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The Themes Treated by the Elder Seneca

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The Themes Treated by the Elder Seneca The Themes Treated by the Elder Seneca DISSERTATION 'HESENTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PH. D., JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY JUNE, 1896 BY THOMAS STANLEY SIMONDS THE FRIEDENWALD CO. BALTIMORE, MD. The Themes Treated by the Elder Seneca DISSERTATION PRESENTED FOR THE DEGREE OF PH. D., JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY JUNE, 1896 BY THOMAS STANLEY SIMONDS THE FRIEDENWALD CO. BALTIMORE, MD. Sr? CONTENTS. PART I. PAGE Preface 5 I. Rhetoric in general 7-14 1. Evolution of the late rhetoric 7 a. Asian schools 8 b. Causes of the decline of Greek oratory 8-9 2. Political and social conditions favoring the evolution of rhetoric at Rome 9 a. Oratory among the Romans 9-12 b. Decay of oratory at Rome 12-14 II. The Roman rhetoricians 15-38 1. Their position in the new fabric of the state *$- l 7 2. Their method of instruction 17-20 a. Various kinds of declamations in the imperial period. 21-22 b. Character of the declamations of the imperial period. ... 23-33 c. Influence of rhetoric on other branches of literature 33~35 3. The character and attainments of the rhetoricians 35-38 PART II. I. Seneca the Elder 39~5 2 1. His life 39~42 2. His character 4 2~44 3. His writings 44~47 4. Value of his rhetorical writings 47-5 5. His attitude toward rhetoric and rhetoricians 50-52 II. MSS. and editions of his rhetorical writings 53~56 1. MSS 53-55 2. Editions 55~56 PART in. I. The sources of the Suasoriae and Controversiae 57-68 II. Classification of the subjects of the Suasoriae and Controversiae 68-70 III. Parallels of the subjects discussed in the Controversiae of Se- neca, the Declamations of the pseudo-Quintilian, and Cal- purnius Flaccus 71-81 IV. The legal aspects of the Controversiae 82-98 Bibliography 98-100 254832 PREFACE. The writings of Seneca the Elder, as well as the declamations preserved under the names of Quintilian and Calpurnius Flaccus, introduce us to a peculiar and characteristic phase of mental and literary activity. This activity has neither the charm of youth nor the repose of maturity, but is rather that of degeneration and decay. Antique mental life is presented in these writings as it verged on its second childhood, and it will not be without interest to sketch briefly on the basis of Seneca's writings this phase of classical literature, to state its causes and, as far as may be, to trace to their sources the examples of it which remain. PART I. I. RHETORIC IN GENERAL. i. Evolution of the late rhetoric. Of all the species of Roman literature none traces its origin to Greece more directly than rhetoric, and it will not therefore be without advantage to consider briefly rhetoric as distinguished from the old oratory among the Greeks. It was Isocrates who gave to Greek eloquence its finish and polish and, what is perhaps of greater importance, infused 1 into it an ethical element. It attained its height in Demosthenes. Aristotle in his Rhetoric gave it a scientific basis. But very early there manifested itself in oratory a tendency to go astray, which 2 provoked the censure of Isocrates, and the sharp attacks of 3 Plato. Its decline was steady. After the downfall of Athenian freedom scarcely one great orator can be mentioned. Signs of decay or at least of a lack of productiveness are already shown 4 in Dinarchus, who was an imitator. The style also became lax 5 and weak. In subjugated Athens there was no longer a field for oratory, which accordingly emigrated to the free and flourishing cities of Asia-Minor. There it exhibited great activity but in a dreadfully artificial and distorted manner. We refer to the so-called Asian style. 1 Cf. Blass, Die griechische Beredsamkeit, p. 78 sq.; Geschichte der attischen das der Rhetorik bei den Beredsamkeit ii, p. 41 ; Spengel, Ueber Studium Alien, p. 8. 2 Cf. 10 (Hel.) i sq.; n (Busir.) 9. 49. 8 C. Phaedr. 267 A sq. 4 " Cf . Dionysius Halicarnassus, De Dinarcho judicium c. 5 : . .OVJU.TJV " ak7.a Kal TOV bv Die Aijfj.oG'&eMKOv ^apa/cr^pof, ^a/Uora c^^craro ; Blass, griech. Bereds., p. 15; Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litterat^ir in der Alexandrinerzeit, 1892, ii, p. 461. 5 Cf. Cicero, De oratore ii, 23, 95 : posteaquam extinctis his omnis eorum memoria sensim obscurata est et evanuit, alia quaedam dicendi molliora ac remissiora genera viguerunt. 