Ricerc@Sapienza

Horace in ep. 1.4 opposes a sad, somehow Stoic Tibullus to himself as a happy, fat Epicurean. Seneca in ep. 60 blames a number of tenets of Epicureanism in its trivial acception (e.g. the love for easy life and good food), quoting a phrase from Sallust, and then in ep. 61 proposes Stoic way of life as the right life. In bothe texts we find the opposition of Epicureanism and Stoicism vehiculated by some similar imiages, those of nurses' wishes for health, wealth and beauty, animals and especially pigs as a symbol of a life devoted to superficial pleasures, otium as something which can be either positive or negative. Thus I maintain that Seneca in ep. 60 is implicitly and polemically alluding to Horace ep. 1.4.