Book Review: The Empire of the Self – Self Command and Political Speech in Seneca and Petronius
Author: Christopher Star Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar This book compares the thoughts of two philosophers who lived during the early days of the Roman Empire. Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Petronius are said in this book to have both been advisors to Emperor Nero, and traveled around the Bay of Naples during that period. Emperor Nero writes in letters 49-57 of his Moral Epistles about Seneca, and describes him as a Stoic philosopher, tragedian and tutor. Meanwhile, Encolpius writes about the other philosopher Petronius’ “amorality” in his book Satyricon. Both collections of writings – Moral Epistles and Satyricon – are said by scholars to have been written around the years 62 CE and 66 CE (which stands for Common Era). While Seneca and Petronius did not travel together, the author Christopher Star writes that “the form and content of their accounts are strikingly similar. Both authors pepper their highly polished prose with poetic quotations and compositions. Both narrations contain specific references to their environs…both provide vivid descriptions of the local bathhouses and villas and the leisure activities of the inhabitants.” Star writes that most readers familiar with Seneca and Petronius would contend that they sniped at each other and put a distance between themselves in their final years of life. The author further states that most people who have read about Seneca and Petronius,...
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