PREFACE.

transmitted to us from antiquity. Indeed, I do not know whether Seneca was the first and only author in all of antiquity to write such epistles. For although I know that Plato, Epicurus, and others composed philosophical letters, it is clear that they did not act with the same intention as Seneca. If this observation brings no small pleasure to the reader, on the other hand, there are not lacking factors that instill even somewhat greater confidence in the same reader, when he understands that an old man—and one situated in the highest station, equipped with much experience of affairs and knowledge of men—composed these epistles with the express purpose that they might benefit posterity¹.

Therefore, if someone thinks that a certain definition of the time in which they were written can be easily concluded from this, I do not know whether he would judge correctly, although Lipsius, in his preface to these Epistles, added his own support to this opinion, affirming that they were all composed within two years, under the Consuls Memmius Regulus and Virginius Rufus, and likewise Lecanius and Licinius, in the year of the City 816 and 817—i.e., not long before Seneca's death, which occurred in the year of the City 818. However, a single, sufficiently clear limitation of time occurs, which one may trust and use to settle this dispute. In Ep. XCI, 4, Seneca speaks of the fire by which the colony of Lugdunum was destroyed:

To this colony, he adds, it is the hundredth year from its origin. Founded by Plancus, it has grown strong through the convenience of its location.

Now, since it is certain that Lugdunum in Celtic (or Lugdunensian) Gaul was founded by Lepidus and L. Plancus in the year of the City 711, so that the Viennenses, driven from their homes by the Allobroges, might have a place to live—as noted by Dion Cassius XLVI, 50—I think there is no room for doubt that these epistles were written six or seven years before Seneca's death. I gladly omit the other indicators of time, as they are too slight to be of use².

This exchange of letters, therefore, if indeed it is true, occurred—

¹ That he was an old man, he says himself. Cf. Epp. XII, 1; XXVI, 1; XXXIV, 1; etc.
² For instance, since he mentions winter in Ep. XXIII, the beginning of spring in Ep. LXVII, June 14th in Ep. LXXXVI, 14, and a long interval in Ep. LXX after which he saw the Pompeii, which he announces in Ep. XLIX as having been seen by him—nothing certain can be derived from these to a clear conclusion.