Senecan Epigrams and the Genre of Exile Poetry

Abstract

In discourses on Roman exile, several names inevitably must be brought up, with Ovid and Seneca the Younger looming large over the discussions. Ovid's exilic poems, far from simply manifesting his situation and personal feelings, were part of a literary tradition that grew over time. Ovid was aware of the previous conventions of writings from exile, and molded those concepts into a genre of exile poetry, with set tropes and guidelines to be followed by later exiles. The well-known philosopher and politician L. Annaeus Seneca was exiled on the island of Corsica by the emperor Claudius from 41 to 48 CE. While he was there he produced two philosophical consolations, several plays, and, some scholars argue, a collection of nugae, or trifles, in the form of epigrams. These epigrams demonstrate Seneca's thorough knowledge of the poetic genre of exile, due to the numerous similarities they share with the exile poetry of Ovid. Themes such as negative descriptions of the landscape of exile, exile as a living death, the immortal power of poetry, mythologizing of exile, and linguistic and cultural isolation are all used in both authors' writing and are foundations of the poetic genre of exile. By examining the Senecan epigrams in light of the concept of a literary genre of exile poetry, it is possible to understand in what way Seneca adhered to and contributed to the genre.