The Introduction opens with broad reflections on the place of forgery, criticism, and debates over textual authenticity in the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity, whether in Renaissance Europe or today. It surveys recent literature on forgery and antiquity and also discusses the ongoing presence of moralizing language and polemic in works of ostensible dispassionate criticism. It then introduces readers to the text at the center of this book—Dares Phrygius’ De excidio Troiae historia or History of the Destruction of Troy—and discusses antecedents for works of this nature in the Second Sophistic. Thereafter, it examines Dares’ ambiguous place at the intersection of history, myth, and literary fiction, arguing that modern means of distinguishing among these concepts (such as the Weberian theory of “disenchantment”) are unable to explain the motivations of both Dares’ critics and believers. The remainder of the Introduction discusses issues of method, situating The First Pagan Historian within current trends in intellectual history, book history, and classical reception studies.