Verse tragedy · late 1st century AD

Octavia

Attributed to Seneca

by Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Translated by Frank Justus Miller (1907)

Rome, AD 62. Nero has resolved to divorce his stepsister and wife Octavia, the daughter of the murdered emperor Claudius, and to marry his mistress Poppaea. Agrippina’s ghost curses the wedding, Seneca pleads in vain for restraint, and the people rise in Octavia’s defence. Nero crushes the rising and has Octavia put aboard a ship bound for exile and death on the island of Pandataria. The only surviving Roman historical drama, it was transmitted among Seneca’s tragedies but is generally held not to be his.

Contents · 6 parts

• Persons of the Play11 lines
• Act Iabout 450 lines
• Act IIabout 270 lines
• Act IIIabout 110 lines
• Act IVabout 150 lines
• Act Vabout 170 lines

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