Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

Octavia (play)

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Written by
  
Anonymous

Playwright
  
Seneca the Younger

Original language
  
Classical Latin

Setting
  
Roman Empire

Subject
  
Divorce of Nero and Octavia

Genre
  
Fabula praetextata (Tragedy based on Roman subjects)

Similar
  
Seneca the Younger plays, Tragedies, Other plays

Octavia is a Roman tragedy that focuses on three days in the year 62 AD during which Nero divorced and exiled his wife Claudia Octavia and married another (Poppaea Sabina). The play also deals with the irascibility of Nero and his inability to take heed of the philosopher Seneca's advice to rein in his passions.

The play was attributed to Seneca, but modern scholarship generally discredits this. It is presumed to have been written later in the Flavian period during the 1st century, after the deaths of both Nero and Seneca.

Editions

  • Octavia: A Play attributed to Seneca, ed. Rolando Ferri (Cambridge Classical Texts and Commentaries No.41, Cambridge UP, 2003) [1]
  • References

    Octavia (play) Wikipedia