On Seneca's Apocolocyntosis, IV

Author(s): Kenneth Scott

Source: The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 52, No. 1 (1931), pp. 66-68
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/289917
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ON SENECA'S APOCOLOCYNTOSIS, IV.

[The article is summarized in the last paragraph.-ED.]

In the fourth chapter of the Apocolocyntosis the Fates are

represented as spinning the life thread of Nero, and special
emphasis is laid upon length of years:
Vincunt Tithoni, vincunt et Nestoris annos (1. 14)
plus solito nevere manus humanaque fata (1. 19)
laudatum transcendit opus. ' ne demite Parcae'
Phoebus ait 'vincat mortalis tempora vitae
ille [Nero] mihi similis vultu similisque decore
nec cantu nec voce minor.'
Then at the close of these verses and almost at the end of the
chapter Seneca reverts to prose and writes: "At Lachesis, quae
et ipsa homini formosissimo faveret, fecit illud plena manu, et
Neroni multos annos de suo donat."'
The insistence on a fabulously long life for the emperor is
probably presented as a point the meaning of which would be
significant in the context. The whole essay abounds in travesty
on apotheosis and all the paraphernalia of the ruler cult. Seneca
makes sport of the poets for their bombastic and ornate treatment of sunrise, sunset, and even mid-day (ch. 2). The anapaestic lines on Claudius' death (ch. 12) ridicule such fawning
praise as was lavished by the court poets.
So even here in the lines ostensibly lauding Nero there seems
to lurk, if not travesty, at least reminiscence of or pointed
reference to the adulatory praises of the Augnstan poets who
prayed that Augustus' years might be many, and that he might
be late in going to dwell in heaven. Horace, for example, had
expressed exactly this thought in his serus in caelum redeas,2
but I believe that the influence of Ovid is responsible for
1
There is no reference made in the edition of Ball (New York, 1902),
nor in the translation and commentary of Weinreich (Berlin, 1923),
nor in Heinze's "Zu Senecas Apocolocyntosis," Hermes, LXI (1926),
p. 57, to any literary reminiscence from Ovid which may have influenced Seneca in this chapter.
23 ., I, 2, 45.

66

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ON SENECA'S APOCOLOCYNTOSIS, IV.

67

Seneca's words on the longevity granted Nero by the Fates. In

writing the Apocolocyntosis Seneca must have had constantly
in mind the Metamorphoses, and that such was in fact the case
is shown by the motion of Diespiter that Claudius be made a
god and that this event "be added to the Metamorphoses of
Ovid (sec. 9)."
Ovid had referred to Augustus as follows:

and

nec nisi cum senior Pylios 3 aequaverit annos,

aetherias sedes cognataque sidera tanget.4
tarda sit illa dies et nostro serior aevo,
qua caput Augustum, quem temperat, orbe relicto
accedat caelo faveatque precantibus absens.5

Again, addressing Augustus,

sic habites terras et te desideret aether,
sic ad pacta tibi sidera tardus eas.6
The same sentiment occurs, in all, four times in the Tristia,
for Ovid wrote:

and
and

di tamen et Caesar dis accessure, sed olim,

aequarint Pylios cum tua fata dies.7
iure deos, ut adhuc caeli tibi limina claudant,
teque velint sine se, comprecor, esse deum.81

optavi, peteres caelestia sidera tarde.9

Ovid, when he mentions the restoration of the temples by Augustus, cannot lose this chance for flattery but cries:
dent tibi caelestes, quos tu caelestibus, annos.10
A comparison of the lines cited from Ovid with the fourth
3 Similes is found in most
manuscripts.
edition of H. Magnus (1914).
4Met., XV, 838-839.
6 Ibid., XV, 868-870.
e Tristia, V, 2, 52.
IIbid., V, 5, 61-62.
Ibid., V, 11, 25-26.
Ibid., II, 57.
0 Fasti, II, 65.

Cf. the apparatus

of the

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68

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHILOLOGY.

chapter of the Apocolocyntosis is striking. The request of years

surpassing human lot for the emperor had evidently become a
commonplace with court poets, and it was probably attended, as
a rule, with the promise of apotheosis after death, as was the
case in Horace and so often in Ovid. With or without intention,
Seneca employed this commonplace in the fourth chapter of his
satire, and it seems quite likely that Ovid was here the source
of Seneca's inspiration.
KENNETH SCOTT.
WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY.

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