146. The _Apocolocyntosis_--almost undoubtedly by Seneca--hardly falls within the scope of this work. Such intrinsic importance as it possesses is due to the prose portions. In point of form it is an example of the _Menippean Satire_, that strange medley of prose and verse. The verse portions form but a small proportion of the whole and are insipid and lacking in interest. 147. He was forbidden by Agrippina to give definite philosophical instruction. Cp. Suet. _Nero_, 52. 148. Cp. _ad Ner. de Clem._ ii. 2; Henderson, _Life of Nero_, Notes, p. 459. 149. For what may be regarded as an academic _apologia pro vita sua_, cp. _Ep._ 5; 17: 20; _de Ira_, in. 33; _de Const. Sap._ 1-4, 10-13; _de Vit. Beat._ 17-28, &c. 150. Dion. Cass. lxi. 4. 5. 151. Tac. _Ann_. xvi. 28. 152. This is Dion's view, lxi. 10. For an ingenious view of Seneca's character see Ball, _Satire of Sen. on apotheosis of Claudius_, p. 34. 'It may be that Seneca cared less for the realization of high ideals in life than for the formulation of the ideals as such. Sincerity and hypocrisy are terms much less worth controversy in some minds than others.' 153. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 61-4. 154. Quint, x. 1. 125-9. 155. Fronto, p. 155, N. 156. Quint, x. 1. 129. Over and above his writings on moral philosophy we possess seven books _ad Lucilium naturalium quaestionum._ 157. _Patruos duos_ more naturally, however, refers to Gallio and Mela, in which case Marcus is the son of Seneca himself. 158. Cp. _P.L.M._ iv. 15, 8; Plin. _N.H._ xvi. 242. 159. For these cp. _Ep._ xiv. 13; ib. civ. 29. 160. e.g. 7l 'de Atho monte', 57 'de Graeciae ruina', 50 'de bono quietae vitae', 47, 48 'morte omnes aequari', 25 'de spe'. 161. There is, in fact, direct evidence that he wrote such verses. Plin. _Ep._ v. 3. 5. 162. Cp. p. 263. 163. Cp. the not dissimilar situation in Sen. _Oed_. (936), where Oedipus meditates in very similar style, as to how he may expiate his guilt. The couplet _vivere si poteris_, &c., is nothing if not Senecan. 164. Quint, viii. 3. 31 ('memini iuvenis admodum inter Pomponium ac Senecam etiam praefationibus esse tractatum, an "gradus eliminet" in tragoedia dici oportuisset') shows Seneca as critic of dramatic diction; there is no evidence to show what these _praefationes_ were, but they _may_ have been prefaces to tragedies. The _Medea_ (453) is cited by Quintilian ix. 2. 8. For later quotations from the tragedies, cp. Diomedes, _gr. Lat_. i. p. 511, 23; Terentianus Maurus, ibid. vi. p. 404, 2672; Probus, ibid. iv. p. 229, 22, p. 246, 19; Priscian, ibid. ii. p. 253, 7 and 9; Tertullian, _de An_. 42, _de Resurr_. 1; Lactantius, _Schol. Stat. Theb_. iv. 530. 165. Cp. also the iambic translation of Cleanthes, _Ep_. cvii. 11:-- duc, o parens celsique dominator poli, quocunque placuit: nulla parendi mora est. adsum impiger. fac nolle, comitabor gemens malusque patiar, facere quod licuit bono. ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.