Wiener Studien 124/2011, pp. 165-180, 2011/11/07
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
A brief examination of some indicative examples of the technique that Seneca normally uses to enter poetic citations in his philosophical works leads to the conclusion that he often deliberately integrates into his text the quotation’s original context. On this basis I will try to prove that a verse quotation of uncertain authorship in the preface of De brevitate vitae (dial. 10, 2, 1/2) was originally part of the chorus of soldiers from Ennius’ tragedy Iphigenia (Enn. scaen. 195 – 202J), and that Seneca, in composing this preface, had at his disposal the original Ennian context in its entirety.