8' THE 'THEMES "TREATED BY THE ELDER SENECA. a. The Asian schools. Hegesias of Magnesia at Mount Sipylos, 6 who lived about 250 B. C., is regarded as the founder or at any 7 rate the foremost representative of the Asian school. Hegesias's diction was marked by a striving after metaphors and figures, an indulgence in surprising puns and puerile witticisms, and by a lack of dignity and sincere feeling. In his attempt to imitate the simple periodic structure of Lysias, he minced everything into short sentences to which he added the frequent use of 8 hyperbaton. It may be said in general that the Asian style is distinguished from the old Attic by its affectation, turgidily of 9 verbal ornament, and inanity of thought. b. Causes of the decline of Greek oratory. What Seneca says in reference to Roman eloquence is applicable to the Grecian also and to human achievement in general: "fato quodam cuius maligna perpetuaque in rebus omnibus lex est, ut ad summum perducta rursus ad infimum velocius quidem quam ascenderant, 6 Cf. Blass, Die griech. Bereds.^ p. 25; Susemihl, Gesch. der griech. Litterat. ii, pp. 463 sq. 7 " 6' Cf. Strabo xiv, 648 : avdpef kyivovro yv&pi/uoi Mdywyref 'Hy^ciaf re b pr/Tup, 6f r]p^e fiaTiicra TOV 'Aaiavov fayopevov tyfav 6t,a<j>'deipar TO /cai?<rrtjc #0f " TO 'ATTIKOV . ; Blass, Die griech. Bereds., pp. 5. 16, following Dion. Hal., De antiq. orat. pro. i, dates the Asian school not from Hegesias, but from the death of Alexander the -Great and makes it begin with Demetrius Phalereus, who died about 283 B. C. Cicero, Brutus ix, 38, says of " inflexit Phalereus ; Hie primus orationem et earn mollem teneramque reddidit et suavis," while Quintilian, Instit. orat. x, i, 80, considers him as having had "multum ingenii et facundiae." 8 " Cf . Cicero, Orator Ixvii, 226 : . dum ille quoque imitari Lysiam vult . saltat incidens particulas. Et is quidem non minus sententiis peccat quam verbis, ut non quaeret quern appellet ineptum, qui ilium cog- " noverit"; ibid. Ixix, 230: Sunt etiam qui illo vitio, quod ab Hegesia fluxit infringendis concidendisque numeris in quoddam genus abiectum incidant versiculorum simillimum"; Dion. Hal., De compositione verborum c. the of to illustrate his cf. xviii, who quotes from History Hegesias style ; also Blass, Die griech. Beredsamkeit, pp. 31 sq. and Susemihl, Geschichte der griech. Lift., p. 467. 9 For a more detailed description of the Asian style compare Cicero, Brutus xcv, who distinguishes two divisions of it, the sententious and the verbose, and mentions their principal representatives, cf. also ibid, xiii, 51. For the relation of the Asian school to the second Sophistic, which received a new impetus in the second century and kept itself alive until the end of the old Greek civilization in the sixth century, compare Rohde, Der griechische Roman> pp. 290 sq. and in Rheinisches Museum xli (1886), p. 170-190. THE THEMES TREATED BY THE ELDER SENECA. Q 10 relabantur." In the art of oratory there seems to be an inherent tendency to deviate from simplicity and truth, and to run riot. As particular causes of its decay in Greece, its proper home, may decadence of the be mentioned the general Greek nation ; true oratory can flourish only among a free, patriotic, high-minded " people, not under a fierce democracy which has sunk into the 11 lifelessness of a cheerless and dishonored old age." Then, too, there was the change of the seat of artistic speech from Attica to Asia, exuberant and exaggerating in all things. To this must absence of interest as be added the any lively political ; liberty declined, deliberative discourse was deprived of its real object, and the corruptness of the courts left little room for true forensic oratory. All orations became more or less show-speeches, and the could in rhetorical speaker indulge only commonplaces ; having no attainable object before him, he was led to employ all his efforts on form and to exhibit his art in ostentation and bom- bast. Moreover, there had come into being a subtle and minute development of rhetorical technique which of necessity hindered, if it did not wholly stifle, spontaneous heartborn eloquence. It will be seen that causes precisely similar brought about the decline of Roman oratory also. 2. Political and social conditions favoring the evolution of rhetoric at Rome. a. Oratory among the Romans. Next to Greece no country afforded a grander field for the growth and display of oratorical genius than Rome. If the Roman character lacked the elegance and grace of the Greek, especially the Athenian, this was counter- balanced by a dignity and gravity of speech which was supported by the senatorial system and which was never reached at Athens. " The Roman mind, unlike the Greek, did not instinctively con- ceive the public speaker as an artist. It conceived him strictly as a citizen, weighty by piety and years of office, who has something to say for the good of other citizens, and whose dignity, hardly less than the value of his hearers' time, enjoins a pregnant and 12 severe conciseness." The practical sturd)' Roman of the earlier IQ Praefatio Controvers, i, 7.
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