Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Octavia

Joseph Smith (San Diego State University)
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Octavia

is the lone drama surviving from antiquity exemplifying the genre

fabula praetexta

, or Roman history play. Preserved along with nine other plays ascribed to Lucius Annaeus Seneca (in one family of medieval manuscripts labeled ‘A’ by scholars of the Senecan dramatic corpus),

Octavia

evokes and references Senecan tragedy, but cannot be the work of Seneca. The drama portrays the historic moment of the Roman Emperor Nero’s decision (made in early June of 62 CE) to divorce and expel his first wife, Octavia, from Rome’s imperial palace (and ultimately to execute her), and thereupon to replace her with a new wife, Poppaea Sabina. Seneca himself is portrayed in the drama as Nero’s disengaged and ineffective advisor whose naïve and idealistic political philosophy is dismissed by…

2334 words

Citation: Smith, Joseph. "Octavia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 January 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=33497, accessed 19 March 2024.]

33497 Octavia 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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