Pseudo-Longin (in Greek old Λογγίνος / Loggínos ) is the name given by the modern ones to a Greek writer anonymous of the {{Ier}} or {{IIIe}} century, author of the Traité sublime , work which was allotted a long time to Longin.

Attribution of the Treated sublime

Its author is unknown. One reads, at the head manuscript of reference, the words “Dionysius or Longinus”, incription which the medieval copyist read as being “by Dionysius Longinus”, so that when the manuscript was printed, the work was initially allotted to Longin (Cassius Dionysius Longinus, 213-273 av. J. - C.).

As the correct translation leaves open the possibility that the author was called “Dionysius”, the attribution of the work with Denys d' Halicarnasse (first century BC) was advanced.

It is now allowed that the author is neither Longin, nor Denys d' Halicarnasse, but rather an unknown author writing under the Roman Empire, probably with the 1st front century J. - C. Indeed, in the absence of any index on the biography of the real author, none of these two writers can be accepted because the Traité develops ideas in total opposition with the other works of this last, and that the Denys assumption presents chronological difficulties:

• Denys d' Halicarnasse: writing under Auguste, it published a certain number of works. This assumption is generally isolated because of the differences of style and thought with the Traité .

• Longin : credited with a great literary number of works, this disciple of Plotin “was the most distinguished scholar from his time. ” It is as doubtful as he is the author of the treaty, because no reference is made there to a posterior work to the 1st century, the last city being of Cicéron. The Traité is now usually dated from the beginning of the 1st century because of topics also treated by contemporary authors such as Tacite, Pétrone or Quintilien.

Among the other names suggested, one finds Hermagoras (a rhetor living in Rome with the 1st century), Aelius Theon (to which the ideas are close to those of the Traité ), and Pompée Geminus (which was in correspondence with Denys).

Lastly, the fact that Traité sublime referring to the Genèse left thought that the pseudoone would be a hellenized Jew or familiar of the Jewish culture.

The Treated sublime

This treaty, whose name in Greek is Περι υψουσ , is one of the most important ancient treaties of Critique arts person, with the Poétique of Aristote.

Against the Rhetoric Cicéron ienne, it rejects the purely technical design of the Classicisme which proposed receipts stylistics, thus reducing to the “style sublimates” the concept of Sublime.

This one is for the author of the treaty “the echo of a great heart”, the substance of great ideas conceived by a creative spirit, and not their formulas fixed and imitable.

The text is built in an epistolary form, of which the final part is lost: this one was to probably contain considerations on freedom of speech, similar to those which Tacite exposes in its Dialog of the speakers .

The treaty is dedicated to Posthumius Terentianus , character which one knows little thing, with share which it was to be a Roman public figure of a certain culture. It constitutes a collection of literary examples, more than 50 authors divided on more than 1000 years, of which some are awaited, like Homère, and others very unusual for this time, like the Genèse.

Posterity of the Treated

Redécouvert starting from its first impression by Robortello, the Traité sublime was very estimated starting from the Renaissance.

The Literature baroque having reopened the debate on the sublime one, the Traité becomes at the XVIIe century of an extreme topicality, and Boileau made a translation in of it 1674, which contributed to register the Traité in the history of literary criticism. The Traité will enjoy a broad success until the 19th century, and continuous to nourish the European thought until our days (see Thomas Weiskel, Harold Bloom, Laura Quinney…)

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