When Vergil describes, in his epic poem the Aeneid, the weapons brought by Venus to Aeneas and the breast plate is compared to a blue cloud shining in the sun’s rays in Aen. 8.622 and likewise Vergil’s description of rosey-fingered dawn in Aen. 7.26, none of these images would have been possible without the use of colors and color-terms. Similarly, the elegiac poet Propertius’ landscape in 1.20.38 may not have had the beautiful bucolic background with shining apples hanging from trees surrounded by white lilies mixed with purple poppies. Mark Bradley’ Colour and Meaning in Ancient Rome attempts to explain how color was perceived, used, and translated in the Roman sphere (300B.C.- 2nd cent. A.D.).
Prof. Bradley, currently a lecturer at University of Nottingham, is known for his work on ancient colored marbles, and a great portion of the text composes the portion. Bradley’s text is a revision of his dissertation at Cambridge University (2004) and suggests much more about the way Romans viewed color. Bradley’s seven chapters concerning color ranges from philosophy of the rainbow from the ancient Greeks and Lucretius, cosmetics and appearance of women, color and rhetoric, the natural and unnatural body, a whole chapter devoted to the subject of purple, and concluding with a discussion taken from Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights 2.26. This discussion between Marcus Fronto and Favorinus highlights the difference between Greek and Latin color-terms in the 2nd cent. A.D. Bradley’s text is the first text in English over two decades that deals specifically with the subject of color in the Roman civilization. It is a welcomed addition to the study of color from a social and cultural historical standpoint and will be further treasured.
The subject of color and color-terminology in the ancient western world has been examined little and only in piecemeal fashion over the past few decades. It is a difficult subject to study because of the lack of material evidence. Literary sources, however, both poetry and prose, offer many examples of the use of color-terms in Latin. But Bradley shows the different angles and views that color can be amplified and the attitudes, negative and positive from philosophers, orators, poets, satirists, natural scientists and some marble remains. Bradley asserts that: “colour was not, and is not a static, objective thing: it was a fluid, subjective, interactive unit of value and meaning.” (ix), which he demonstrates through the body of his text. His academic text is a more updated and refreshed view of some articles written in the 1970s- 1980s, but doesn’t go beyond the surface and veers off on a tangent that is more suitable for an archaeological investigation; that being a study of colored marbles and building materials from Virtuvius.
Bradley’s text is smoothly organized by themes rather than genre and period of time. His introduction addresses the same issues of flavus and fulvus which were studied by D. Laughton in 1948 and 1950. He shows how certain color-terms were used by ancient authors like Ovid, Seneca and Valerius Maximus and the most popular poet Vergil employ these color-terms and the problems that are associated with translating, introducing the reader to the long-standing issues associated with the field. Other color-terms receive the same treatment. He describes the problems associated with the translation of color-terms and commentators, particularly with the color-term virides (green) and caeruleus (blue). It is nevertheless overdue for a text in English on the subject.
In Bradley’s first chapter, he surveys several appearances of the rainbow mentioned by Seneca and addresses the manner in scientific texts show color, particularly Artistotle’s De Sensu 442a21, which lists the Greek color-terms in order. Bradley brings significant contribution to the study of the human body color and physiognomy. Perhaps Bradley’s most convincing and well-received scholarship is in Chapter Three which discusses how color was processed and made in the Roman Empire through the lens of Pliny the Elder. He says: “Pliny has always been a rich source for the use and interpretation of Latin categories of color in Roman material culture; this chapter argues that he too was participating in the traditional and philosophical debates about the relationship between perception and knowledge.” (p. 33). Bradley does an adequate job in describing how important color was to the Roman mind.
This text is certainly one that will be received with great joy among classicists, ancient historians, art historians and most importantly archaeologists. His index of ancient passages and bibliography is the most invaluable resource. Bradley’s text will be appreciated by an English speaking audience because color studies have been usually written for non-English speaking audience. Sadly, in his text there are no illustrations, colored or otherwise, which he addresses in his introduction (xi) and makes no apologies for their absence. For a text that addresses a world of color, he actually puts himself in an odd position because as a society looking back on a world that we think was not colored, it is does contribute to changing that image. Perhaps Bradley was concerned about copyright issues and the expense rather than broadening his horizons. Thus this work as he envisions it, is a text designed for classicists and philologists and ancient history than that in the visual arts. Bradley’s text puts the subject of color in a new refreshing context and provides tremendous insight into a subject that has long been dismissed.
