Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal - Part 34
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Part 34

115. For the general history of the pantomimus see Friedlander, _Sittengeschicht,_ II. in. 3, and Lucian, _de Saltatione_.

116. Dion. liv. 17; Tac. _Ann_. i. 54 and 77; Dion. lvii. 14.

117. Suet. _Ner_. 46.

118. There is no clear proof of the performance on the Roman stage of any tragedy in the strict sense of the word during the Silver Age. The words used e.g. in Dio Chrys. (19, p. 261: 23, p. 396), Lucian (_Nigrin_. 8), Libanius (iii, p. 265, Reiske) may refer merely to the performance of isolated scenes. See note on Vespasian's att.i.tude to the theatre, p. 166.

119. Pliny the elder wrote his life. Plin. _Ep_. iii. 5. Cp. also Tac.

_Ann_. v. 8; xii. 28; Plin. _N.H_. xiii. 83.

120. Ribbeck, _Trag. Rom. Fr_. p. 268, fr. 1; p. 331 (ed. 3).

121. _Ann_. xi. 13.

122. Charis, _Gr. Lat_. i. p. 125, 23; p. 137, 23.

123. Tac. _Dial_. II.

124. Ib. 2, 3.

125. Ib. 3.

126. Ib. 3.

127. Ib. II.

128. Juv. vii. 12.

129. Juv. vii. 12.

130. Ib. vii. 72.

131. He flourished in reign of Domitian. Schol. Vall. luv. i. 20; Mart.

xi. 9 and 10; Donat. _Gramm. Lat_. iv. p. 537, 17; Apollin. Sid. ix. 266.

132. In the fragment preserved by Donatus (Ribbeck, _Trag. Rom. Fr_. p.

269) the chorus address Hecuba under the name Cisseis. 'Fulgentius expos. serm. antiq. 25 (p. 119, 5, Helm) says _Memos_ (Schopen emends to _Memor_) _in tragoedia Herculis ait: ferte suppetias optimi comites_.'

133. xi. 2. 8.

134. Mart. _i._ 61, 7; _Poet. Lat. Min._ iv. p. 62, 19, Bachrens.

135. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 73; xvi. 17.

136. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 73; xvi. 17.

137. Sen. _ad Helv. de Cons._ xix. 2.

138. Sen. _ad Helv._ 1. c.; _Ep._ lxxviii. 1. Dion. Ca.s.s. lix. 19.

139. 5 Dion. Ca.s.s. 1. c.

140. Suet. _Calig._ 53. See ch. i. p. 4.

141. _Ep._ cviii. 17 sqq.; Hioronym. _ad ann._ 2029. That he knew and never lost his respect for the teaching of Pythagoras is shown by the frequency with which he quotes him in the letters.

142. _Ep._ cviii. 3 sqq.

143. Cp. the speech of Suillius, Tac. _Ann._ xiii. 42; Dion.

Ca.s.s. lxi. 10.

144. _ad Helv. de Cons._ 6 sqq.

145. _ad Polyb. de Cons._

146. The _Apocolocyntosis_--almost undoubtedly by Seneca--hardly falls within the scope of this work. Such intrinsic importance as it possesses is due to the prose portions. In point of form it is an example of the _Menippean Satire_, that strange medley of prose and verse. The verse portions form but a small proportion of the whole and are insipid and lacking in interest.

147. He was forbidden by Agrippina to give definite philosophical instruction. Cp. Suet. _Nero_, 52.

148. Cp. _ad Ner. de Clem._ ii. 2; Henderson, _Life of Nero_, Notes, p. 459.

149. For what may be regarded as an academic _apologia pro vita sua_, cp. _Ep._ 5; 17: 20; _de Ira_, in. 33; _de Const. Sap._ 1-4, 10-13; _de Vit. Beat._ 17-28, &c.

150. Dion. Ca.s.s. lxi. 4. 5.

151. Tac. _Ann_. xvi. 28.

152. This is Dion's view, lxi. 10. For an ingenious view of Seneca's character see Ball, _Satire of Sen. on apotheosis of Claudius_, p.

34. 'It may be that Seneca cared less for the realization of high ideals in life than for the formulation of the ideals as such.

Sincerity and hypocrisy are terms much less worth controversy in some minds than others.'

153. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 61-4.

154. Quint, x. 1. 125-9.

155. Fronto, p. 155, N.

156. Quint, x. 1. 129. Over and above his writings on moral philosophy we possess seven books _ad Lucilium naturalium quaestionum._

157. _Patruos duos_ more naturally, however, refers to Gallio and Mela, in which case Marcus is the son of Seneca himself.

158. Cp. _P.L.M._ iv. 15, 8; Plin. _N.H._ xvi. 242.

159. For these cp. _Ep._ xiv. 13; ib. civ. 29.

160. e.g. 7l 'de Atho monte', 57 'de Graeciae ruina', 50 'de bono quietae vitae', 47, 48 'morte omnes aequari', 25 'de spe'.

161. There is, in fact, direct evidence that he wrote such verses. Plin.

_Ep._ v. 3. 5.