Vannam (வண்ணம்)

Colour & their meanings in Ancient Rome

Gautam P
Gautam P
Nov 1 · 4 min read

Had been to the Anna Centenary Library, Kotturpuram last weekend after many years.

Found that the place has still not lost its beauty, and never will. For me, though a non-reader, It’s not just a library, It’s the place where my craziness started years before. The place will never lose its beauty because its where knowledge resides, knowledge will never lose value, will never go off waste, will always stand tall and strong.

Had entered the Politics-Religion-Sociology section.

Found this book about colours in Ancient Rome in the name of “Colour & Meaning in Ancient Rome” by Mark Bradley.

It started off with a load of Greek native words which was quite difficult for me to continue, but i didn’t want to stop because to stop reading is the easiest thing I’ve done while reading a book.


The author starts with “What colour is flauss?”

In Ancient Rome, scholars and artists had debated at several instances that “flauss meant yellow colour!”, while some would tell its greenish yellow, but later as years rolled, flauss was confirmed as the colour of corn (slightly golden but less vibrant). Later, flauss became the origin of derivative of yellow colour: different versions of flauss was where it started to get segregated.

And then comes the other basic colours:

Uridius: What’s this? It’s green, nope, its just not green, its a lemon green. A light subtle fluorescent? Again scholars and painters have debates over Uridius. Later it got narrowed to “it’s fresh green”, you can ask “dark green, light green?”, its fresh green. Later several versions of green colour gets categorised keeping Uridius colour as base.

Caerulea: It’s blue. You guessed it right, again scholars vs artists.!!

Initially it was considered sky blue and then it later got modified as the early morning sky blue. But after several years of research on the word’s origin, some ancient roman said: Caerulea is derived from “Caerula” which means deep. Hence, it symbolises deep water. This means its the colour of water present in the deepest zone, the zone where the ocean mud and the ocean water meet. Its muddy, dark, unclear blue with mud colour mixed. Years rolled, blue had its derivatives with Caerulea as its base.

The major base colours were formed and then put to use. When change is not easy, normal people abide by the rules. Crazy people don’t give a damn about them, just because they find the rules stupid! That’s where revolution is born. That is what brings in change for the better. That change was started by the well revered Aristotle. He asked what are the colours on the rainbow?


What are the rainbow colours?

Today, a kindergarten tiny tot would shout VIBGYORRRR ! But imagine the times when Ancient Romans has just three colour bases: Yellow, Green, Blue. Aristotle introduced the Trichromatic theory behind rainbow- which means just 3 colours.


(That’s where i stopped reading, because had to leave for the day)


What i learnt till now?

If you want to know why I read this book? What’s there to learn?

Today, a simple blue colour tick says “The viewer has read your message” ! A simple 3 colours on the signal controls the raging traffic. Today, we find it easy to add colours in different versions on our hand held devices. But 40 years before, there was a crazy man who shouted “Add colours onto this computer”, he was Steve Jobs. Though today colours are not just cool, but are also an important part of any device usage, people felt it was unnecessary then,


If you find it nice, drop your claps (or likes!)

If you find it boring, feel free to say “You suck”

If you want me to read on and continue this, let me know :-)

Gautam P

Written by

Gautam P

Co-Founder and CEO at Aakro Development. Hazel-eyed guy with high aims to reach before the age of 35. Life revolves around software, football & good music

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