This volume covers the history of comic genres (the Old and the New, literary and performed mime, etc.) from Attic comedy's uncertain origins, its development throughout the Classical and Hellenistic periods in Greek history, its dissemination throughout the Mediterranean area and the advent of Roman comedy, down to the afterlife of comedy in Late Antiquity. Two appendices conclude the volume. The editors describe the volume as a ‘comprehensive introduction and reference work’ to this ‘longue dureé of comedy’ (p. 22). This is accomplished perfectly.

After a splendid introduction by S. focusing on different approaches to the study of ancient comedy and its development, the first part opens with three essays: Rusten provides a thoughtful discussion of the essence of comedy, Csapo of the evidence for the performance of comic actors and chorus members and, finally, Makres covers the sources for the production and financing of comedies in Athens, the choregia of comedy. Storey opens the following section with an introductory chapter on the earliest comedians and their plays, followed by Telò, who transgresses the ‘Aristophanocentric view’ and studies some of Aristophanes' contemporaries. Finally, Zimmermann offers a useful introduction to Aristophanes. The following three chapters look at the development of Old comedy in the fourth century: first, Konstantakos offers a highly stimulating study on mythological burlesques, Henderson discusses two central themes in comedy, politics and domesticity, while one of the editors, S., gives a shrewd analysis of the aesthetic and dramaturgical evolution during the fourth century. S. likewise offers a splendid introduction to Menander, which is followed by Blanchard's detailed introduction to the Menandrian tradition, from his disappearance before the metacharacterismos of the manuscripts to the finding of the papyri in the twentieth century. The final chapters in this section look at the interplay of comedy with other dramatic genres (Hanink) and with fourth-century philosophy (Konstan).

The third section of Part 1 focuses on the three general trends in comedy: first, Rosenbloom discusses the politics of Old and New comedy and sees a move from the political Old comedy to the urban New comedy, then Buis offers a detailed and extremely useful overview of Attic comedy's use of legal vocabulary and procedures. Scullion finishes the section with a masterly, though slightly controversial, study of Greek comedy and religion. The fourth and final section of Part 1 offers a broadening view of the spread of the dramatic genres and festivals throughout the Mediterranean: Le Guen provides a clear and useful overview of the sources related to comic performances in the Hellenistic world, while Panayotakis offers a splendid introduction to ‘the elusive theatrical form of entertainment known as the mime’. Even for specialists of either Greek or Roman comedy, Panayotakis's chapter will be of great value and inspiration.

The second part of the volume turns to Roman comedy. In the first section, Brown provides a short but detailed overview of the birth of Roman comic genres, which serves as an introduction to the rest of this part of the volume. In the following chapters, Franko gives a fine account of the theatrical context(s) (festivals, sites, etc.) for early Roman comedy, and Petrides offers a splendid overview of scholarly approaches to Plautus' comedy. The second section turns to the Roman playwrights, and first De Melo deals with the fragments of Naevius, Caecilius and Titinius, followed by an interesting performance-based study on both Plautus and Terence by Bexley. Deufert provides a well-argued and important chapter on music in Roman comedy, while Dunsch discusses the dramatic use of prologues and their cognitive and emotional effects on the audience. One of the editors, F., gives two masterly accounts of Plautus and Terence, their sense of comedy and its relationship with Roman literature/culture within the Hellenistic world. Karakasis offers a brilliant linguistic analysis of the diction of the fabula palliata in Plautus and Terence as well as an examination of how the language of Roman comedy differs from Classical Latin. Manuwald finishes this section with an examination of the generic awareness in Republican comedy and palliatae, and shows that the interplay between comedy and tragedy was not only a loan from Greek predecessors, but an active and creative part of the Roman dramatic scene as well. The third section turns to Roman comedy's interaction with the surrounding society, and is usefully discussed by Gruen, followed by Gaertner's excellent discussion of legal language and content in Roman comedy. Dunsch finishes both this section and the part on Roman comedy with a splendid study of religion in Roman comedy, especially in Plautus.

The third and final part focuses on the reception of Greek and Roman comedy in terms of both textual and cultural transmission. Wilson offers a short overview of the textual transmission of the Aristophanic text, while Nesselrath discusses how the fate of classical authors was determined, Menander's in particular. Stockert offers an interesting introduction to the Plautine text of the Ambrosian palimpsest, while Victor gives a fine overview of the textual transmission of the Terentian text. Nervegna studies the iconographic tradition of Menander, especially on mosaics, and the miniatures that decorate manuscripts of the Terentian textual transmission. Leaving aside transmission and turning to literary reception, Höschele offers an analysis of comic material in the Greek novel and the epistolary genre of later Greek antiquity, while May discusses the renewed interest in comedy during the Second Sophistic period and analyses Apuleius' use of Plautine material in his Metamorphoses. Ferri gives an overview of the reception of Plautus from the early revival of Casina to the fifth century a.d., while Demetriou finishes the volume with a good introduction to Donatus' commentary on Terence. The volume concludes with two useful appendices: Bathrellou provides a list of all Greek comic papyri found between 1973–2010 (118 pieces) along with a short introduction to the papyri, while Millis provides a list of all known post-Menandrian comic playwrights.

Each essay is followed by a bibliography; some of these are more extensive than others, and many display a broad scope of literature. The use of ‘further readings’ generally works very well, and Petrides's selection is exemplary. It would have been useful if the editors had employed a general principle of cross-reference within the volume – as it stands it seems optional and rarely precise enough; for example, references to chapters rather than pages.

In a volume as diverse as this, specialists may of course find disagreement on more than one occasion, but this does not detract from the fact that the volume is without doubt a major scholarly achievement and offers an excellent starting point for anyone studying Greek and Roman comedy in all its variety.