The collection of the elder Seneca assembles quotations from scores of declaimers over a period
spanning sixty years from the Augustan Age through the early decades of the empire. A view is
offered onto a literary scene for this critical period of Roman letters that is numerously
populated highly interactive and less dominated by just a few canonical authors. Despite this
potential modern readings have often lumped declaimers together en masse and organizational
principles basic to Seneca's collection remain overlooked. This volume attempts to 'hear' the
individual speech of declaimers by focusing on two speakers-Arellius Fuscus rhetor to Ovid
and Papirius Fabianus teacher of the younger Seneca. A key organizing principle informing
both the collection and the practice of declamation was the 'shared locus'-a short passage
defined by verbal and argumentative ingredients that gained currency among declaimers. Study
of the operation of the shared locus carries several advantages: (1) we appreciate distinctions
between declaimers (2) we recognize shared passages as a medium of communication and (3) the
shared locus emerges as a community resource explaining deep-seated connections between
declamation and literary works.
