A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

SENECA SENTIA GENS. 733
work on Friendship illn the Vatican, and the begin- complete French translations of the works of Sening of another " l)e Vita Patris." neca, of which that of Lagrange is the last, and is
Besides the works which have been enumerated said to be the best. The last edition of Lagrange's
there are extant ten tragedies, which are attributed version is that of Paris, 1819, 1] 3 vols. 12mo.: the
to Seneca: Quintilian (Inst. Or. ix. 2. ~ 9) and life of Seneca makes the fourteenth volume. The
other Latin writers quote these plays as the works French translations of particular treatises are very
of Seneca. The plays are entitled Iherczles Furens, numerous.
Tiyestes, Tiebais or Phoenissae, Flippolytus or A list of the English translations of Seneca, or
Phaedra, Oedipus, Troades or Hecuba, Medea, of separate treatises, is contained in Briiggemann's
Agcssaetnunon, Hercules Oetaeus, and Octavia. After work. The first edition of " The Workes of L. Anall the discussion that there has been about the naeus Seneca, both Morall and Naturall, translated
authorship of these tragedies, there seems no other by Thos. Lodge, D. in Physicke," was published
person to whom we can assign them than Seneca, in London in 1614, with a Latin dedication to
the teacher of Nero. The titles themselves, with Chancellor Ellesmere; and " The Life of L. Anthe exception of the Octavia, indicate sufficiently naeus Seneca described by Justus Lipsius." This
what the tragedies are, Greek mythological subjects translation contains all the works of Seneca extreated in a peculiar fashion. They are written cept the Apocolocyntosis, and the Epistles to Paul.
in Iambic senarii, interspersed with choral parts, in The translation has considerable merit, and was a
anapaestic and other metres. The subject of the great thing for a man to do who also translated
Octavia is Nero's ill-treatment of his wife, his Josephus, and in other respects contributed to the
passion for Poppaea, and the exile of Octavia. literature of England.
Seneca himself is one of the personages of the One of the best editions of the tragedies of Sedrama, and he is introduced in the second act, de- neca is that by Schriider, Delft, 1 728, 4to. There
ploring the vices of the age and his own unhappi- is an edition by F. H. Bothe, Leipzig, 1819, 2 vols.
ness in his elevated station. There seems no reason 8vo. There are two French translations of the trawhy this tragedy should not be attributed to the gedies, the latter of which is by M. Levee in his
same author as the other nine, except the fact that Thea'tre des Latins, Paris, 3 vols. 8vo. 1822. An
it is not contained in the oldest Florentine MS. English translation of the tragedies by several
of the tragedies; nor is there such difference be- hands appeared in 1581.
tween this and the other tragedies, in character BKhr, Gesclichte der Ro;mischen Literatur, vol. i.
and expression, as to make it a probable conclusion contains very copious references to all the literature
that it is not by the same hand. If it is a work that belongs to the works of Seneca. [G. L'.]
of Seneca, it must have been written after the exile SENE'CIO, CLAU'D1US, a favourite of Nero
of Octavia, A. D. 62. [OCTAVIA.] at the commencement of his reign, was the son of
These tragedies are not adapted, and certainly a freedman of the emperor. (Tac. An2. xiii. 12.)
were never intended for the stage. They were SENE'CIO, HERE/NNIUS, was a native of
designed for reading or for recitation after the Baetica in Spain, where he served as quaestor. He
Roman fashion, and they bear the stamp of a was put to death by Domitian on the accusation of
rhetorical age. The Greek tragedies themselves, Metius Carus, who charged him withl having been
of which these Latin tragedies are an imitation in a candidate for no public office after the quaestorform only, are overloaded with declamation, espe- ship, and with having written the life of Helvidius
cially those of Euripides. The tragedies of Seneca Priscus. He wrote the latter work at the request
contain many striking passages, and have some of Fannia, the wife of Helvidius. (Dion Cass.
merit as poems. Moral sentiments and maxims lxvii. 13; Tac. Ag.. 2, 45; Plin. Ep. i. 5, iv. 7,
abound, and the style and character of Seneca are 11, vii. 19, 33.)
as conspicuous here as in his prose works. But there SENE'CIO, C. SO'SIUS, consul suffectus,
is a wonderful difference between the Latin tragic A. D. 98, and consul A. nD. 99, 102, 107, is probably
writer and the Greek dramatists. A comparison the same person who was a friend of the younger
of the Medea of Euripides and of Seneca is in- Pliny (Ep. i. 13), and whom Plutarch addresses
structive: the dullest understanding will feel that in several of his lives. (Theseus, 1, Demnosth. 1,
the Greek play is intended and is suited for acting, Brut. 1.)
and that the Roman play was not intended for the SENE'CIO, TU'LLIUS, a friend of Nero,
stage, and could not be acted. These Roman nevertheless took part in Piso's conspiracy against
tragedies are, in fact, little more than dramas in the emperor, and on its detection was obliged to
iame and in form: the form, indeed, is precisely put an end to his life. (Tac. Ann. xv. 50, 56, 70.)
Greek, but there is no substance under the form. SE'NTIA GENS, plebeian, is not mentioned
The Octavia, which some critics violently con- till towards the close of the republic. We find in
demn, is perhaps the best of them, viewed as a it the cognomens AUJGURINus and SATURNINUS;
dramann. There is something to move the affections: and the first member of it who obtained the conthere is a tragical situation of an unhappy woman sulship was C. Sentius Saturninus, in B. c. 19.
suffering from a brutal husband and a rival
favourite, and a catastrophe in the wretched fate of
Octavia. The study of the tragedies of Seneca
has had some influence on the French drama. i
The editio princeps of Seneca is that of Naples, (; \
1475, folio. The subsequent editions of the whole
works of Seneca and of particular treatises are I
numerous. The edition of J. F. Gronovius, Leiden,
1649-1658, is in 4 vols. 12mo.: that of Ruhkopf,
Leipzig, 1797-1811, 5 vols. 8vo.; Bipont edition,
Strassburg, 1809, 5 vols. 8ro. There are three COIN OF THEI SENTIA GENS.r