La colère et la peur dans le De clementia de Sénèque

Abstract

Although the anger of the princeps and the metus which it is supposed to inspire in the populus are generally blamed in the De clementia, it seems sometimes that a regulated anger and a timor temperatus are well-considered, which appears to be contrary to Stoic doctrine. This fact might be due to three features of the book: the importance of modus; Nero’s personality – whom the De clementia was directed to (this is probably the most important factor); the progressive clarification of the theory of clementia.