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Senecan Epigrams and the Genre of Exile Poetry
Stout, Amelia Ruth
Stout, Amelia Ruth
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Honors papers, Greek and Roman Studies
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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.
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The author granted permission to publish this paper. It was submitted to the archives on a a CD.