Lucius Annaeus Seneca, De Consolatione ad Marciam [Consolation to Marcia]

Pietro Li Causi (Università di Palermo)

Ed. by Sophia Papaioannou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.2: Ancient Roman Writing and Culture (Republic and Empire), -750-476.
Vol. editors: William John Dominik (University of Otago), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Thomas Habinek (University of Southern California), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Sophia Papaioannou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens), Jula Wildberger (American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 34 - c. 37

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Ancient Rome (Republic & Empire) (Publication/ performance)

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Treatise

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Probably written several years before the

Consolatio ad Polybium

and the

Ad Helviam matrem

, Seneca’s

Ad Marciam

is addressed to the daughter of the famous historian Aulus Cremutius Cordus, in order to relieve the grief caused by the death of her son Metilius. To achieve this goal, Seneca makes use of rhetorical as well as philosophical arguments. Above all, he draws on the repertoire of Stoic paradoxes (

e.g.

, the idea of life as an indifferent external element which should be considered neither a good nor a bad thing

per se

At any rate, whereas the structure of the final section of the treatise that includes an artistic depiction of a life-after-death setting reminds of Cicero’s Somnium Scipionis (Armisen-Marchetti 2007, 71 ff.), at the same time the emphasis on the soul-body dualism

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1714 words

Citation: Li Causi, Pietro. "De Consolatione ad Marciam". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35607, accessed 31 October 2024.]

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, De Consolatione ad Marciam [Consolation to Marcia]

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