This text explores the definition and function of colour in Rome during the early Empire.
Introduction; 1. The rainbow; 2. Lucretius and the philosophy of color; 3. Pliny the Elder and the unnatural history of color; 4. Color and rhetoric; 5. The natural body; 6. The unnatural body; 7. Purple; Conclusion: colours triumphant; Envoi: Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights 2.26.