Anachronisms are everywhere, especially when dealing with classical antiquity. Niccolò Machiavelli declared in a letter to a friend that by entering his study filled with books he had direct access to the ancient world: ‘[I] step inside the venerable courts of the ancients … where Iam unashamed to converse with them and to question them about the motives of their actions, and they, out of their human kindness, answer me … Iabsorb myself into them completely’ (to Francesco Vettori, 10 Dec. 1513, in J.B. Atkinson and D. Sices (trans.), Machiavelli and His Friends (De Kalb 1996), 262–65). In this immersive experience, the act of reading is staged as what Tim Rood, Carol Atack and Tom Phillips would call the ‘self-conscious practice of anachronism’ (219), a time-travelling experience that opens the possibility of a dialogue with figures from the past, typically as an idealized group of sages.

The ‘and’ in the title of Anachronism and Antiquity hints at this book’s double focus. The phenomenon of anachronism in antiquity is really only one side of the story. With an impressive number of examples from various contexts, it provides proof of a clear sensitivity to historical difference and chronological errors in antiquity, both in historiography and in (self-consciously anachronistic) literary tropes. But equally important in this book are the omnipresent and indeed inevitable anachronisms in the history of thinking about antiquity, its creative reception throughout the ages and the development of philological and scientific approaches. Anachronism is a multifaceted concept indeed, as is well illustrated by the case study that serves the book as a prelude: a discussion of Solon’s advice in Herodotus to ‘Look to the end’ before deciding about anyone’s good fortune. Solon’s presence at the court of Croesus is itself anachronistic (anachronism as a mistake in the chronology, cf. chapter 1 ‘Inventing Anachronism’, especially under ‘The historian’s unforgivable sin’; chapter 4 ‘Anachronism and Chronology’). In Herodotus, Solon moreover uses exempla (‘timeless truths’) from earlier periods (cf. chapter 6 ‘Anachronism and exemplarity’), he is anachronistically called a sophist (chapter 3 ‘Anachronism and philology’), and refers to a calendrical system outmoded already in Herodotus’ age (cf. chapter 4 under ‘Dating systems’). Stretching the anachronistic interpretation of the passage even further, Solon is also considered a living anachronism, a practitioner of an old-fashioned form of wisdom (cf. chapter 5 ‘Anachronistic survivals’), and by warning Croesus to look to the end he acknowledges ‘the danger of anachronism inherent in historical judgements’ (6; see esp. the closing discussion on hindsight in the epilogue).

By exploring the full range of meanings of the word anachronism, this book covers a wealth of topics. It offers a clever combination of theory (slightly heavier in chapters 1 and 2, where the concept of anachronism is linked to the history of thought and its conceptualization of ‘time’ and ‘history’) and case studies (well-selected smaller case studies in each chapter, larger case studies connecting multiple topics in the three interludes, prelude and epilogue), from Vergil and Homer to Giorgio de Chirico and Jorge Luis Borges. There is something for everyone and the erudition with which the authors discuss and seamlessly connect such diverse topics, time periods and disciplines is impressive. Many readers will no doubt feel encouraged to think of related phenomena and additional examples from their own field of expertise and find this volume a stimulating starting point for further explorations of ‘time tensions’ in literature, art and historical thinking. The three-year project ‘Anachronism and Antiquity’ of which this book is one of the prime results, has put the topic firmly on the research agenda. It is worthwhile also checking out their research blog https://anachronismandantiquity.wordpress.com/, which offers even more case studies and inspiring materials, and of course the other scholarly publications resulting from the project, especially Tom Phillips’ monograph Untimely Epic: Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica (Oxford 2020) and the special issue of Classical Receptions Journal ‘Anachronism and Antiquity’ edited by J. Marincola, T. Rood and M. Umachandran, vol. 12.1 (2020) resulting from the project’s 2018 workshop. Not connected to this project, but of a similar scope, is the volume Zeitmontagen. Formen und Funktionen gezielter Anachronismen edited by A. Junghanß, B. Kaiser and D. Pausch (Stuttgart 2019), which appeared the year before. This synchronicity is a clear sign of a broader interest in anachronisms and seems part of a tendency towards more meta-reflection on how scholarship shapes the past it studies.