ENGLISH

Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome

By Mark Bradley

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
2011
ISBN
0521291224, 9780521291224
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
83 MB (86737476 bytes)
Series
Camridge Classical Studies
Pages
282\281
Topic
History
Time added
2022-01-26 15:34:35

Description

The study of colour has become familiar territory in anthropology, linguistics, art history and archaeology. Classicists, however, have traditionally subordinated the study of colour to form. By drawing together evidence from contemporary philosophers, elegists, epic writers, historians and satirists, Mark Bradley reinstates colour as an essential informative unit for the classification and evaluation of the Roman world. He also demonstrates that the questions of what colour was and how it functioned - as well as how it could be misused and misunderstood - were topics of intellectual debate in early imperial Rome. Suggesting strategies for interpreting Roman expressions of colour in Latin texts, Dr Bradley offers alternative approaches to understanding the relationship between perception and knowledge in Roman elite thought. In doing so, he highlights the fundamental role that colour performed in the realms of communication and information, and its intellectual contribution to contemporary discussions of society, politics and morality.

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