ABSTRACT
Seneca’s poetic work is profoundly defined by ongoing and multilayered engagement with multiple intertexts, Roman and Greek alike, as this has been amply illustrated in recent decades by several important studies. Seneca’s philosophical work, on the contrary, to this day has attracted little attention in terms of its literary merit, and specifically regarding its dialogue with non-philosophical literature, including poetry. Seneca systematically appropriates earlier literary tradition in order to elucidate his philosophical ideas and shed light on moral issues. A characteristic sample of the complex intertextual interweaving noted above is observed in the composition of Epistle 108. Vergil, the philosopher Seneca’s favorite literary source for quotations, dominates the last third of the Epistle, as phrases from the Georgics and the Aeneid are cited in 108. The Epistle fittingly concludes with a quotation that sits at the end of a chain of intertexts—a signature closure to a letter representative of Seneca’ mastery of decontextualization.
