  We review the recent theoretical treatment of fullerenes as pi-conjugated
systems. Polaronic properties due to the Jahn-Teller type effects are mainly
discussed. (1) A Su-Schrieffer-Heeger type electron-phonon model is applied to
fullerenes: C_60 and C_70, and is solved with the adiabatic approximation to
phonons. When the system (C_60 or C_70) is doped with one or two electrons (or
holes), the additional charges accumulate along almost an equatorial line of
the molecule. The dimerization becomes the weakest along the same line. Two
energy levels, the occupied state and the empty state, intrude largely in the
gap. The intrusion is larger in C_70 than in C_60. These are ``polarons'' in
doped fullerenes. It is also found that C_60 and C_70 are related mutually with
respect to electronical structures as well as lattice geometries. (2) We apply
the model to the fullerene epoxide C_60O. It has the polaron-type lattice
distortion around the oxygen, and also shows the energy level intrusion in the
gap. (3) Optical properties of C_60 are calculated and discussed. In the
absorption of the doped molecule, a new peak structure is present owing to the
polaronic distortion. In the luminescence of the neutral C_60, the spacing
between H_g(8)-phonon side-band peaks and the relative intensities agree well
with experiments. In the dispersion of the third harmonic generation, the
magnitudes of |chi^(3)| agree with those of experiments at the resonance of the
lowest allowed transition as well as in the region away from the resonance.
