"The "Octavia

ALTHOUGH the Octavia survives solely through manuscripts containing the plays of L. Annaeus Seneca, most scholars of the past two decades at least have been able to refer confidentlyand casually to the nonSenecan authorship of the play.' This view is correct, but the evidence usually adduced in support of it should not yet be thought to be entirely beyond challenge: of three categories of evidence traditionally thought to disprove authenticity, only one, that of the linguistic and metrical anomalies of the Octavia, has been carefully and persuasively examined: in 1934 Rudolph Helm effectively demonstrated that such features were not consistent with any theory of Senecan authorship.2 On the other hand, those familiar with recent work on the manuscript tradition of Seneca's tragedies must allow that the tradition offers no guide and can neither add to nor detract from the weight of internal arguments for or against authenticity.3 The third class of evidence, that of supposed allusions to events after Seneca's death, remains inaccurately assessed and misunderstood, largely because such references have not been properly related to each other or to the larger question of poetic structure. That is, the fabrications of the artist have eluded most researchers

Art · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Literary Analyses

• Mouvements et destructions de statues

  Open Access•Cyril Courrier•Faire parler et faire taire les…•2016

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• Nerón

  Open Access•Pepa Castillo•História da Historiografia…•2024

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• Nero's Luxuria , in Tacitus and in the Octavia

  Open Access•Patrick Kragelund•The Classical Quarterly•2000

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