Seneca, Baia e l’imperatore. Per una rilettura dell’epistola 51

In epistle 51 Seneca theorizes the importance of the surrounding environment for the occurrence of vices and virtues. In order to show to Lucilius what places the sapiens has to avoid, he describes Baiae’s lasciviousness, emblem of the life luxuriosa. Nevertheless, the philosopher remains silent not only about a sensational event as the murder of Agrippina, which occurred in that region few years before and in which the role played by himself was important but also about the presence of the imperial villas on the Phlegraean coast. This silence and the choice of the city in Campania as an excellent example of vice, despite the strong associations, seem intentional. Through the analysis of literary, epigraphic and archaeological sources, the purpose of this study is a new analysis of Seneca’s complaint against Baiae. It seems there are various allusions and hidden moral and political attacks addressed to the emperors, in particular to Nero, who in the philosopher’s outlook was supposed to be led by him and – just in Baiae – had begun to escape his control.