Abstract
Abstract
This chapter is centered on letter 120 of Seneca’s Epistulae Morales. In this letter, Seneca provides an account of how humans came to grasp the concept of the good. This chapter argues that wonder fulfills a crucial function in our apprehension of the good, even when it distorts objective truths about the phenomenal world. In addition to shedding light upon the nature of the good, wonder in letter 120 forms the basis for a particular model of Roman exemplarity: while many Senecan accounts of virtuous deeds figure exempla as external entities that impress themselves upon passive viewers, letter 120 centers wonderstruck subjects as active creators and circulators of didactically fruitful exempla.
Publisher
Oxford University PressOxford
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