author
active 1st century Longinus
Best known as the shadowy ancient critic behind On the Sublime, this figure has fascinated readers for centuries because the work mattered enormously even while the author’s real identity remained uncertain.
1 Audiobook
On the Sublime
by active 1st century Longinus
About the author
Longinus is the conventional name attached to the author of On the Sublime, a Roman-era Greek treatise on literary criticism usually dated to the 1st century CE. Modern reference works describe the attribution as uncertain, and the writer is often called Pseudo-Longinus because the surviving manuscript tradition does not securely identify the author.
Even with that mystery, the book itself became hugely influential. On the Sublime explores what gives language its force, grandeur, and emotional lift, making it one of the foundational works in the history of literary criticism and rhetoric.
Because so little can be confirmed about the person behind the name, most biographical sketches are necessarily brief. What endures is the power of the writing: a lively, ambitious argument about style, feeling, and the ways great language can move an audience.