This work gathers together the principal essays of Richard Hunter, whose work has been fundamental in the modern re-evaluation of Greek literature after Alexander and its reception at Rome and elsewhere. At the heart of Hunter's work lies the high poetry of Ptolemaic Alexandria and the narrative literature of later antiquity ('the ancient novel'), but comedy, mime, didactic poetry and ancient literary criticism all fall within the scope of these studies. Principal recurrent themes are the uses and recreation of the past, the modes of poetic allusion, the moral purpose of literature, and the intellectual context for ancient poetry.