Morals and Villas in Senecas Letters: Places to Dwell
by John Henderson
Category: Fiction

Dr Henderson reads three key Letters which visit three Roman villas, and surveys the whole collection to show how these villas work as designs for contrasting lives. Here Seneca brings the philosophical epistle to Latin literature, creating models for moralizing which feature self-criticism, parody, and animated revision of myth. The Stoic moralist wrests ethical practice and writing away from Greek gurus and texts, and into critical thinking in Latin terms, within a Roman context. The Letters turn powerful critical thinking on metaphor and translation, self-transformation and cultural tradition.