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This dissertation attempts to illuminate the enigma of the Seneca whom we see in Tacitus, "Seneca politicus", and his capacity at the Palace. The project thus evaluates the three most accessible sources for both how Nero would have viewed Seneca, and how Seneca presented himself to Nero—Nero’s childhood and education, 'Apocolocyntosis', and 'De clementia'. Assessment of these sources through Nobel Laureate Michael Spence's game-theoretical model of signaling and signal games forms a model of their relationship, which itself becomes the thesis of the dissertation. The thesis contends that, post accession, Seneca engaged Nero in a didactic relationship focusing on philosophy—or, rather, on his own insights into ethical decision-making and morality in interpersonal dealings. But the details surrounding this deduction nuance its interpretation. His presentation of philosophy to Nero smacks of practicality. It is opportunistic, utilizing the philosophically propaedeutic nature of Nero’s education; and his own contribution to the imperial intellect, "clementia", is not convincingly Stoic. Seneca wished to be trusted for his ability to offer advice on interpersonal dealings, and to form acute judgments about other people and their actions.

A comparison between The Teaching for Merikare and Niccolò Machiavelli`s Il Principe produces some astonishing results. While Machiavelli`s treatise is generally thought to be representative of the dawn of modern Western political realism, its essential properties are already present in Merikare. This includes the firm belief in strong authority, the fallibility of man, the need to appease the masses, and, if necessary, the demand to repress any developing threat to the power of the elite. In terms of the history of political thought Merikare is placed between the works of the moral realism of Greek philosophers like Plato and the political realism of Thucydides and Machiavelli. With the latter being heavily influenced by ancient authors questions regarding the genesis of Greek political thought can be asked. It may well be that Greek political thought was, at least indirectly, influenced by Egyptian political thought.

For several centuries, there has been a vivid discussion on the purpose of Seneca’s tragedies. Throughout the 20th century, it has been questioned multiple times why Seneca philosophus would engage in writing drama as well. While contributions on the intertextual relationship between his philosophical treatises, mainly the Letters to Lucilius, and his tragedies, which have shown points of intersections in terms of Stoic dogmas, are widely accepted, the question of addressee has been controversial disputed. In this article (forthcoming in Mnemosyne) I analyse the relationship between the prose treatise De clementia and the tragedy Thyestes, highlighting the similarities in content and finally proposing an interpreta¬tion of the latter as “Mirror” for the Emperor Nero. In due course, I shall point out that the two oeuvres are complementary and follow the same purpose: Addressed at Nero, they aim at teaching him Stoic doctrines about the ideal emperor’s behaviour.

This form of political writing often called 'advice literature', shared by Christian and Muslim cultures alike, 'mirrors for princes' attempted to elevate statecraft ("dawla") to the same level as faith/religion ("din") during the Middle Ages. These guides for future rulers – Machiavelli’s The Prince being a widely known example – addressed the delicate balance between seclusion and society, spirit and state, echoes of which we continue to find in the US, Europe, and the Middle East several centuries later. Today we suffer from the very opposite: there is no shortage of political commentary, but a notable lack of intelligent, eloquent discourse on the role of faith and the immaterial as a valuable agent in society or public life.

This publication brings together the writing of preeminent scholars and commentators using the genre of medieval advice literature as a starting point to discuss fate and fortune versus governance, advice for female nobility, and an Indian television drama as a form of translation of statecraft. The illustrated essays are accompanied by an interview with Slavs and Tatars.

Mirrors for Princes is edited by Anthony Downey, Editor-in-Chief of Ibraaz, and is published with NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery

This conference talk (given in German) has tracked the origins - historical and philological - of Joachim Camerarius' hitherto neglected "Libellus gnomologicus". Published without a printed date, its date (May 1569) can be concluded from secondary sources: letters from Camerarius himself, and from Andreas Dudith(ius) and a handwritten note from Johannes Sambucus on a Vienna manuscript. Some further topics have been dealt with in this talk, too (i.a. Agapetus, Georg Mehl von Strehlitz, Camerarius' visit to Vienna in autumn of 1568 etc.).
A printed version is planned to appear in the series "NeoLatina", published by Narr Verlag (Tübingen), prospectively in late 2016.

In questo articolo, dopo una breve presentazione della produzione latina di Da Ponte (cap. 2.), ci soffermiamo sul carme più lungo e concettualmente significativo, Il monarca non è più felice del suddito, di cui diamo testo critico e prima traduzione italiana in versi (cap. 3.) e un esteso commento (capp. 4. e 5.).