The fifth meeting of the Symposium Hellenisticum took place between 17 and 25 August 1989 at the Château of Syam near Champagnole in the French Jura. Following a by-now well-established tradition, to which the four previously published volumes bear witness, the papers given at the fifth Symposium underwent long and searching discussion; the texts published here have been revised in the light of those and subsequent discussions which took place in one form or another after the end of the conference.

The participants in the Symposium were: Julia Annas, Jonathan Barnes, Suzanne Bobzien, Jacques Brunschwig, Pierluigi Donini, Eyjolfur Emilsson, Dorothea Frede, Michael Frede, David Furley, James Hankinson, Brad Inwood, Anna-Maria Ioppolo, David Konstan, Jean-Louis Labarrière, André Laks, Carlos Lévy, Geoffrey Lloyd, Anthony Long, Jaap Mansfeld, Mario Mignucci, Phillip Mitsis, Martha Nussbaum, Malcolm Schofield, David Sedley, Richard Sorabji, Gisela Striker, Voula Tsouna.

The organization of the conference was made possible by generous support from several institutions: le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; le Ministère de l'Education Nationale (Direction des affaires générates, internationales et de la coopération); l'Université de Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne); l'Université de Paris x (Nanterre). We acknowledge with gratitude not only these institutions, but also those who have individually shown their interest in our project and have actively furthered its realization.