A welcome addition to the study of ancient colour theory, Colour and Meaning is a valuable and nuanced (though slightly flawed) look at Roman ideas about colour perception, function and categorization. In attempting to describe colour's rôle and status in the Roman world, Bradley does not catalogue Latin colour terminology or uses of the spectrum in Latin literature and art; this is not a philological study, but a work of cultural (and at times philosophical) history instead. B.'s intent is to fill the gap in scholarship between studies of colour in ancient Greece and Byzantium and to demonstrate that modern ideas about Roman perception of colour are incorrect and anachronistic. His investigation primarily highlights the problematic relationship between visual perception and knowledge derived from the perceived object. In response to this central question, B. argues that the Romans focused on two issues in particular: the ability of the senses to extract knowledge from the world, and the moral and philosophical dangers of using colour to mislead the viewer (31).

B. rightly qualifies these concerns as belonging to the élite, educated male perspective of early imperial Rome. Such anxieties grew from their understanding of colour, in which they attached primary significance to the object with which the colour was associated (12). B. introduces three examples establishing this pattern: fulvus as blond (hair); viridis as verdant (plants); and caeruleus as deep blue (sea) (11–12). The modern equations of fulvus = yellow, viridis = green, and caeruleus = sky-blue are therefore not correct, and in B.'s view, any attempt to equate ancient colour terminology to the modern abstract terms for similar colours is deceptive and fails to communicate the nuance of the Latin text. This convincing argument for colour's association with a material object or origin is evident in his many examples, e.g. with cosmetics and pigments identified and classified according to their ingredients and origins, rather than by the particular colour they represent (95–9, 174).

Chs 1 and 2 form a complementary pair rather different in topic from the rest of the book; they lucidly summarize Greek and Hellenistic thought on colour, perception and knowledge, and through Seneca and Lucretius illustrate the impact of such thought on Roman discourses about colour. Ch. 1 introduces ancient debates about colour and its perception through the rainbow, the variegated colour of which formed the basis for ancient inquiries into how one could extract knowledge from an unstable and subjective object. Ch. 2 provides the Greek and Hellenistic philosophical background for such problems of perception and knowledge, and summarizes Lucretius' discussions of colour in the De Rerum Natura as an example of Roman philosophical approaches to colour. However, the weight of this chapter is on philosophical summary, and more detailed analysis of the Lucretian passages would have been welcome, particularly the poet's use of theatrical metaphors to introduce both uses of colour and their inherent aspect of performance. Given the shift in focus after ch. 2 to the conflict between artifice and reality as communicated by colour, a more thorough treatment of Lucretius' analogy of spectacle would have made sense.

Chs 3–6 shift the book's focus away from background and back to B.'s two main issues. Ch. 3 examines the Elder Pliny's classification of colour, and develops in more detail the two themes B. emphasizes throughout the rest of the book: one, Pliny exerts himself to keep colour associated with the object it comes from or is meant to represent, e.g. pigments containing blood ought to be used to represent blood in a painting (96). And two, Pliny opposes efforts such as gilding or Neronian marble painting because they are mere counterfeits or imitations which lead the viewer away from the reality of the world, and therefore away from knowledge of it. Ch. 4 introduces a somewhat different application of color, that of its increasing use in early imperial rhetoric to describe the gloss or spin put onto an argument to make it more effective; this application developed from Cicero's use of color to describe a speaker's particular emotion and physical expressions, a kind of dramatic persona. The moral angle B. argues is relatively underdeveloped in this chapter, as he focuses more on the development of the rhetorical term color than on the moral implications of a potentially deceptive performance.

Ch. 5 covers Roman ‘readings' of natural skin, hair and eye colour and their ability to signal medical conditions, individual character and ethnic origins. Ch. 6 completes the reading of the body in analysing the use of artificial colours to alter natural appearance, using the particular case of female adornment as singularly indicative of the moral difficulties in doing so. However, male adornment is mentioned only briefly (163–4), and is not explored in much depth, although numerous authors from the early imperial period express no less anxiety and condemnation regarding the moral implications of adorned men and their prevalence, and it would be interesting to see in more detail how their use of colour factored into this anxiety.

Ch. 7 focuses on purple as the colour in which all B.'s issues converge: perception, since it evoked a wide range of comparisons and hues; knowledge, since it became partially disconnected from its original object (snails); and morality, given the colour's strong association with wealth, decadence and the politically powerful.

In short, Colour and Meaning is a fascinating look into Roman theories and uses of colour; it succeeds in elucidating their differences from modern concepts of colour, and provides insight helpful for translators and historians alike. However, as a professed work of cultural history, at times B. leaves underdeveloped some important cultural connections with colour. For example, he does not fully exploit the intriguing connections between colour and performance (dramatic, rhetorical, or political) that consistently crop up; nor do the complexities of gender receive full due in his analysis of adornment. Cultus’ connection with discourses of empire, i.e. as a symbol of imperial power and sophistication, is not mentioned, which would have provided further connections between colours, their objects of origin, and issues of morality; the absence from the bibliography of Andrew Dalby's Empire of Pleasures is notable in this respect. Moreover, while colour's rôle in differentiation between social orders is interwoven with some topics, e.g. purple in ch. 7 or the ideal of cultus in ch. 6, it is not given special attention, and certain passages left unmentioned might have benefited from B.'s treatment (one thinks especially here of the Cena Trimalchionis and its use of colour in social commentary). Nevertheless, the moral and philosophical problematic of perception/artifice vs. knowledge/reality he describes in the realm of colour was crucial to many aspects of Roman élite life, and thus B. illuminates another instance of the unease with which Roman élite males viewed the increasing dissonance between appearances and reality in early imperial society and politics.