A documentary about the relationship between Seneca and Nero

A few years ago PBS did a series in four episodes called "The Roman Empire in the First Century"

Episode 3 is about Nero's reign but they tell the story by focusing on the relationship between Seneca and Nero. They do a fairly decent job and mostly present Seneca as a Stoic who tries to play the part assigned to him by fate as well as possible. The text is very pompous, though (to say nothing about the music!). Sigourney Weaver is narrating and sounds like she's quite uncomfortable about the whole thing. Every time a person is mentioned or quoted they show a bust of that person - if one is available - and every single time Seneca is mentioned, they show the "pseudo-Seneca" bust from Herculaneum even though everyone now agree that it is not a representation of Seneca.

All in all a pretty strange experience. It's incredibly rare that anyone mentions Seneca in anything about Rome produced for television so they deserve lots of credit for that - and also for trying to give a fair and informative presentation of Seneca. They also do a good job of quoting the sources and interviewing scholars with a story to tell. Sadly, though, the low production values drag the whole thing down. Still - worth a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRp8HPxGN7Y

http://www.pbs.org/empires/romans/index.html

Double herm with portraits of Seneca and Socrates. Berlin, Pergamon Museum.

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