Seneca summary

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Seneca, marble bust, 3rd century, after an original bust of the 1st century; in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany

Seneca, (born c. 4 bce, Corduba, Spain—died 65 ce, Rome), Roman philosopher, statesman, and playwright. He was trained as an orator and began a career in politics and law in Rome c. 31 ce. While banished to Corsica for adultery (41–49), he wrote the philosophical treatises Consolationes. He later became tutor to the future emperor Nero and from 54 to 62 was a leading intellectual figure in Rome. An adherent of Stoicism, he wrote other philosophical works, including Moral Letters, a collection of essays on moral problems. He also left a series of verse tragedies marked by violence and bloodshed, including Thyestes and Medea. His plays influenced the development of Elizabethan drama during the Renaissance, notably William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (1593–94) and John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (c. 1613).

essay Summary

Essay, an analytic, interpretative, or critical literary composition usually much shorter and less systematic and formal than a dissertation or thesis and usually dealing with its subject from a limited and often personal point of view. Some early treatises—such as those of Cicero on the

satire Summary

Satire, artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, parody, caricature, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to inspire social reform. Satire is a

tragedy Summary

Tragedy, branch of drama that treats in a serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual. By extension the term may be applied to other literary works, such as the novel. Although the word tragedy is often used loosely to describe any sort