Perhaps the most apt judgment on Seneca’s career can be taken from something Quintilian said in his Institutio Oratoria. On its surface the remark applies to Seneca’s literary style, but it seems to reach beyond that and into the realms of morality, politics, and character—the arenas in which Seneca’s strange drama played out. “There is much we should approve in him, much that we should even admire,” Quintilian wrote. Then he urged Seneca’s readers to be selective in winnowing out good prose from bad, saying: “Only take care in making your choice.” Finally he added, speaking this time of
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