaeology and epigraphy. It illustrates how methods and interpretations have developed over the last two decades. The essays cover a wide range of social and historical issues, including processes of Hellenization and acculturation, the permeability and flexibility of political boundaries, the interaction of civil and religious authority, and the operation of networks of patronage and power.

A Historical Greek Reader provides an introduction to the history of the ancient Greek language by means of a series of texts with linguistic commentary, cross-referenced to each other and to a reference grammar at the front. It offers a selection of epigraphic and literary texts from the Mycenaean period (roughly the fourteenth century BC) to the koine (the latest text dates to the second century AD), and includes a wide range of Greek dialect texts. The epigraphic section balances a number of well-known inscriptions with recent discoveries that may not be easily available elsewhere; a...

A Brief History of Ancient Greek accessibly depicts the social history of this ancient language from its Indo-European roots to the present day.

• Explains key relationships between the language and literature of the Classical period (500 - 300 BC)
• Provides a social history of the language which transliterates and translates all Greek as appropriate, and is therefore accessible to readers who know little or no Greek
• Written in the framework of modern sociolinguistic theory, relating the development of Ancient Greek to its social and political...