It is difficult to square the rhetoric about the current “crisis” in the humanities with the abundant, if anecdotal, evidence that Greco-Roman antiquity continues to thrive in the popular imagination. As I am writing this, Mary Beard's new history of Rome is flying off the shelves; general interest magazines publish articles on Greek papyri; the first translation of Homer's Iliad by a woman has appeared to wide acclaim; the challenge of teaching ancient Greek made it to the op-ed pages of The New York Times; a remake of the film Ben-Hur is scheduled for release this summer; a traveling exhibition of large-scale Hellenistic bronzes has become a “must see” show of the season; productions of Greek tragedies and their adaptations continue to be a staple of professional and amateur theater; and television programs abound on ancient topics ranging from Cleopatra to the Colosseum.2 Of course, this preoccupation with the past has a negative side as well, since even the modern attempt to mythologize Zenobia as an Arab queen who resisted Roman power was not enough to save her city Palymra from those in Syria who were hell-bent on erasing any signs of what they deemed to be unorthodox. But even such wanton acts of destruction, which seek to obliterate history, only provide further proof that the past is still very much alive in the present.3That said, there are different ways to assess the health of a field than by measuring popular interest in the objects of its study.4 These signs of robust interest–of a fascination fueled perhaps by the way in which Greek and Roman culture is simultaneously familiar and foreign to us–do not tell the whole story. If we turn instead to data usefully amassed by the Humanities Indicators of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and by other professional sources, we get a somewhat different picture at the institutional level–small (though relatively steady) numbers of students majoring in classics, respectable enrollments in Greek and Latin (though modest by comparison with many modern languages), and some retrenchment in faculty hiring (though it is not across-the-board and is offset by hiring in other schools and colleges).5Even more striking, and encouraging, is the fact that, as the number of individuals specializing in the field has shrunk, more students than ever before are encountering Greece and Rome through courses on “classics in translation.” A staple of undergraduate general education programs (whether distributional or core requirements) and popular as electives, these courses explore such topics as “Classical Mythology,”“Women in Antiquity,” “Sport and Spectacle in the Ancient World,” “Ancient Religion,” “Greek and Roman Drama,” and “Cinema and the Classics”–to name just a few. Rather than “dumbing down” the field, as some critics have claimed, and being harbingers of further decline, these courses have succeeded in educating a whole new generation of citizens, hardly an unworthy goal. They have also helped to recruit new majors who had not encountered this material before college. And they have even supplied a modest pipeline into the profession, as some of those latecomers to the field, upon graduation, make up for gaps in their linguistic training by enrolling in post-baccalaureate programs, yet another creative adaptation by which the field prepares students for entry into doctoral programs and scholarly and teaching careers.The visibility of antiquity in the curriculum testifies to the resilience of the field in the face of “crisis”–or, rather, “crises.” Greco-Roman studies has long been recognized as the canary in the coal mine of the humanities, having faced early on some of the pressures that the other humanities would encounter only later. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the field lost its curricular hegemony, as American colleges and universities jettisoned Latin as a requirement for admission or graduation. Then, as private schools, particularly Catholic ones, made Latin optional or dropped it altogether, one important pipeline for college majors dried up. Later, as the quintessential home of “dead white males,” the field was at the epicenter of the culture wars.6 And, now, in a climate of economic anxiety, vocationalism, and concern with financial return on educational investment, it is again vulnerable. Rather than circling the wagons, the field has confronted these challenges in creative ways. The curricular engagement noted above was one of these strategies. In fact, in a reversal of the usual model whereby research influences what is taught in the classroom, this curriculum also became a powerful driver (though by no means the only one) of exciting new research agendas that focus on contemporary issues where the past has something to teach us.And so, if ancient Greco-Roman culture is alive and well in the popular imagination and in the general curriculum, the most important evidence of its vitality must nevertheless be sought in the quality of current research. While the past several decades may have seen no grand paradigm shift,7 it is clear that our understanding of the past has been dramatically enhanced–and in some cases radically altered–by new evidence, new methods, and new questions. As befits a scholarly field whose history began to be written even in antiquity, it is not surprising that there are periodic moments of taking stock. The year 2000 occasioned several, including Classics in Progress, a volume of essays by British scholars that was published for our sister society, the British Academy.8 This special issue of Dædalus was inspired by a different sort of milestone, the important work of the American Academy's Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences. The idea for this issue started to come into view at the same time that the Commission was preparing its report, The Heart of the Matter; and the appearance of this issue coincides roughly with the publication of the Commission's follow-up report, which documents the extensive activities that have taken place over the past two years.9 There could be no better time to focus on the oldest of the humanities fields, Greco-Roman studies, and to assess (in the words of this volume's title) “what is new about the old.”10Taken together, the essays in this volume exemplify some of the most important recent developments in Greco-Roman studies. Here I would single out only four. The first is, paradoxically, the persistence of the old amidst the new–the continued focus on the text, whether literary or documentary, and hence the continued importance of philology and the traditional specialisms necessary for recovering and recuperating this category of evidence, such as palaeography, textual criticism, and linguistics. It is sometimes assumed that the vagaries of transmission have left us all that we will ever have of ancient literature–a minute percentage of the total production, to be sure, but more than any one person could read in many lifetimes. But new material regularly turns up, whether in a manuscript miscatalogued in a monastic library, or in a “quotation fragment” (the work of one author cited by another), or, more commonly, on