I WOULD LIKE to thank the following people for having read and commented on parts of this manuscript: Roger Bagnall, Benjamin Gampel, Catherine Hezser (who read parts of the book in early versions, and the entire manuscript for the Press), Martha Himmelfarb, Richard Kalmin, Natalie Kampen, Hayim Lapin, Lee Levine, Ivan Marcus, Bruce Nielsen, and Jeffrey Rubenstein. Leslie Kurke read and made crucial suggestions about the introduction, as did Juliet Fleming, who has furthermore been a source of inspiration throughout the overlong gestation of this book. Martin Goodman not only endured my stumbling presentations of primitive versions of segments of this book at his seminar in Wolfson College, Oxford, but also read it in its entirety for the Press and made many important comments. Keith Hopkins read nearly the entire manuscript, talked me through its writing and rewriting, and has been infinitely encouraging and provocative. Without Keith I could never have written this book.
I have been fortunate to have lived and taught in environments—King’s College, Cambridge, and the Jewish Theological Seminary—richly endowed with colleagues and students who made it fun to work out the argument of the book. I will not attempt to provide a full list, since it would contain hundreds of names if it could be compiled. However, I should thank especially the conveners of the King’s College Research Centre, Martin Hyland and Alan Macfarlane, for enabling me to begin the book; Simon Goldhill for his friendship, generosity, and stimulation during the period of its composition; and the chancellor and provost of the seminary, Ismar Schorsch and Jack Wertheimer, for enabling me to complete it, by granting me a premature sabbatical leave. The generosity of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation allowed me to extend the leave to a full year.
Components have been presented at conferences and seminars in (from east to west) Jerusalem, Berlin, Heidelberg, Cambridge, London, Oxford, New Haven, New York, and Princeton; I am indebted to the organizers and participants for invitations and comments. Finally, I thank Mark Cohen and Shalom Sabar for timely advice.