In this volume, Ceccarelli offers a history of the development of letter writing in ancient Greece from the archaic to the early Hellenistic period. Highlighting the specificity of letter-writing, as opposed to other forms of communication and writing, the volume looks at documentary letters, but also traces the role of embedded letters in the texts of the ancient historians, in drama, and in the speeches of the orators. While a letter is in itself the transcription of an oral message and, as such, can be either truthful or deceitful, letters acquired negative connotations in the fifth century, especially when used for transactions concerning the public and not the private sphere. Viewed as the instrument of tyrants or near eastern kings, these negative connotations were evident especially in Athens where comedy and tragedy testified to an underlying concern with epistolary communication. In other areas of the Greek world, such as Sparta or Crete, the letter may have been seen as an unproblematic instrument for managing public policies, with inscriptions documenting the official use of letters not only by the Hellenistic kings, but also by some poleis.

this book will henceforth be crucial for all research on epistolary writing in the Greek world, and for many studies of letters in contemporary non-Greek cultures and in the Roman Empire. * Owen Hodkinson, SHARP News (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading & Publishing) *
with her careful analysis of the extant material Ceccarelli admirably accomplishes her goal of studying long-distance communication in the Greek world. Her book not only provides a thorough examination of the origins, use and development of letter writing in the Greek world. It also offers a deep analysis of the primary and secondary sources in a rigorous but accessible manner, which makes it an indispensable tool for anyone interested in ancient Greek letters. * Elena Martín González, The Classical Journal Online *
Undoubtedly this book represents a useful complement to studies that deal with the later periods of Greek epistolography. * Bruno Marien, LAntiquité Classique *

Paola Ceccarelli is Fellow in Classics at Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Her research interests range from ancient dance and theatre to ancient historiography and epistolary writing.