La concessione dell'otium. Nerone e la lettera 73 di Seneca

In this paper, I offer a reading of Seneca’s letter 73, in light of Seneca’s biography, and of the semantic grid of the text. The letter expresses gratefulness towards the emperor for the gift of retirement, but this contrasts with Tacitus’ account of Seneca’s own request, which has been denied by Nero (ann. 14.52-54). The text is built on two key concepts: that of otium, which is gradually replaced by peace, and that of gratefulness. Differently from retirement, which is a personal choice, peace is a general condition of which everyone benefit, so, even if it is factually granted by the emperor, it does not imply gratefulness, as shown by a comparison with some passages from De beneficiis. In that same work, Seneca affirms that you are not due to be grateful to an emperor if he turns to be a tyrant: this is exactly the case of Nero. Seneca’s flattery towards the prince in letter 73 is a fake: his actual benefactor is not Nero, but the philosopher Sextius, quoted in the final section.

L'articolo presenta una lettura della lettera 73, celebre per il ringraziamento di Seneca a Nerone per la concessione dell'otium. Una lettura in parallelo con il De beneficiis mostra come Seneca non si ritenga in obbligo di gratitudine, dal momento che la pace è un bene comune e non un beneficio individuale. Il suo vero benefattore non è l'imperatore ma il filosofo Sestio.