ill so that the expectations of the audience may be met. The audience of that time was composed of both the equites , who expected amusement from art, and the senatores , who expected beneficial lessons from art, and so the artist must know his craft and the conventions of his craft so that art may fulfill its ultimate role in society which is both to create pleasure and to instruct. Longinus believed that great art relied on the innate greatness of the artist soul. He believed that a writer taps into to his natural ability when creating great art. This quality is what is called sublimity. This idea of sublimity proposes that naturally gifted writers have the ability to create moving thoughts and emotions that impacts on his reader. But the writer, though he has innate genius, is still dependent on society, for great writing is a honing of the great soul through the knowledge and imitation (mimesis) of previous tradition (previous tradition of writers)....
