ABSTRACT
The fate of Octavia and the marriage of Poppaea, as well as appealing to the historians, struck the imagination of a dramatist. These events of the year 62 form the subject of the Octavia, the only Roman historical drama to survive complete. The play is preserved with the tragedies of Seneca, but not in the earliest surviving manuscript and apparent allusions to events after Seneca’s death, particularly to the death of Nero, make his authorship highly questionable. 1 A date of composition close to the events, however, is suggested by the author’s thorough knowledge of the historical circumstances. Yet it is hard for us, at this distance in time, to distinguish personal experience from mere erudition. A more compelling argument for an early date is the author’s grasp of Seneca’s thought and style, for by the reign of Domitian there was a reaction in taste which Tacitus had to allow for in praising Seneca’s eloquence. 2
