The Cambridge Dictionary of Classical Civilization

After all these years reviewing reference books I really should know by now: read the preface first. I opened this book and, because it is a very well constructed and interesting work began reading and cross‐referring. All the while I had at the back of my mind the thought of how (and for that matter why) this stood against the Oxford Classical Dictionary (OCD) (Hornblower and Spawforth, 2003) (RR 2003/352). Was Cambridge University Press just trying to muscle into the territory of its ancient rival?

The answer is no, and had I looked at the...