engaged with moral themes. It covers the field known as meteorology in antiquity, which
included the study of earthquakes, volcanoes, and comets as well as winds and weather
phenomena. Seneca also shows an interest in rivers, with a long discussion of the origins of
rivers generally, and an entire book dedicated to the Nile. The Q.Nat. shows P’
influence, mentioned repeatedly by name, but it is overall a much more original work than
scholars usually deem it (Seneca’s originality in ethics and literature has similarly been
positively re-assessed in recent years). The physics underlying the Q.Nat. often deploys a
theory that the earth is permeated by subterranean caverns through which winds, water,
and fire can move and from which they can emerge in various ways, causing storms, earth-
quakes, and volcanic eruptions. In the Q.Nat., Seneca generally introduces a topic, reviews
various competing theories about it, and then adjudicates between different theories or
offers novel solutions. But moral questions are never very far from Seneca’s mind, and his
introduction of ethical themes in the middle of an otherwise apparently straightforward text
on physics can strike the modern reader as disconcerting or off topic. Recent work (Inwood
2005) has tried to see the Q.Nat. as part of Seneca’s larger intellectual project, and this has
the effect of bringing ethics and physics into a clearer relation to each other. This approach
also avoids anachronistically exporting modern disciplinary boundaries and expectations
onto Seneca’s work.
Ed.: conveniently available in Loeb editions.
M. Griffin, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (1976); B. Inwood, Reading Seneca (2005).
Daryn Lehoux
A ⇒ A A
“Anonymous”
Most anonymi are filed within under some more specific name, in order to emphasize their
specific nature (most pseudonymous works and those preserved on P could well be
labeled “anonymous”). See also the parts of the A C and the H-
C. Some anonymous works have no standard label as “Anonymous”:
those 47 we cross-reference here first; then seven cited elsewhere as “Anonymous X.”
⇒ A P
⇒ “A D”
⇒ A 379
⇒ “B”
⇒ B A
⇒ B Z
⇒ C A
⇒ C P M
“ANONYMOUS”