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APPENDIX OF AUTHORS AND WORKS
(Amsterdam 1971). Most important are Tac. Arm. 12-15; D >° Cassius 59-61; Suet.
Cal., Claud., Nero; allusions in S.'s own works, esp. Helv. and Ep. See also PIR 2 I
103-4 for a compendious statement of the sources for each of the main events in S.'s
career.
WORKS
Seneca's extant works descended through the middle ages in seven groups, each with
its own more or less separate manuscript tradition; modern editors retain this grouping,
as follows: (1) Dialogorum libri XII: collection of tracts datable to various periods from
end to end of S.'s career. Apart from, opening section of bk 9, there is no attempt at
'dialogue' in the Platonic or modern sense. 'Talks', or even 'chats' might be a more
accurate rendering of the title. All treat of ethical or psychological topics, and, with
the exception of the three books De ira {Dial. 3-5), are relatively short. Three are
entitled Consolations: the Consolationes ad Marciam (Dial. 6, on the death of
Marcia's son), ad Polybium {Dial. 11, ostensibly to console the famous freedman
of Claudius on his brother's death, but evidently a plea for the remission of S.'s
exile-sentence), and ad Helviam {Dial. 12, to his mother, consoling her for his
absence in exile). Topics of remaining treatises sufficiently indicated by their transmitted
titles.
(2) De beneficiis and De dementia. Neither title can be exactly rendered into English.
The seven books of De beneficiis are concerned not so much with' benefits' or' favours'
as with mutual kindness between man and man, and man and god — the very foundations
of civilized and religious living. De dementia: originally in three books, only bk 1
and opening part of bk 2 survive. The only treatise in the corpus that is formally
addressed to Nero, it is a statement of the right attitude of a monarch towards his
responsibilities and his people. In this dementia plays an essential part; but it is a
rational and humane quality, lacking the element of condescension implied in its
English derivative.
(3) Naturales quaestiones: seems originally to have consisted of eight books, two of
which (4A and 4B in modern edd.) are mutilated. Half the books are concerned nominally
with meteorological phenomena; the remainder with terrestrial waters (bk 3),
the river Nile (4A), earthquakes (6) and comets (7).
(4) Epistulae morales ad Lucilium: originally in at least twenty-two books, of which
twenty (124 letters) have survived. For the specially complex history of this group's
transmission, see L. D. Reynolds, The medieval tradition of Seneca s letters (Oxford
1965); strictly speaking it forms not one group, but two.
(5) Ten tragoediae, enumerated and discussed below.
(6) Apocolocyntosis: see p. 888.
(7) Epigrams: see pp. 886-7.
DATING: On dates of prose works see MUnscher, under Studies (1) below, and K
Abel, Bauformen in Senecas Dialogen (Heidelberg 1967: with bibliography). Following
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