On The Sublime - Loginus

On the Sublime (Latin: De Sublimitate) is a Roman-era Greek work of literary criticism dated to the 1st century C.E. Its author is unknown, but it is conventionally referred to as Longinus or Pseudo-Longinus.

The author is unknown. In the 10th-century reference manuscript (Parisinus Graecus 2036), the heading reports "Dionysius or Longinus," an ascription by the medieval copyist that was misread as "by Dionysius Longinus." The work was initially attributed to Cassius Longinus (c. 213–273 AD). Since the correct translation includes the possibility of an author named "Dionysius," some have attributed the work to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, a writer of the 1st century BC.

Among further names proposed are Hermagoras of Temnos (a rhetorician who lived in Rome during the 1st century AD), Aelius Theon (author of a work which had many ideas in common with those of On the Sublime), and Pompeius Geminus (who was in epistolary conversation with Dionysius). He received his education at Alexandria and then went to Athens to teach. He later moved to Asia Minor, where he achieved the position of advisor to Zenobia, the queen of Palmyra.

Cassius is a dubious possibility for author of the treatise because he wrote in the 3rd century, and no literature later than the 1st century AD is mentioned (the latest is Cicero, who died in 43 BC), and the work is now usually dated to the early 1st century AD. Cassius was executed by Aurelian, the Roman emperor who conquered Palmyra in 273 AD. Longinus is reported to have written answers for the Queen, which were used in response to Aurelian, the man who would soon rise to power as the Roman emperor. Longinus frames his letter as a response to a treatise by Caecilius of Calacte, a first-century Sicilian rhetorician.

On the Sublime, a treatise on literary criticism by Longinus, dates to approximately the 1st century CE. The earliest surviving manuscript, from the 10th century, was first printed in 1554. This treatise is assigned a 1st-century CE date because it was a response to a work by Caecilius of Calacte, a Sicilian rhetorician, from that period. The work contains 17 chapters on figures of speech, which have occupied critics and poets ever since they were written. About a third of the manuscript is lost.

Longinus suggests that greatness of thought, if not inborn, can be acquired by emulating great authors such as Homer, Demosthenes, and Plato. Illustrative quotations recorded in On the Sublime occasionally preserves work that would otherwise be lost—for example, one of odes.

On the Sublime is a treatise on aesthetics and literary criticism dedicated to Postumius Terentianus, a cultured Roman and public figure. Along with the expected examples from Homer and other figures of Greek culture, Longinus refers to a passage from Genesis, which is quite unusual for the 1st century: “A similar effect was achieved by the lawgiver of the Jews—no mean genius, for he both understood and gave expression to the power of the divinity as it deserved—when he wrote at the very beginning of his laws, and I quote his words: ‘God said,’—what was it?—‘Let there be light, and there was. Let there be earth, and there was.’”

Genesis suggests that Longinus may have been either a Hellenized Jew or at least familiar with Jewish Culture. He emphasizes that to be a truly great writer, authors must have "moral excellence." Longinus acknowledges that complete liberty promotes spirit and hope; according to him, “never did a slave become an orator.”

He argues that luxury and wealth lead to a decay in eloquence—eloquence being the goal of the sublime writer. Longinus ultimately promotes an "elevation of style" and an essence of "simplicity." The concept of the sublime generally refers to a style of writing that elevates itself "above the ordinary."

On the Sublime is both a treatise on aesthetics and a work of literary criticism. The treatise is dedicated to Postumius Terentianus, though little else is known about him. It is a compendium of literary exemplars, mentioning or quoting about 50 authors spanning 1,000 years. Along with the expected examples from Homer and other figures of Greek culture, Longinus refers to a passage from Genesis, which is quite unusual for the 1st century.

Longinus sets out five sources of sublimity: "great thoughts, strong emotions, certain figures of thought and speech, noble diction, and dignified word arrangement." An example of On the sublime, which the author quotes in the work, is a poem by Sappho, the so-called Ode to Jealousy, defined as a "Sublime ode." A writer's goal is not so much to express empty feelings, but to arouse emotion in the audience.

The sources of On the Sublime are of two kinds: inborn sources ("aspiration to vigorous concepts" and "strong and enthusiastic passion") and acquirable sources (rhetorical devices, choice of the right lexicon, and "dignified and high composition"). Thus, the treatise is clearly centered on the burning controversy that raged in the 1st century AD in Latin literature. Tacitus was closer to Longinus in thinking, arguing that the root of this decadence was the establishment of Princedom or Empire, which, though it brought stability and peace, also led to censorship and an end to freedom of speech.

Rhys Roberts argues that the word sublime is misleading, since Longinus' objective broadly concerns "the essentials of a noble and impressive style" rather than anything more narrow and specific. Moreover, about one-third of the treatise is missing. 18th-century critic Edward Burnaby Greene finds Longinus, at times, to be "too refined." Greene also claims that Longinus' focus on hyperbolical descriptions is "particularly weak, and apparently misapplied."