Selected Essays of Seneca and the Satire on the Deification of Claudius

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... NOTES AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE Polybius, whose brother's death was the occasion of Seneca's proffered consolation, was a freedman of the Emperor Claudius, and occupied the important post of ab stwliis,1--secretary to the Emperor in his literary work. Apparently also from a remark in the present Consolatio, vi. 5, he performed at least to some extent the duties of secretary a libellis, who received and classified the petitions addressed to the Emperor. That Polybius did literary work on his own account is evident from chapters ii., viii., and xi. From the Consolatio, too, we know that he had other brothers besides the one whom he had lost, and also a wife and son.' According to Dio Cassius, ' Polybius intrigued with the Empress Messalina, who finally turned against him and caused his death; to this connection Seneca seems to allude in the Apocolocyntosis, xiii. 5. The Consolation to Polybius was written from Corsica after Seneca had been in exile there for about two years, when he was losing the fine patience that he had displayed in comforting his mother Helvia upon his misfortune. He offers to Polybius honestly enough the common consolations of his philosophic repertory; but the most notable feature of the essay is the flattery of the Emperor, which presently appears to have been its chief motive, in the hope, on Seneca's part, that it would be reported to Claudius and lead to his own pardon and return from exile. For the time, at least, the hope proved vain. The question,4 by Diderot and others, of the authenticity of this work as Seneca's, was chiefly on the ground of its general unworthiness of Seneca's character, and particularly of the absurd 1 Suetonius, Claud. 28; cf. Cons. ad Polyb. v. 2. 2 xii. 1. 3 LX. 31,2. Cf. p. xxi, note. contrast between...