Seneca: Selected Letters
Seneca: Selected Letters
The letters of Seneca are uniquely engaging among the works that have survived from antiquity. They offer an urgent guide to Stoic self-improvement but also cast light on Roman attitudes towards slavery, gladiatorial combat and suicide. This selection of letters conveys their range and variety, with a particular focus on letters from the earlier part of the collection. As well as a general introduction, it features a brief introductory essay on each letter, which draws out its themes and sets it in context. The commentary explains the more challenging aspects of Seneca's Latin. It also casts light on his engagement with Stoic (and Epicurean) ideas, on the historical context within which the letters were written and on their literary sophistication. This edition will be invaluable for undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of Seneca's moral and intellectual development.
- The new edition is aimed at students and conveys the range and variety of Seneca's letters
- Explains Seneca's observations within their wider philosophical context
- Provides detailed linguistic support, allowing better engagement with Seneca's difficult Latin
Product details
July 2019Hardback
9780521460118
354 pages
223 × 143 × 20 mm
0.6kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction:
- 1. Seneca's life and works
- 2. The Epistulae Morales and their addressee
- 3. Letters as a genre
- 4. Stoic terms and concepts
- 5. Stoic background
- 6. Other philosophical influences
- 7. Ethical focus and techniques of the self
- 8. Seneca and earlier Latin poetic authors
- 9. Senecan style
- 10. Clauslae in Seneca
- 11. Reception of the letters
- 12. The selection
- 13. The text
- Epistulae Morales: Letter 1
- Letter 7
- Letter 12
- Letter 18
- Letter 21
- Letter 24
- Letter 33
- Letter 34
- Letter 46
- Letter 47
- Letter 53
- Letter 64
- Letter 70
- Letter 86
- Letter 90
- Letter 114
- Commentary.
