Introduction
The Epistulae morales ad Lucilium (EM) are perhaps the most famous of Seneca’s works, surely the most attractive, even for non-specialists: 124 letters of various lengths divided into twenty books, the remnants of an original corpus of at least twenty-two books (Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 12.2), written after the author’s retirement (from 62 to 64 CE) to his friend Lucilius, and dealing with moral issues, as indicated by the title itself, which varies, however, in the different strands of the textual transmission (Reynolds 1965, v-xviii; Spallone 1995; Fohlen 2000).
The approximate chronology is based on internal references about events which let us understand the year or the season of writing, e.g. the fire of Lyon (EM 91), which other sources place in the August of 64, or the festival of the Saturnalia in December...
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Citation: Berno, Francesca Romana. "Epistulae morales ad Lucilium". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 March 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=32192, accessed 09 June 2026.]
