Lucius Annaeus Seneca, De providentia [On providence]

Ermanno Malaspina (Università Degli Studi di Torino)

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), 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 (The American University of Paris)

Dates

First circulation or publication c. 37 - c. 65

Places

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

Genres and Modes

Treatise

Resources

Introduction

De providentia (DP), dedicated to Gaius Lucilius Iunior, is a short philosophical treatise that reached us as the first work in the collection of the nine Dialogi (see Waltz 1927, Basore 1928, Reynolds 1977, Fink 1992), i.e. texts on various topics, of various genres and of various – and often highly debated – chronology. The dialogical nature must in fact be sought in something other than the traditional understanding of the term: DP begins by alluding to the question (quaesisti a me) that Lucilius, the dedicatee, purportedly had asked, and from which the very occasion of the treatise stemmed, i.e. how to reconcile Providence with the sufferings of the just man. Seneca, then, …

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2283 words

Citation: Malaspina, Ermanno. "De providentia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2014 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35249, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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