Officium erat imperare, non regnum: riflessioni su Seneca politico

Abstract

We propose a path through the vast realm of Senecan Politics, from a theoretical and not historical or biographical approach. Starting from an overview of main methodological issues as well as the critical debates, several topics linking Senecan political thought to both Stoic doctrine and the core of Senecan ethics (law, cosmopolitism, theory of action and rules, theory of kingship, budding utopian thinking) have been selected and herein discussed. In so doing, we attempt to define a “space of Politics” considered as a science. Lastly, we take a glance at the Aesthetics of power with special interest in the relationship between tragedies and philosophical works.