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Abstract

“Symbolic mourning” describes the phenomenon of appearing in public in mourning without any prior fatality. These scenes result from conflicts between different members of the society, mainly within the nobility. The protagonists aim at the compassion of the bystanders and want to create an atmosphere of equality with the people, at least for the moment. At the same time, these mourning scenes exert pressure on their peers, because the support of the people could help overthrow public order. Sen. contr. 10.1.1 refers implicitly to that practice when he lets a poor boy ask in the words of Julius Bassus: “When are we not in mourning in the eyes of these rich people?” The contribution shows the traditions Seneca is relating to - legal texts and Roman exempla - and how these sources interacted in the literary construction of mourning scenes.

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