In late 2017, the Classical Association of Scotland, in association with Classics for All, hired a co-ordinator to commence a programme of outreach and public engagement activities across the country. In this article, the national outreach co-ordinator reflects on the progress made to date, the difficulties faced, and hopes and plans for the future.

On 19th March 2020, the Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Cabinet Secretary for Education John Swinney reported to the Scottish Parliament that, in light of the global coronavirus pandemic, schools across Scotland would close from 20th March, mirroring the policy of the UK government announced by the Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson the previous day. As part of this closure, Swinney announced that there would be no examinations set for the 2019-20 session, and that the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) would instead enact a certification model employing coursework, teacher estimates of grades and evidence of prior achievement. In outlining the Scottish Government's plan to Holyrood, the Deputy First Minister declared: ‘It is a measure of the gravity of the challenge we now face that the exams will not go ahead this year. With the support of the wider education system, a credible certification model can be put in place that can command confidence in the absence of the exam diet – to ensure that young people in our schools and colleges who through no fault of their own are unable to sit exams, are not disadvantaged.’ (Scottish Government, 2020).

Marcus Aurelius Severus Alexander Augustus (208–235 ce ) was the final emperor of the Severan dynasty (193–235). He was raised to the purple as a teenager, following the assassination of Elagabalus. Contrary to his short‐lived predecessors, Severus Alexander's thirteen‐year reign was, for the most part, a period of stability. Contemporary and later writers, however, focus largely on the influence exerted by his mother, and on the military crises he faced at the end of his life.

Publius Helvius Pertinax (126–193 ce ) was Roman emperor in the early months of 193, following the murder of Commodus. While feted by the senatorial order, he struggled to win the loyalty of other political constituencies within the Roman state. After a reign of only eighty‐seven days, he was assassinated in the imperial palace by soldiers of the praetorian guard.

Finally, H. Frangoulis' paper could have been printed as an epilogue, since it reverts the direction of the rest: it argues that Nonnos of Panopolis uses a number of novelistic techniques in his Dionysiaca when he enriches the narrative of the poem with parallel episodes (e.g. Calamos and Carpos in Book 11, the novella of Morrheus and Chalcomede in Books 33-5), gnomic sentences on love and scientific notes. Frangoulis analyses with some detail how Nonnus' narrative choices inform his selection and manipulation of the elements of the novelistic passages in which he seeks inspiration. The volume succeeds in promoting a view of the novel at the centre of complex generic interfaces. The editors should be commended for putting together a volume full of perceptive and penetrating readings, which, however, would have benefited from clearer connections between related papers.