This anthology of philosophical texts by Greek and Roman authors brings together works from the late fifth century BC to the sixth century AD that comment on major aesthetic issues such as the perception of beauty and harmony in music and the visual arts, structure and style in literature, and aesthetic judgement. It includes important texts by Plato and Aristotle on the status and the role of the arts in society and in education, and Longinus' reflections on the sublime in literature, in addition to less well-known writings by Philodemus, Cicero, Seneca, Plotinus, Augustine and Proclus. Most of the texts have been newly translated for this volume, and some are available in English for the first time. A detailed introduction traces the development of classical aesthetics from its roots in Platonism and Aristotelianism to its ultimate form in late Antiquity.

"....This book, or one much like it, can take the place of the reading lists that manyinstructors compile when teaching the history of aesthetics.... professor can now use Greek and Roman Aesthetics by itself, whether for graduate or upper-undergraduate courses.... Bychkov and Sheppard have produced an engaging, scholarly, wide ranging, and handsome book that I will be using in the classroom very soon, as no doubt many other instructors also will."
--Nickolas Pappas, City College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York, Philosophical Inquiry