Seneca and the Christian Church
Although currently doubted, it was thought that Seneca was in correspondence with St. Paul. Because of this correspondence, Seneca was acceptable to the leaders of the Christian Church. Dante placed him in Limbo in his Divine Comedy.
During the Middle Ages much of the writing of Classical Antiquity was lost, but because of the correspondence with St. Paul, Seneca was considered important enough that monks preserved and copied his material.
Seneca and the Renaissance
Having survived the Middle Ages, a period that saw the loss of many classical writings, Seneca continued to fare well in the Renaissance. As Brian Arkins writes, in the article mentioned at the beginning of this article, on p.1:"For the dramatists of the Renaissance in France, in Italy, and in England, Classical tragedy means the ten Latin plays of Seneca, not Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides...."
Not only was Seneca suited to Shakespeare and other Renaissance writers, but he fits out mindset today. Arkins' article predates 9/11, but that only means another incident can be added to the list of horrors:
"[T]he appeal of Seneca's plays for the Elizabethan age and for the modern age is not far to seek: Seneca studies evil with great diligence and, in particular, evil in the prince, and both those ages are very well versed in evil.... In Seneca and in Shakespeare, we encounter first a Cloud of Evil, then the defeat of Reason by Evil, and, finally, the triumph of Evil.
All this is caviar to the age of Dachau and Auschwitz, of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, of Kampuchea, Northern Ireland, Bosnia. Horror does not turn us off, as it turned off the Victorians, who could not handle Seneca. Nor did horror turn off the Elizabethans...."
