12. Tacitus, Annals, 12.60; Suetonius Claudius 29.
13. This is suggested by Josiah Osgood’s recent study of the reign of Claudius, Osgood 2011.
14. See discussion in Osgood 2011. Crispus Passienus died in 55 and was mourned by Seneca in a spurious epigram; he is also referred to in NQ 4. pref. as “a dear friend.”
15. Josephus 19.4.
16. To Polybius 13; Griffin 1976, 5–6.
17. See Fantham 2007, 175–176.
18. Griffin 1976.
19. See especially Wallace-Hadrill 1996.
20. See Stini 2001. More bibliography on exile can be found in Kelly 2006 and Gaertner 2007.
21. Orbis.
22. As Griffin 1976 notes (p. 288), the legal penalty “under the Lex Julia for adultery was certainly relegation, and the Scholiast on Juvenal 5. 109 attests that Seneca was relegatus on this charge.”
23. The law against adultery, the Lex Iulia, ruled that a convicted adulterer should be stripped of half his assets. Cf. Seneca’s allusion to his loss of property in To Helvia 10.2.
24. See Fantham 2007.
25. On Providence and Epistle 24.
26. P. L. M. vol. iv. 3.
27. P. L. M. vol. iv. 2.
28. Gregorvius 1855: vol. 1. 217.
29. To Helvia 6.5, 9.1. Cf. Theophrastus 5.8.2; Pliny, NH, 16, 71; Diodorus 5.13.1.
30. Gahan 1985.
31. Claudius, Suetonius, 28.
32. 60.10.
33. It was certainly written after the death of Caligula (to whom it is very hostile—something that would hardly have been safe if he had still been alive), and before the adoption of Seneca’s brother Novatus by Junius Gallio (which also cannot be dated securely: it was sometime between 41 and 52 CE).
34. See Griffin 1976, Appendix note C, p. 398, who rightly criticizes the view that all of On Anger was written before the exile in 41; as she argues, the tropes discussed in On Anger, including the disparagement of court life, are paralleled in other Senecan texts of the post-exile period (such as On Benefits).
35. The word “passions” is generally used to translate the Stoic terms affectus (Latin) and pathos (Greek). But the terminology is potentially misleading, since “passion” tends to suggest a particularly intense form of emotion. The problem, for the Stoics, is not emotional intensity: indeed, the ideal Stoic wise person will experience intense joy, according to the theory. The problem with affectus is rather that these are emotions based on a false perception of reality, which will inevitably cause disruption of our tranquility, and hence will make us miserable.
36. Graver 2007.
37. Compare Bourdieu 2008. The issue in Rome in this period is well articulated by Osgood 2011.
38. On Anger 1.20.4–5, also cited in De Clementia.
39. Inwood 2008.
40. A distinction discussed in detail at 2.2.1ff.
41. Hercules Oetaeus is probably not by Seneca, and Octavia obviously is not.
42. Hercules Furens 612: morte contempta redi. The words are spoken by Hercules, who has returned home from the labor of bringing Cerberus from the underworld and rescuing his friend Theseus. He does not know what horrors await him on his return: he is afflicted by madness sent by Juno and kills his wife and children, thinking they are the family of his enemy, the tyrant king Lycus.
43. At Ostia, assisting at a sacrifice (Tacitus, Annals, 2.37) or inspecting a grain supply (Dio 60.48).
44. The scholiast to Juvenal 5.109.
Chapter III
1. Phoenissae 618–619.
2. … hoc sedent alti toro
quibus superba sceptra gestantur manu,
locus hic habendae curiae—hic epulis locus.
Libet reuerti. nonne uel tristes lacus
incolere satius?
3. Scholiast on Juvenal 5.109.
4. For an excellent account of the passage see Ker 2009.
5. Rumor questioned by Grimm 1991.
6. See Leach 1989.
7. Cf. Annals 13.11; Suetonius also praises Nero’s intention to rule in the manner of Augustus and notes his early measures designed to appeal to people and Senate alike (Nero 10).
8. The text’s form and content—mixing prose and verse, and mixing serious with comic and fantastical elements—puts it in the category of Menippean satire, on which see especially Relihan 1993.
9. The best analysis is Leach 1989. See also the edition with introduction, Eden 1984.
10. Tacitus 13.2.
11. Griffin 2000.
12. On the tradition, see Murray 2007, who points out how limited and disappointing our evidence for Hellenistic kingship treatises really is.
13. See Barnes 1974 on the relationship of the consulship to nobilitas.
14. See Lindsay 2009.
15. Ex Ponto 4.2. For discussion of Novatus’ adoption see Lindsay 2009, p. 156.
16. Pliny, NH, 31.62.
17. Pliny, NH, 31.62.
18. Annals 13.4.
19. On Pallas see Oost 1958.
20. Seneca tells Nero that he is now “just turned eighteen” (1.9.1), and since Nero’s eighteenth birthday was December 15, 55, the obvious conclusion is that De Clementia was composed soon after that (in late December 55, or January 56)—hence, some ten months after the killing of Britannicus.
21. Braund 2011.
22. Leach 1989.
23. All well argued by Leach 1989.
24. Venenum in auro bibitur: Thyestes 453. The line is spoken by Thyestes as he is trying to resist his brother’s lavish hospitality. He soon changes his mind, accepts the invitation, and is taken inside, where he is tricked into eating his own children.
25. On Seneca’s wealth, see Griffin 1976, Chapter 9: “Seneca praedives.” Also Levick 2003, and Fuhrer 2000.
26. Macmullen 1974.
27. Scheidel and Friesen 2009.
28. For more examples of Roman individuals with vast fortunes, see Duncan-Jones 1994, pp. 343–344.
29. Rutledge 2001.
30. Rutledge 2001, pp. 270–271.
31. 59 CE; it must be later than 58, because it calls the brother Gallio—a name he received only after his adoption, which had certainly taken place by 59.
32. Cf. the biting critique of Stoic attitudes toward poverty and social justice in Nussbaum 2004.
33. For extensive discussion of this text, see Griffin 2013. Griffin rightly emphasizes that On Benefits shows relatively little interest in patronage or in social justice; rather, it deals with a “Roman aristocratic code of beneficence” and “insists on the inclusion of the Princeps within aristocratic society” (168).
34. The fasces, literally a bundle of sticks carried by officials on ceremonial occasions, are a symbol of magisterial power.
35. On Benefits 3.7.3: If we make gratitude compulsory, “we spoilt two things which are more beautiful than anything else in human life: a man who is grateful, and a man who is kind in giving favors.”
36. On this text, see the excellent study by Griffin 2013.
37. Scholars once thought his main source was Hecaton of Rhodes’ lost work on the subject, but Inwood 2008 has rightly questioned the assumptions behind this view.