Commentary Inf IV 140-141 |
As for Seneca, as opposed to the widespread notion found in Toynbee (Seneca) and many others that Dante, like others in his time, believed that Seneca the moralist and Seneca the tragedian were two different persons, Mazzoni has argued (Mazz.1965.1, pp. 197-200), utilizing the work on the subject by Billanovich, that this confusion was only operative after Boccaccio's erroneous suppositions at mid-century (which eventually misled Petrarch into making the same mistake). For a fuller presentation of Toynbee's views, see his 'Dante and "Seneca morale"' (Toyn.1902.1), pp. 150-56.