Abstract

In his 21 st Letter to Lucilius, Seneca tries to convince his student to retreat from public life by granting him the renown which Lucilius strives to achieve through political engagement in the field of philosophy instead: Three examples - Epicurus, Cicero and Vergil - illustrate that literary expressions of friendship, too, lead to lasting fame. Through this device, Seneca not only fashions himself as an author who has the literary power to exempt himself and his friend from oblivion; in citing Vergil’s famous fortunati ambo, he also uses the background of the Nisus-and-Euralyus-episode to provoke intertextual tensions and highlight the urgency of his call to retreat from politics.