a scrap of papyrus recovered from the dry and preservative sands of Egypt.11 Indeed, one scholar estimates that “Over the last hundred years, one literary papyrus has been published, on average, every ten days; the agglomeration provides, for Greek literature at least, a small new renaissance.”12 (For a recent discovery that has attracted much attention, see the elegant translation by Rachel Hadas of the so-called “Brothers Poem” by Sappho in the box on page 40.)13These discoveries not only enlarge our store of ancient literature, but also enable us to restore what we already have, to recognize previously unknown connections among works, and, on occasion, to rewrite history, literary or otherwise. Meanwhile, extant texts regularly require philological attention. To take just one example: new editions of authors are needed not only to incorporate the new discoveries noted above, but also to take into account several phenomena, only recently understood. One is contaminatio, the fact that most family trees of manuscripts (stemmata codicum) are complicated by horizontal transmission (the cross-fertilization of distinct traditions, when a copyist relying mainly on one manuscript nevertheless incorporates readings from another with a different lineage). Another is even more basic: the that in an where texts were or from the In other there may be no one And just as new editions the new and studies provide their and on the of the research. In fact, a is which not just the words upon a but also the of the text, including the of the ancient (the papyrus and and its not only for textual criticism, but also for ancient in the perhaps the most since it has been for over Greco-Roman studies has up dramatically in of its and This is sometimes as the of other But this which the of a more complicated Greco-Roman studies had been even to this their in the other humanities, not only scholars of and literature but also ancient and In fact, most of these their to the of antiquity, In the and early twentieth these became from their and started to different The was that scholars of Greco-Roman antiquity as a and, over became more from developments in the that they had but that had in different several decades as a if in that Greco-Roman studies was not much a single as a field, and scholars started to take out with their the work of ancient literary and began to be by the and of those (For an elegant see the box on page where of a from traditional philological also being by contemporary literary such as and And of this was a since scholars of the ancient in with their and made to particularly in such as the history of and In an even more scholars who were these began also to as individuals the sort of that had previously in the of their or the as a literary scholars the texts they were ancient history and history a and the same these scholars also upon other that had their of the field, such as and and And through they began to in such as and (the having had a particularly and in the recent of the all of this scholarly no one or has even for a and a of The has been that a field seen by some as more has become much more have an of the at work in the very of the This has to the ancient material and sometimes with a and a of It has also to the that not only past scholars but also they to the evidence they and the they there is of the of in in Greco-Roman studies is the most recent and perhaps the most the new of A of this the for in our of the such as and have been for a long But these have been by other powerful for is from that had been in the of or is us to ancient and and the of such as and us to and and ancient and of some of these and their in the box on page are not just to objects or but to tell a story. The data recovered in this way an that it even to old to and to rewrite to these developments is the important by Greco-Roman studies has been with of with the from to and from the to the the field was an early the of what has come to be as humanities, and it has been a to that field ever one has to evidence, as the of texts and has made research on a previously and has up whole new of But at another not only to evidence but also powerful for ranging from of to the of Greek and Latin texts (the linguistic of every in a and is the of the The for has been dramatically not just by new but also as a of the new noted Greek and Roman at the of are taking of their to of ancient and understanding of the Ancient such topics as and are also being And that the literature of the Hellenistic is in the scholars are their to the the Greek literature of the Roman and the literature of early the the and of the of for are as traditional and as and are seen to be over and of and that not with the the focus on Greece and Rome has way to studies of the and the ancient that recognize the of their at different And even where there is evidence of history for those who work in the Greco-Roman field to explore that one culture or The current interest in or is an of this as is the of a new field, ancient studies, which as its this sort of of of and Greco-Roman studies is being the of as the of a or material is to be a not only of the and in which it was and but also of other and have the of the Greco-Roman in all its is no just the of the As Mary and have is a that in that us and the of the and The by Classics are the by our from and at the same time by our to and by its to The of Classics is not only to or the ancient is also to and our to that And to that one Greco-Roman studies into the square and to the of to and to the past is to our contemporary persistence of the to new and the new of antiquity, and the of developments in Greco-Roman studies over the past several decades are on in the essays that this a are in just for the of the field, I must that many important are from this of and was the could it and the were the to their as they the same these essays are not general or of the of research. While most their work in the of recent they their essays to be studies that new in and, in some in new the is this volume from literature to and material ancient history, and, the institutional in which Greco-Roman studies are Of course, this the among these and also among the essays which a of and This is all the more since the not with one another or in other ways. But this only to the of this as noted of the field, the of of and the of The that are to something that the to the articles could not to out some of these connections and also to a since these when read come to a about “what is new about the that the on texts is of the field, the first essays in this volume the past several have left their on literary including not the and the or In to readings of current also a wide of including the of the noted and, its as the of ancient the and in which texts were and as and and more of and name just a on Greek literature, that category and its scholarly have been as the traditional has the of some of these different To take one example: to texts their and on the other studies to the of texts and about their as her Greek the in which the these two is perhaps most a of the that Greek at a the when of and were also for the of to these in