Senecan Drama and the Age of Nero

This paper argues for a more complex contextualization of Senecan drama in the art and culture of the Neronian age than it has previously received. The tendency to read the tragedies as tragédies à clef is here criticized. Instead, more attention should be payed to other less analyzed features.For one, this paper emphasizes the importance of the tragedies’ continuing themes as echoed in the prose works, such as the relationship between monarchy and tyrannical power, the role of fate in the kingdom, and the role of the advisor figure. These themes are parallel across the poetry and the prose in their relentless movement from a more positive to a more negative view of power. The paper also examines Senecan drama within a number of possible interpretive contexts related directly to their cultural milieu: as Augustanism “refigured” in order to reverse the optimistic stance of that earlier literature and represent the emperor as a sort of mad god; as a parallel to Fourth-style wall painting, in which domestic scenes are featured publicly and mythological innovation is striking; and as a re flection, metrically, of the heightened interest in music and pantomime under Nero. Examinations in this style help us fully understand the multidimensional nature of the theatricality marking the Neronian age.