Note 719 — Chapter IV · SENECAN SATIRE AND POETRY: DRAMA OF THE AGE

Birt (Neue Jahrb. f. d. klass. Altert., 1911). Jonas, De ordine librorum Sen., 1870, aimed at a closer determination of dates, e.g. Med. and Tro. soon after Seneca’s return from exile in 49, Herc. Fur. after 57, Oed. after the Parthian war of 58, Thyest. after Seneca’s retirement in 62. Weinreich (Apoc., Einführung, etc., 1923, p. 65), founding on Münscher’s metrical analyses, remarks with airy confidence, “Daran denkt man heute nicht mehr dass die Tragödien, ganz oder zum Teil, in der Jugendheit oder während des Exils entstanden seien.” Weinreich maintains that Seneca wrote Thyest., Herc. Fur. and Tro. before he composed the anapaests of the Apoc. in 54. He gives Münscher’s dates for the remaining plays: Phaed. and Med., 54 or 55; Agam., a year or two later; Oed., 57; Herc. Oet. and Phoen., 64 or 65.