Methods of citation
All sources, ancient and modern, are cited in parentheses in the
main text. This is intended to cut down on distracting scholarly
apparatus such as footnotes. For ancient sources, see chapter 3
and the relevant section of chapter 7. Modern works are listed in
the bibliography at the end of the book. All references have been
kept to a minimum so as to reduce disruption of the flow of the
text. Endnotes are used only to provide additional information
that it would have been too cumbersome to include in the main
text of the book. In general, I have tried to limit my citations to
works that are available in English (hence translations of works
in other languages). This is not to denigrate the massive achieve-
ments of non-Anglophone authors, but it recognizes an utterly
lamentable reality of modern Anglophone society: the decline in
the study of modern European languages. I remember well that,
when I began my studies as an undergraduate, more than half
of the first reading list I was given comprised works in French,
German, Italian, and Spanish. Sadly, not many university teachers
would feel confident enough to do this any more. Readers of this
book who follow up references in the books and articles listed in
my bibliography will soon discover, however, the riches to be
gleaned from scholarship published in other languages.
Modern authors are cited by means of the ‘Harvard system’,
that is, by the author’s surname (sometimes preceded by an initial,
or initials, in cases where two or more authors have the same
surname) followed by the date of publication of the article or
book to which I am referring, and then the page number. Such
references may be followed up easily enough in the bibliography.
Thus, for example, Pagels 1988: 56 refers to page 56 of E. Pagels
(1988)Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Page numbers in lower case Roman numerals refer to citations
from the preliminaries (preface, foreword, and so forth) of a book.
Where a modern work has multiple volumes, the volume number
is indicated by upper case Roman numerals (e.g. I, 172 = volume
one, page 172).HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
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