Memoria e oblio in Seneca Padre

Seneca the Elder is the author of a collection of rhetorical extracts aimed topreserve from oblivion the traces of the most outstanding declaimers of histime. Although he claims to rely exclusively on his memories in composinghis collection, evidence in his text leads to assume that Seneca has actuallymade use of several categories of written sources. This essay focus on the com-bination of memories and written sources on which Seneca probably groundedhis collection, and eventually places this work in a tradition headed by Cicero’srhetorical dialogues.