SEMINAR IN LATIN
(580:370) Spring 2006
SENECA MORAL EPISTLES
Dr. Thomas J. Figueira
Meetings: MW 4:30-5:50, HH A3, CAC
Classics Office Hrs.: LSH A312: W1:15-50
E-mail: [email protected]
Dept. of Classics, Ruth Adams Bldg. DC
932-9797 (messages/general information)
Phone: 445-6372 (voice mail)
I. Texts:
Required:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters from a Stoic (The Penguin Classics L210), Pbk., trans. by Robin
Campbell, ISBN: 0140442103
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Select Letters of Seneca (Bristol College Classical Series),
Pbk., edited by Walter C. Summers, ISBN: 0862921206
A.L. Motto, Seneca: Moral Epistles, American Philological Association, Textbook Series No. 8,
Chico, CA 1985, ISBN: 0-89130-558-0
Recommended:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Seneca: 17 Letters, Paperback, ed. by C.D.N. Costa, ISBN:
0856683558 (available through internet purchase & on reserve)
II. Grading and Requirements:
A.
Class Work (concerning Latin): 20%
Mid-Term: 25% (March 6)
Term Paper: 25% (due May 1)
Final Exam: 30% (May 5, 4:00 PM to 7.00 AM)
B. The Mid-Term is an in-class exam which will test material to that date. It will contain
translation of prepared passages, questions on grammar and syntax, and a sight passage.
An extra credit section will be available on Seneca and his philosophy and worldview.
C. The term paper will research an aspect of Seneca’s life and work, with specific references to
our readings in Latin and in modern research. The topic is to be chosen by March 1 and
discussed with the instructor in an individual meeting. A list of suggestions will be
circulated. The paper is due on at the beginning of class on May 1. It should be no less
than 5 and no more than 10 double-spaced type-written pages in length. The format of the
paper should follow an accepted scholarly format and model (e.g., the MLA Style Sheet).
D. Although emphasis in the final examination will fall on the passages treated in the second half
of the course, this exam will test the whole range of material presented in the course. Its
format will be similar to that of the mid-term with the exception that an essay question
will be included.
SENECA: Epistulae Morales
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III. Aims of the Course:
Our main emphasis will be on increasing proficiency in the reading of Latin prose and on
understanding Roman culture during the Augustan principate by means of a study of Seneca,
whose works encapsulate the literary and intellectual trends of the first century AD, as well as
providing a significant standard for Latin prose composition. We shall also turn our attention to
Roman society, institutions, and political history, insofar as these topics are necessary to an
understanding of the Epistulae Morales. Class participation by the students will be considered
an integral part of our work on Seneca.
IV. Reading Assignments
Our primary objective in the first part of this course will be a close reading of the Senecan
epistles to Lucilius that are included on the Classics graduate reading lists, as these are
characteristic and important selections. They will be taken in numerical order, and are 7, 12, 47,
51, 56, 86, 114, and 122. These readings occupy c. 36 pages in the standard page format of the
Oxford Classical Text series. We should complete these readings in the first half of the course.
Thereupon we will supplement these letters with other selections from our main text, the edition
of Summers. The second series will comprise Epistles 11, 15, 18, 21, 27, 28, 44, 51, 53, 54, 56,
63, 80, 84, and 90 (c. 50 OCT pp.), and will be read in that order (unless otherwise specified).
Our translation and close reading of the text will also be supplemented during the early part of
the course with lectures on Seneca. Besides beginning Epistle 7, your first mission is to read the
brief entry of L.D. Reynolds, Miriam T. Griffin, and Elaine Fantham in OCD3 96-98
(Alexander Reference or Classics Study Collection in RAB).
V. Bibliography (on reserve at Alexander Library, except for “*”)
C.D.N. Costa, ed., Seneca, London, 1974, PA6675.Z9C67.
____, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Seneca: 17 Letters, PA6661.E7A2 1988.
Miriam T. Griffin, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics, Oxford, 1992, JC89.G67 1992.
*Richard M. Gummere, trans. Ad Lucilium epistulae morales, 3 vols., Cambridge & London,
1917, PA6156.S4E6 1967
John Henderson, Morals and Villas in Seneca's Letters: Places To Dwell, Cambridge,
PA6661.E8H37 2004.
Brad Inwood, Reading Seneca: Stoic Philosophy at Rome, Oxford, 2005, PA6675.I59 2005.
Anna Lydia Motto, Further Essays on Seneca, Frankfurt, 2001, PA6675.M58 2001.
*____, “Recent Scholarship on Seneca’s Prose Works, 1940-1957,” CW 54 (1960) 13-18;
37-48; 70-71; “Seneca’s prose writings. A Decade of Scholarship, 1958-1968,” CW 64 (1971)
141-158, 177-191; (with J.R. Clarke) “Scholarship on Seneca’s Prose. 1968-1978,” CW 77 (1983)
69-116.
____, Seneca, New York. 1973, PA6675.M6.
____, Seneca Sourcebook, Amsterdam, 1970, PA6693.Z8M6.
Anna Lydia Motto & John R. Clark, Essays on Seneca, Frankfurt, 1993, PA6675.E87 1993.
____, Seneca, A Critical Bibliography, 1900-1980: Scholarship on His Life, Thought, Prose, and
Influence, Amsterdam, 1989, Z8807.82.M67 1989.
*L. D. Reynolds, ed., L. Annaei Senecae ad Lucilium epistulae morales, Oxford 1977, OCT,
2 vols., PA6105.S8S45 1966.
Matthew B. Roller, Constructing Autocracy: Aristocrats and Emperors in Julio-Claudian Rome,
Princeton, 2001, DG281.R65 2001.
Villy Sørensen, Seneca, The Humanist at the Court of Nero; trans. by W. Glyn Jones, Chicago, 1984,
PA6675.S613 1984.
Paul Veyne, Seneca: The Life of a Stoic, trans. by D. Sullivan, New York, 2003, PA6675.V4913 2003
SENECA: Epistulae Morales
Paper Topics:
I. Study on Epistles 1, 2, 3
II. Study on Epistles 5, 6
III. Study on Epistles 16, 23
IV. Study on Epistles 33, 34, 37
V. Study on Epistles 38, 40
VI. Study on Epistles 41, 42
VII. Study on Epistles 50, 52
VIII. Study on Epistles 55, 57
IX. Study on Epistles 60. 61, 62
X. Study on Epistles 72, 77
XI. Study on Epistles 78, 79
XII. Study on Epistle 83
XIII. Study on Epistle 86
XIV. Study on Epistle 88
XV. Study on Epistle 92
XVI. Study on Epistle 94
XVII. Study on Epistle 104
XVIII. Study on Epistles 110, 112
XVIX. Study on Epistle 124
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