Acknowledgements
I should like to acknowledge with gratitude the support provided to me by the series editors John Bodel and Adele Scafuro, the editors at Brill – Giulia Moriconi, Vincent Oeters, Theo Joppe, and the anonymous reviewers, whose suggestions and critical comments were invaluable in improving my work. Needless to say, the shortcomings are solely mine.
A particularly long list of thank-you notes always and forever goes to Kathryn Welch and Julia Kindt – two excellent mentors whom I admire and who became my academic role models. Their kindness was absolutely priceless to me throughout my years of study.
I also extend my warmest thanks to those who helped me along the way and became my colleagues and/or close friends over the years: Craig Barker, Virginia Campbell, Adam Carr, Hannah Cornwell, Jacqueline DiBiasie- Sammons, Lucy Drake-Smith, Ingrid Eza-Smith, Jennifer Gerrish, Ambra Giringhelli, Wayne Hart, Fran Keeling, Ina Kehrberg-Ostrasz, Rachael Lane, Guilherme Louzada, Kristina Milnor, Clara Maria Ramos Taboada, Christopher Stait, Holly Sypniewski, Steve Tuck, Eeva-Maria Viitanen, Richard Westall.
There are many scholars whom I have never had a chance to meet in person but whose excellent works have provided me with hours of reading and inspired my studies on Pompeii: Rebecca Benefiel, Alison Cooley, Jonathan Edmondson, Steven Ellis, Riccardo Helg, Peter Keegan, Peter Kruschwitz, Ray Laurence, Eric Poehler, Joe Sheppard, Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Ivo Van Der Graaff, Antonio Varone.
I have received much help with the images of edicta, acclamationes, and graffiti from Justyna Wójtowicz (from MAZAK Projekty Graficzne), Andreas Faßbender, Ulrike Ehmig, and Marietta Horster (from Arbeitsstelle CIL der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften), without whom this volume would not be complete. Thank you so much for all your patience and assistance.
To my students who provide the best daily motivation and keep me on my toes during each and every discussion on ancient history – your energy and enthusiasm is what makes teaching and researching the ancient world so rewarding!
This book would not have been written if not for the constant support of my parents, whose unwavering trust and belief in me and my pursuit of ancient history and archaeology gave me the strength to keep going.
I would like to dedicate this book to all people working in academia who struggle on a daily basis with OCD, anxiety, and panic attacks – you are not alone and you are stronger than you think.