absurdities. On the other hand, metre and diction closely recall the
dramas accepted as genuine. It is hard to give any certain answer to
such a complicated problem, but it is noteworthy that all the worst
defects in this play (which among its other peculiarities possesses
abnormal length) occur after l. 705, while the earlier scenes depicting
the jealousy of Deianira show the Senecan dramatic style almost at its
best. Even in the later portion of the play there is much that may be by
the hand of Seneca. It is impossible to brand the drama as wholly
spurious. The opening lines (1-232) may not belong to the play, but may
form an entirely separate scene dealing with the capture of Oechalia:
there is no reason to suppose that they are not by Seneca, and the same
statement applies to the great bulk of ll. 233-705. The remainder has in
all probability suffered largely from interpolation, but its general
resemblance to Seneca in style and diction is too strongly marked to
permit us to reject it _en bloc_. The problem is too obscure to repay
detailed discussion.[171] The most probable solution of the question
would seem to be that the work was left in an unfinished condition with
inconsistencies, self-plagiarisms, repetitions, and absurdities which
revision would have removed; this unfinished drama was then worked over
and corrected by a stupid, but careful student of Seneca.

There is such a complete absence of evidence as to the period of
Seneca's life during which these dramas were composed, that much
ingenuity has been wasted in attempts to solve the problem. The view
most widely held--why it should be held is a mystery--is that they were
composed during Seneca's exile in Corsica (41-9 A.D.).[172] Others,
again, hold that they were written for the delectation of the young
Nero, who had early betrayed a taste for the stage. This view has
nothing to support it save the accusation mentioned by Tacitus,[173] to
the effect that the patronage and approval of Nero led Seneca to write