author
active 1st century Longinus
Best known as the traditional name attached to On the Sublime, this mysterious ancient critic shaped how later readers thought about powerful writing and artistic greatness. Even now, the work stands out for its lively ideas about language, emotion, and the force of style.
1 Audiobook
On the Sublime
by active 1st century Longinus
About the author
Little is known for certain about the writer conventionally called Longinus. Modern scholars generally treat the name as a label for the unknown author of On the Sublime, a Greek work of literary criticism usually dated to the 1st century CE.
The treatise explores what makes language feel elevated, moving, and unforgettable. Rather than focusing only on rules, it connects great writing with imagination, strong feeling, noble thought, and skillful expression, which helped give the work its long afterlife in literary criticism.
Because the author’s real identity remains uncertain, details about Longinus’s life cannot be confirmed with confidence. What has endured is the influence of On the Sublime, which continued to be read, translated, and discussed for centuries as a classic reflection on rhetoric, style, and the experience of artistic awe.