Seneca's Life and Times

Seneca: Letters

In this course, Professor Catharine Edwards (Birkbeck, University of London) provides an introduction to Seneca the Younger and his Epistulae Morales. We begin by providing a broad introduction to Seneca's life, career, and literary output, before moving on in the second module to think about the philosophy of Stoicism. In the third module, we explore the letter as both a means of communication in the Roman world as well as a well-developed literary genre, before turning in the fourth module to consider Seneca's distinctive prose style. Finally, in the fifth module, we provide a close reading of one of Seneca's letters – Letter 53.

Seneca's Life and Times

In this module, we think about Seneca's life, career and literary output, focusing in particular on his political career, his relationship with the imperial family, and his often chequered reputation.