I deal first with the issue of what was the Greeks’ and Romans’ chromatic experience as it emerges from the linguistic evidence, showing that colors were actually perceived – and emotionally affected people– in degrees of light and darkness rather than in terms of hue. Then I claim that this assumption also underlies both ancient theories on color and vision (Democritus, Plato, Aristotle, and the Peripatetic De coloribus) and the various aesthetic judgments to be found throughout ancient literature on the beauty and emotional power of (mainly brilliant) colors. Polychromy in sculpture and the painters’ practices of mixing pigments are taken into consideration as well, along with relevant comments by ancient authors.