Dialogues · Chapter
Endnotes explained
This chapter contains the endnotes for the volume, providing references, textual clarifications, and contextual annotations for the preceding essays.
What happens
This chapter contains the endnotes for the volume, providing references, textual clarifications, and contextual annotations for the preceding essays. The notes cite classical sources (e.g., Virgil, Ovid, Livy, Juvenal), historical figures (e.g., Caligula, Xerxes, Scipio, Augustus), and modern editors (e.g., Lipsius, Gertz, Koch, Mayor, La Grange). They also include textual conjectures, explanations of Roman customs (e.g., the toga, the pons sublicius, the sistrum), and cross-references to other works by Seneca and classical authors.
Themes in this chapter
Death and Consolation
Notes reference the deaths of Paullus Aemilius's sons and the epitaph on Phaeton, touching on themes of mortality and consolation.
Clemency and Justice
The note on Augustus and Cinna's conspiracy, and the discussion of the magistrate's dress when condemning a citizen, relate to clemency and the administration of justice.
Wealth and True Wealth
The note on Caligula's bridge and the reference to 'elegantiae regum curaeque egregium opus' (Livy on the Alexandrian library) touch on the display of wealth.
Characters to notice
- Seneca
Author of the works annotated; referenced throughout the endnotes as 'Seneca' or 'L. Annaeus Seneca'.
- Augustus Caesar
Mentioned in notes on Cinna's conspiracy and the title 'Father of his country'; also referenced in note on toga-wearing.
- Caligula
Referenced in notes on the bridge at Baiae and as 'Gaius Caesar' in the context of executioner's hook.
- Xerxes
Mentioned in a note as the Persian king.
- Scipio Aemilianus
Referenced in a note as 'Scipio'.
- Lucius Cinna
Mentioned in note on conspiracy against Augustus, with discussion of his age and identity.
- Paulus Aemilius
Referenced in note on his sons' deaths before and after his triumph.
- Virgil
Quoted in notes (Aeneid IX, 612; I, 282; III, 418).
Key passages
“Such words I find. But these things rather ought Be done, then said; yet so far hath the thought Of that wish'd time prevail'd, that though the glad Fruition of the thing be not yet had, Yet I,”
These words I find, but such things should be done rather than said; yet the thought of that desired time has so prevailed that, though I have not yet attained the joyful enjoyment of it, I still...
Paraphrase of a poetic translation of Seneca's letter to the Senate, as cited in the endnotes.
“O God! what are we?—Lords of nature?—Why, a tile drops from a housetop, which an elephant would not feel more than a sheet of pasteboard, and there lies his lordship.”
Oh God, what are we? Masters of nature? A tile falls from a roof, which an elephant would feel no more than a piece of cardboard, and there lies the master.
Paraphrase of a passage from Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott, quoted in the endnotes to illustrate the fragility of life.