Book x of the letters to Novatus (in decimo epistularum ad Novatum),

while Martial (vii. 45, 3) refers to letters to Caesonius Maximus, of which we know nothing more.

dialogi, i.e. the works called by this name in the Milan MS., not his tragedies, though these were written to be read rather than to be acted. There are twelve of them (v. Teuffel 284 §4–), and each is dedicated to some particular individual. There is besides the De Clementia ad Neronem, and a Dialogus de Superstitione (no longer extant except in the fragment given in Augustine’s C.D. vi. 10) directed against the anthropomorphism of popular superstition.

feruntur: §23.

parum diligens: ‘not very critical.’ He was a student of life rather than a student of thought.

vitiorum insectator: cp. Lactantius, 122 Inst. Div. v. 9 morum vitiorumqne publicorum et descriptor verissimus et accusator acerrimus.

eo for ideo: cp. Hor. Sat. i. 6, 89 eoque non ... Quod non ingenuos habeat ... parentes.

I:130 Velles eum suo ingenio dixisse, alieno iudicio; nam si _ob_liqua contempsisset, si parum _recta_ non concupisset, si non omnia sua amasset, si rerum pondera minutissimis sententiis non fregisset, consensu potius eruditorum quam puerorum amore comprobaretur.

§ 130. iudicio, ‘taste,’ as §127 above: cp. M. Seneca (of Capito) ‘habebat in sua potestate ingenium, in aliena modum.’

obliqua. For this apt conjecture (in place of the traditional _aliqua_), see Crit. Notes.

si parum recta. On the assumption that a word has fallen out of the MSS. after _parum_, _recta_ is preferable to Halm and Meister’s _sana_. For _rectum_ as abstr. cp. ii. 13, 11: xii. 1, 12. See Crit. Notes.

omnia sua amasset, §88 of Ovid, nimium amator ingenii sui. Cp. below 3 §12 utros peccare validius putem, quibus omnia sua placent...

rerum pondera ... fregisset: contrast §123 suffecit ponderi rerum. Seneca ‘weakened the force of his matter by striving after epigrammatic brevity.’

amore, of an ill-considered attachment (§94: 2 §19), whereas _studio_ would have indicated mature taste, vi. 2, 12 amor πάθος, caritas ἦθος.

I:131 Verum sic quoque iam robustis et severiore genere satis firmatis legendus vel ideo quod exercere potest utrimque iudicium. Multa enim, ut dixi, probanda in eo, multa etiam admiranda sunt; eligere modo curae sit, quod utinam ipse fecisset. Digna enim fuit illa natura, quae meliora vellet: quod voluit effecit.

§ 131. sic quoque = καὶ οὕτως.

robustis, opp. to _pueris_: cp. 5 §1 below. Cp. Tac. Dial. 35 ‘controversiae robustioribus adsignantur,’ while ‘suasoriae pueris delegantur.’

firmatis. So occupatos 3 §27: exercitatos 5 §17. Introd. pp. xlviii-ix.

vel ideo quod: §86: 5 §16.

utrimque, i.e. laudantium et vituperantium, ‘for and against him.’ So 5, 20: 6, 7: and cp. 1, 22. Introd. p. lii.

Multa enim ... digna enim, another instance of the want of care that has been already noted, 2 §23.

natura: cp. §86.