contemporary is about but it is also about the and of as the power to in the as well as to the that one to in ways that are difficult to by on Latin literature, its with its Greek the literature of a Rome had The of this and the understanding of it has been a staple of But of have way to an of the creative of that were at work in one literature to this further by linguistic on Roman about their a of the could to linguistic translation Greek texts into and whose for Greek culture into that could be as a over an text, but it may have to the of any from two essays in different ways the of texts has into the of Greco-Roman studies. The by this on the of the Greek and Roman classics, the recent from a model that a whose be through by the ancient texts as for this and a horizontal one in which these texts are that from and encountering and of these As a on and on two different to in which the the of the in this it a of this of essays on literature, turns to one of had of the idea in Roman antiquity, interest is in the contemporary of which has made Greco-Roman texts to students and the While translation studies has recently as its her focus is not on or criticism, but on as befits one who has just published her translation of the not much a scholarly as a a and the of the that are there in of her of literature, the volume a to more in antiquity than the as the of the to its the current the of ancient and the way that is that is, or and modern with its its powerful its interest in and its linguistic to the that ancient modern and that ancient in the way they take on that have out of contemporary And there are recent signs of the may be its on the field, of may be more to ancient and, at a time of some are that texts of the past a place where one again about some of the traditional issues of in a more In ancient texts one again to see the for the A is the of where there has been a creative engagement the old and the The was a one in antiquity most the view that is not an and contemporary are and with that to by the that the ancient will continue to us the challenges we and that they will also teach contemporary to to those and in ways that we two essays our from ancient literature and to and material In a way that is familiar from of ancient the of Greco-Roman has been the of history, which on the modern and history has also to its to philology and the engagement with to these challenges are familiar from the of literature in this One is to focus on on and ways in which Greco-Roman has continues to and and and Another to the in their this is an in which of by contemporary their focus on of and, an important to there is to the and text, which is to the in literary studies. by a from the which about the with of and and by also on material objects and but of a different the written that an important for research. These texts on and and most of from two The first is a new interest in these were texts and of make it to the of whereby material of writing and writing have come to into the of the of writing in ancient The a and on the in which the written were and what that about different in their and that the two are the that and are This material focus a in from the literary and philological of a generation history in a have from being only in the of a new of Sappho to to who was and has in the of the of the ancient in their and from This is, the of But if it were the of an that would be no essays turn our to ancient In recent years, has traditional and history to also and has from in to the of and including and and to such topics as and and on one of these the of and on the sort of evidence that has as the city of in which for a long time and has different of and and with one another the they were being and by and and they were in which were to the and transmission of and only the of this but even its a as when an is as a its in having by become It is that about not the late antiquity, when and and all other of the most of the of this is in a the of the of as the of the by a very different category of evidence, not just textual and but also a of ancient history, the of that had not in past that Rome was an and its was of a of from in to the of and that the of and other But if and the the for no we on the of evidence, that climate also that the of had been for much of the In the the which has as was through the the very that the same in the of the of what has as a in and again in the to a in that had the And a the of started in in and the Roman over the The of the was not as the of any one but instead to a of that was to climate and and that in a of the These the the of two essays that explore in ancient history, and on the of the They two different of ancient model that Greece and Rome as the that since they were in history, and the which is in its and to the of The have and for two hundred and years, with the model taking in the and the the But as evidence and are than ever the is in the the that to most began not in Greece and but with the of in the more than ten or the in of modern more than one hundred or of the But if the model most of the history, the model has its much of what the and the that is, much of The authors an way of ancient history, which is and and first is the the of the first when of at roughly the same time in different and much evidence of The is the of Rome and for but they had very different and their be only by The and the of two for research in which and work But to this, to new evidence, methods, and and recognize that the ancient was much ancient history much our made last two essays in this volume return to a that was at the of this the institutional and professional of Greco-Roman studies. But the now, is on the to curriculum and the of from its in American education in the of the of universities at that including the of whose from of into an of the an to contemporary where more have a than ever and where studies. a for the in this by that the of the field, the way it different of and is to the as a But these different are in one curriculum, the of and to the of a different that the are the same challenges that faced decades that the make the for research by of the past through popular and which a and make our teaching a is also to having Greco-Roman studies as a But is the power of research and teaching be by upon in this but to which the from to a our to as a from the Academy's Humanities Indicators that the humanities to the general is not by scholars in this and other humanities But this the humanities for the for the of research ways to this One is to which is by no means for this more important is to come up with new for Greco-Roman studies in a one which not the with of the but to including in other it for such to and make to is that Greco-Roman studies in a to up not only to different and but also to of and One traditional name for the field, the fact that there are many other and than those of Greece and institutional with scholars of and of to work with the of in and Greek and is to the sort of ancient history that and and is with the out of the field noted While not all may about the or of some of these not only as a to this but also as a to the essays that