work may have been published at the Saturnalia, and written
shortly before, as Narcissus is represented as having just arrived in
Orcus. The personal animosity of Seneca against Caligula and Claudius
is everywhere apparent.

5. _Naturales Quaestiones_ in seven Books, addressed to Lucilius. Book
ii. was written after A.D. 57, as in ii. 9, 2 an amphitheatre is
mentioned which was built by Nero in that year. The work was finished
before the end of A.D. 64, for in Book vii. there is no mention among
other prodigies of the comet which appeared again at the end of that
year.

6. _Epistulae morales ad Lucilium_. These were addressed to Lucilius
Iunior, the author of 'Aetna' (see p. 277). There are extant one
hundred and twenty four letters, in twenty Books, but some Books have
been lost, as Gell. xii. 2, 3 quotes from Book xxii. Books i.-iii.
were probably published by Seneca, the rest after his death, generally
in chronological order.

The following poetical works are extant:

1. _Epigrams._--Nine on his exile are given in the editions; probably
only Nos. 1, 2, and 7 are genuine.

2. _Tragedies._--Some of these may have been composed during Seneca's
exile in Corsica. See _ad Helv._ 20 (quoted p. 243). The metrical
treatment is strict, especially in the senarii. Anapaestic, glyconic,
sapphic lines, etc., are used in the choral odes. There are only three
actors, except in the spurious _Octavia_. The plays are: (1) _Hercules
Furens_ and (2) _Troades_ or _Hecuba_, founded on Euripides. (3)
_Phoenissae_ or _Thebais_. The two parts do not correspond. In ll.
1-362, Oedipus and Antigone are on their way to Cithaeron; from l. 363
to the end we find Iocasta and Antigone in Thebes while it is besieged
by the Seven. (4) _Medea_, founded on Euripides. Ovid has also been
imitated; so ll. 56 _sqq._ from Ovid, _Heroides_, 12, 137. (5)
_Phaedra_ or _Hippolytus_. (6) _Oedipus_, after Sophocles. (7)
_Agamemnon_, after Aeschylus. (8) _Thyestes_. (9) _Hercules Oetaeus_,
of which the second part, at least, is spurious. (10) _Octavia_, a
praetexta, describing the death of Octavia, Nero's wife (A.D. 62).
Seneca himself appears in it. It cannot be by Seneca, as Nero's
downfall (A.D. 68) is mentioned in ll. 628-36.

The following works are lost or exist only in fragments:

i. Poems of a light nature (Pliny, _Ep._ v. 3). 2. _De motu terrarum_,
afterwards incorporated in _N.Q._ vi. (see _N.Q._ vi. 4, 2). 3. _De
lapidum natura_. 4. _De piscium n