Sen. Dial. 11.9.4-8. Marcello, il felix exul di Seneca e la reprehensio Ciceronis nella prima età imperiale

Seneca’s depiction of Marcellus as the paradigm of virtuous exile in the Consolation to his mother Helvia (Dial. 11.9.4-8) is intended to be a celebration of the Stoic ideal of political freedom, embodied in the legendary figure of Cato of Utica, the heroic opponent to tyrannical power. Strikingly enough, in this passage the philosopher says nothing of Cicero’s role in Marcellus’ recall from exile. This paper re-examines the passage of the Consolation and interprets it as a significant testimony to the anti-Ciceronian tradition in the early imperial age. Specifically, it elaborates on Cicero’s self-portrait as an ‘unwise man’, distressed by the dramatic and inhuman experience of exile, and considers Cicero’s refusal of philosophical consolation as a major step forward in the representation of the republican orator as the antithesis to sapientia, an image reiterated and transmitted by the rhetorical-historical tradition and Seneca’s philosophical thought. It also suggests that, in deliberately leaving out Cicero’s name in the so-called ‘Marcellus-issue’, Seneca takes a polemical stance over the ineffectual power of Ciceronian non-Stoic oratory.