Shadi Bartsch - The Cambridge Companion to Seneca

The Roman statesman, philosopher, and playwright Lucius Annaeus Seneca dramatically influenced the progression of Western thought. His works have had an unparalleled impact on the development of ethical theory, shaping a code of behavior for dealing with tyranny in his own age that endures today. This companion thoroughly examines the complete Senecan corpus, with special emphasis on the aspects of his writings that have challenged interpretation. The authors place Seneca in the context of the ancient world and trace his impressive legacy in literature, art, religion, and politics from Neronian Rome to the early modern period. Through critical discussion of the recent proliferation of Senecan studies, this volume compellingly illustrates how the perception of Seneca and his particular type of Stoicism has evolved over time. It provides a comprehensive overview that will benefit students and scholars in classics, comparative literature, history, philosophy, and political theory, as well as general readers.

SHADI BARTSCH is Helen A. Regenstein Distinguished Service Professor of Classics at the University of Chicago. She is the author of Decoding the Ancient Novel: The Reader and the Role of Description in Heliodorus and Achilles Tatius (1989); Actors in the Audience: Theatricality and Doublespeak from Nero to Hadrian (1994); Ideology in Cold Blood: A Reading of Lucans Civil War (1998); The Mirror of the Self: Sexuality, Self-Knowledge, and the Gaze in the Early Roman Empire (2006); and Persius: A Study in Food, Philosophy, and the Figural (2015).

ALESSANDRO SCHIESARO is Professor of Latin Literature and Director of the School for Advanced Studies at Sapienza University of Rome. He is the author of Simulacrum et Imago . Gli argomenti analogici nel De rerum natura (1990) and The Passions in Play: Thyestes and the Dynamics of Senecan Drama (2003) and the coeditor, with Jenny Strauss Clay and Philip Mitsis, of Mega Nepios: The Addressee in Didactic Epic (1993) and, with Thomas Habinek, of The Roman Cultural Revolution (1997).

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The Cambridge Companion to Seneca

Edited by

Shadi Bartsch

University of Chicago

and

Alessandro Schiesaro

Sapienza University of Rome

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Cambridge University Press 2015

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First published 2015

Printed in the United States of America

A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

The Cambridge companion to Seneca / edited by Shadi Bartsch, University of

Chicago; Alessandro Schiesaro, Sapienza University of Rome.

pages cm. (Cambridge companions to literature)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-107-03505-8 (hardback) ISBN 978-1-107-69421-7 (paperback)

1. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.65 A.D. History

and criticism Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Bartsch, Shadi, 1966 editor.

II. Schiesaro, Alessandro, 1963 editor.

PA6675.C36 2015

188dc23 2014033239

ISBN 978-1-107-03505-8 Hardback

ISBN 978-1-107-69421-7 Paperback

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