Arnold, Roman Stoicism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1911), esp. pp. 111–12.
“When I used to hear Attalus denouncing sin”: Seneca, Epistulae Morales, CVIII, 13–15.
“My God, what strength and spirit” and “Sextius had this habit”: Seneca, Dialogi, V, De Ira, III, xxxvi, 1–2.
“the man communicated a disposition”: Seneca, Epistuale Morales, C, 3.
a philosopher in the “true and ancient” sense: Seneca, Dialogi, X, De Brevitate Vitae, x, 1.
“Philosophy is both contemplative and active”: Seneca, Epistuale Morales, XCV, 10, 1; cf. Grimal, Sénèque, p. 12: “By combining the life of a Roman aristocrat with the inner odyssey of the heart, Seneca was not disloyal to philosophy, and certainly not to the tradition of Roman philosophy.”
After hearing an especially eloquent speech: See Dio Cassius, Annals of Rome, LIX, 19; and Suetonius, Gaius, 53.
“His body was ugly”: Giannozzo Manetti, Vita Senecae, 28. For an English translation of this Vita, see Manetti, Biographical Writings, trans. and ed. Stefano U. Baldassarri and Rolf Bagemihl (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 234–87.
it “was but a moment ago”: Seneca, Epistulae Morales, XLIX, 2.
Julia Lavilla was rumored to have slept: Dio Cassius, Annals of Rome, LX, 8; and Suetonius, Gaius, 24.
a thinly veiled plea for a pardon: See Grimal, Sénèque, pp. 97–98.
In his Annals, Tacitus gives three reasons: Tacitus, Annals, 12.8.2.
“hid the works of the early rhetoricians”: Suetonius, Nero, 52.
modern accounts of his philosophy: See, e.g., Griffin, Seneca, pp. 24–25n.
a chaotic world of infinite cruelty: See R. J. Tarrant, “Greek and Roman in Seneca’s Tragedies,” Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 97 (1995): 215–30; cf. William M. Calder III, “Seneca: Tragedian of Imperial Rome,” Classical Journal 72, no. 1 (1976): 3.
The young Nero was an aspiring singer: Suetonius, Nero, 11.
“Finally, Rome had a thinker”: Paul Veyne, Seneca: The Life of a Stoic, trans. David Sullivan (New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 9.
an officially appointed amicus principis: For the institution of the amicus principis, see J. A. Crook, Consilium Principis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1955), pp. 21–30.
“more often experienced free speaking”: Tacitus, Annals, 15, 61, 1.
Nero impassively witnessed: Ibid., 13, 16, 3.
“to begin a reign with the murder of a potential rival”: Veyne, Seneca, p. 19.
And a few months later: Griffin and Grimal both argue independently, and convincingly, that De Clementia must have been written after the murder of Britannicus.
“testify to the honorableness”: Tacitus, Annals, 13, 11, 2.
“mirrors were invented”: Seneca, Naturales Quaestiones, I, 17, 4.
“chosen to serve on earth as vicar of the gods”: Seneca, De Clementia, I, 1, 1–4.
“It is the rarest praise”: Ibid., 1, 5.
“In a position of unlimited power”: Ibid., 11, 2.
“the general trend toward slaughter”: Tacitus, Annals, 13, 2, 1.
“five good years” of Nero: The attribution to Trajan of Nero’s “quinquennio” appears in two fourth-century works, Sextus Aurelius Victor’s Liber de Caesaribus (5, 1–4) and Epitome de Caesaribus (5, 1–5).
“For while denouncing tyranny”: Dio Cassius, Roman History, 61, 10.
In response to Sullius’s attack: Grimal and Griffin (more guardedly) agree that the essay is probably a response, in part, to Sullius.
“increasing his mighty wealth”: Tacitus, Annals, 14, 52.
amassing one of the greatest fortunes of his age: Pliny, Natural History, 14, 50–52; cf. Griffin, Seneca, pp. 287–89.
“I am not wise”: Seneca, De Vita Beata, 17, 3.
“is not said of myself”: Ibid., 17, 4.
“taunt Plato”: Ibid., 27, 5.
the author, “who, looking from a height”: Ibid., 28, 1.
“in the middle of the day”: Tacitus, Annals, 14, 2, 1.
“sought from a female some defense”: Ibid., 14, 2, 1.
“to kill her”: Ibid., 14, 3, 1.
There was a long silence: Ibid., 14, 7, 3.
“Who could be found so dull”: Ibid., 14, 11, 2.
a parody of the moral principles: See Griffin, Seneca, p. 171.
contend with mounting complaints: See Tacitus, Annals, 14, 52, 2–4.
“You have surrounded me with immeasurable favor”: Ibid., 14, 53, 5; cf. Veyne, Seneca, p. 12, on wealth as a “kind of duty.”
“Every surplus creates resentment”: Tacitus, Annals, 14, 54, 1, 2–3.
“More has been held by men who are in no way equal”: Ibid., 14, 55, 4–5.
“It will be neither your moderation”: Ibid., 14, 56, 2.
“pleaded for retirement”: Ibid., 15, 45, 3.
accept Seneca’s offer of money: Dio Cassius, Roman History, 62, 25, 3.
a kind of inner exile: See Veyne, Seneca, p. 25.
Younger than Seneca by several years: See Griffin, Seneca, p. 91.
represented his last will and philosophical testament: See Seneca, Epistulae Morales, XXI, 5.
The remainder of the letters: See the useful summary in Griffin, Seneca, pp. 347–49.
The moral progress ascribed to Lucilius: Ibid., p. 417, expressing the conviction that the letters are fictional—a view contested by Grimal, but otherwise now widely accepted.
“I am ashamed of