Research > Research projects > Finding Lucilius: Who was the addressee of Seneca's Letters?
Director: Francesca Romana Berno
The identification of the addressee of Seneca's moral letters is a long lasting vexata quaestio. Indeed, there is no epigraphic evidence of his historical existence, and all the information about him are provided by Seneca himself.
This project aims at reproposing a XIX century theory, that of the identification with the epigrammatic poet Lukillos, with new elements and insights. Indeed, joining the literary analysis of Lukillos' Greek epigrams, compared to the Latin fragments and the information given by Seneca, with a detailed documentary search, it is possible to add some evidence to this correspondence.
Collaborators:
Raffaele Luiselli
- Bibliography
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Bourgery (1922): A. Bourgery, Sénèque prosateur. Études littéraires et grammaticales sur la prose de Sénèque le philosophe, Paris
Ceccaroli (2011): R. Ceccaroli, Studi sull'epigramma scoptico greco, diss. Bologna
Cugusi (1983): P. Cugusi, Evoluzione e forme dell¿epistolografia latina nella tarda repubblica e nei primi due secoli dell¿impero, Roma
Edwards (2019): C. Edwards (ed.), Selected Letters of Seneca, Cambridge
Floridi (2014): L. Floridi (ed.), Lucillio, Epigrammi, Berlin/Boston
Gowers (2011): E. Gowers, The Road to Sicily: Lucilius to Seneca, Ramus 40.2, 168-97
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Mollea (2023): S. Mollea, Voluntas, virtutes e otium. Seneca, Epistulae ad Lucilium 67 e 68, Alessandria
Nisbet (2003): G. Nisbet, Greek Epigram in the Roman Empire. Martial's Forgotten Rivals, Oxford
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Sakolowski (1893): P. Sakolowski, De Anthologia Palatina Quaestiones, Lipsiae
Soldo (2021) J. Soldo, Seneca, Epistulae Morales, Book Two, Cambridge
Wildberger (2014): J. Wildberger, The Epicurus Trope and the Construction of a Letter Writer in Seneca's Epistulae Morales, in Seneca Philosophus, edd. M. Colish, J. Wildberger, Berlin/Boston, 431-465
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Further details about this research:
- Research type: Research project piccolo
- Research topic: Latin literature; Classical Philology
- Fundings: 3480