Introduction
De providentia (DP), dedicated to Gaius Lucilius Iunior, is a short philosophical treatise that reached us as the first work in the collection of the nine Dialogi (see Waltz 1927, Basore 1928, Reynolds 1977, Fink 1992), i.e. texts on various topics, of various genres and of various – and often highly debated – chronology. The dialogical nature must in fact be sought in something other than the traditional understanding of the term: DP begins by alluding to the question (quaesisti a me) that Lucilius, the dedicatee, purportedly had asked, and from which the very occasion of the treatise stemmed, i.e. how to reconcile Providence with the sufferings of the just man. Seneca, then, literarily places the topic of DP into a flow of questions and answers between teacher (Seneca)
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Citation: Malaspina, Ermanno. "De providentia". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 June 2014 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35249, accessed 22 November 2024.]
