"Nine new studies here explore, and reconstruct, determinant episodes of Greek, Hellenistic and Roman history. The authors argue that hindsight -- especially in modern works -- has falsified the past, by playing down or eliminating the record of ancient unfulfilled forecasts, and of trends in events which in the long term did not obviously prove predominant. The authors also highlight the efforts of the best-placed writers in Antiquity not to be misled by hindsight, but rather to give due weight to the working of hopes and fears, and of trends in events, which with remote retrospect would tend to be belittled or forgotten." -- Dust jacket.
"This book arises from a panel entitled 'Hindsight: the importance of unfulfilled expectations in Greek and Roman history,' which was part of the Six Celtic Conference in Classics, held at the University of Edinburgh in July 2010." -- p. vii.