From the new Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Classical Dictionary

It is a real honour—and more than a little daunting—to take over from Tim Whitmarsh as Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Classical Dictionary. The first edition of the Dictionary appeared more than three quarters of a century ago, in 1949, offering “an authoritative one-volume guide to all aspects of the ancient world.” A great deal has changed since, including, of course, how we view “the ancient world.” After four editions of the print dictionaries, the shift to a fully digital OCD5, begun in 2015, offered huge opportunities for improving and extending our coverage and our readers’ experience in using the dictionary. 

In March 2016, this digital OCD included all 6,400 entries of OCD4, and only c. 25 new articles; since then, we have continued to build upon this impressive legacy as we continue to commission both entirely new articles and revisions of previously existing articles. (At the time of writing, in April 2025, the total of new and revised entries has reached nearly 700). The digital format allows for a number of advantages: not only does moving beyond the constraints of the printed page allow for more substantial coverage, it also allows for the embedding of links to both ancient source material and other OCD articles, as well as encouraging the use of digital images. 

The revision process has allowed for substantial expansion of our coverage of such important and well-known classical authors as Sappho and Martial, and subjects such as the epithalamium and Latin metre. Our coverage of ancient history continues to include key issues, such as class and class struggle and Greek colonization, plus updated articles on Greek and Roman enslavement. The ability to include images is of great benefit to readers, in particular when it comes to the area of classical art and archaeology—as with the new article on graffiti, and the newly revised articles on Roman portraiture and Greek painting. 

An increase in our coverage of the ancient Near East reflects the growing understanding of Classicists of the interconnectedness of the ancient Mediterranean: readers can learn (for example) from a newly expanded articles on Akkadian and Sumerian and a brand-new article on Mesopotamian ghosts. Jewish studies, too, is well-represented, with revised articles on rabbis and on the Sadducees. The importance of late antique and Byzantine studies to the field is increasingly recognised—note, for instance, the expanded articles on the important scholars and authors Priscian and Michael Psellos. Later reception of the classical world continues to be a growing field and our coverage includes the reception of ancient architecture and other forms of visual and material culture (such as the afterlives of the Pantheon and of triumphal arches), as well as of literature. 

While women were traditionally overlooked in classical scholarship, recent articles include a new entry on Iulia Balbilla, who travelled to Egypt with the emperor Hadrian and his wife Sabina and commemorated her visit by inscribing four poems on the left leg of the Memnon Colossus, as well as an expanded entry on women in philosophy. The experiences of a much wider range of women are commemorated in the article on the female life-course. Science, technology, and mathematics are indeed well represented, such as by new and revised articles on Egyptian mathematics and knowledge about animals. 

As with previous editions of the OCD, we commission state of the art articles on new and evolving areas of classical scholarship, showing the impact of modern approaches. This can be seen across the different fields covered by OCD5, but includes new articles on cognitive science and on pain. In the broad realm of science and technology, we are increasingly aware of the importance of issues relating to the climate, and you will also find a newly revised article on meteorology; meanwhile, the ways in which the boundaries between the human and non-human were also of concern in classical thought are explored in our new article on robots and cyborgs in antiquity. 

The OCD is the product of longstanding international collaboration, and we continue to expand to include an increasingly diverse range of authors and editors. What we have in common is a commitment to the mission of Oxford Classical Dictionary to continue to provide a truly authoritative home for classical scholarship, even as definitions of the “classical” continue to evolve, and digital advances and other changes alike continue to transform the way both scholars and the wider public encounter the ancient world. Please do feel free to get in touch with your own suggestions for what continues to be an exciting and ongoing collaborative project.

_{Featured image by Linda Gerbec via Unsplash.}