The Oxford Classical Dictionary, third edition
Tony Spawforth

For over half a century The Oxford Classical Dictionary has been regarded as the unrivalled one-volume reference work on all aspects of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds, with no equal in any language. As an authoritative resource to all there is to know about the ancients, the third edition has sought to uphold this position. It is a complete overhaul of the second edition, published in 1970, which itself was only a light revision of the original edition of 1949. An explosion of scholarship since 1970, much of it important and innovative, needed to be digested. This was not just a matter of new evidence and views on familiar topics, but also the emergence of whole new fields of study such as ancient gender and sexuality, and new emphases, such as the ancient near east, neglected in earlier editions.

With over 6,200 entries written by an international team of 364 scholars, the third edition is some 30% larger than its predecessor, and has a quite different flavour. It aims to provide experts and non-specialists alike with a comprehensive source of reference, including treatment of broader thematic subjects relevant to the modern reader, from alcoholism and breast-feeding to tourism and trade.