This book challenges the modern assumption that we must always distinguish between a real author and a fictional 'narrator'. By looking back at ancient Greece and Rome, it argues that authors were seen as the direct speaking voice of their work, even when playing characters. The study explores how ancient practices like reading aloud and public performance kept the author's presence at the center of the story. From the 'jokes' of Catullus to the philosophy of Plato, the book provides a fresh way to understand how stories were told and why the authorial voice still matters for understanding literature today.

Stefan Tilg is Professor of Latin at the University of Freiburg. His research focuses on ancient narrative and narrative theory, Neo-Latin literature, and reception studies. He is the author of Chariton of Aphrodisias and the Invention of the Greek Love Novel (OUP, 2010) and of Apuleius' Metamorphoses: A Study in Roman Fiction (OUP, 2014). He has also co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Neo-Latin (OUP, 2015) and the Handbuch Historische Narratologie (Metzler, 2019).