SENECA’S NATURAL QUESTIONS AND JOACHIM DU BELLAY’S RUINS OF ROME: ECHOES FROM SENECA’S STOICISM IN THE FRENCH COLLECTION OF POEMS

Abstract

The aim of this research paper is to explore the influence of Seneca’s stoicism from his Natural Questions on Joachim du Bellay’s collection of poems Ruins of Rome (Les Antiquités de Rome). Even though Seneca’s most widely read Stoic text is Letters to Lucilius, in this paper the attention is on his other work Natural Questions. In this long philosophical treatise, he discusses the origin of the meteorological phenomena while also embodying views of Stoic physics. The stoic concept of determinism, the interchangeability of the matter, the cause and effect chain, the existence of the supreme deity governing the world are some of the points also found in the chosen poetic work from the French poet Joachim du Bellay. As one of the most important figures in the French poetry of the 16^th century and the author of the manifesto of the literary group Pléiade, Joachim du Bellay’s contribution to French poetry must not be forgotten – he has introduced new literary forms into French language such as odes, love sonnets and even satiric sonnets. For this paper, the focus is on his collection of 32 sonnets named Ruins of Rome, which illustrates the meditation on the city’s ruin and, in general, the meditation on the human condition. Although the critics have already acknowledged the significant influence of Latin and Greek poets in this Du Bellay’s poetic work, especially the influence of Stoics such as Cicero, Lucan, Virgil and even Seneca, the relation between this specific Seneca’s work and Du Bellay’s Ruins of Rome has not yet been studied in detail. The goal is to show how the French poet has incorporated Seneca’s stoicism as presented in Natural Questions, what is similar in expression or in thought, or what is adapted in the collection of poems The Ruins of Rome. The findings of this paper will unravel that Du Bellay’s work is full of philosophical evocations of Seneca’s Natural Questions and that the engagement with Seneca’s stoicism leads to understanding of the vanished glories of one the most powerful empires, Roman Empire. Through the illustration of Roman Empire and its inevitable decay Du Bellay mirrors the human destiny. Punished by the fate, the city fell into its abyss as a consequence of its hubris, which should serve as a warning of a perilous flaw that excessive pride is.