Vulgum autem tam chlamydatos quam coronatos uoco (Sénèque, Vit. 2.2) : une lecture philologique et philosophique d’une définition du uulgus

At the beginning of De vita beata, Seneca defines the vulgus in an original way: aristocrats are included in his definition of the notion. We will study this definition from three different perspectives. Firstly, this paper looks into the manuscript transmission of this passage and outlines the history of the discussions about this definition, whose cryptic nature has generated a lot of commentary since the Renaissance period. Secondly, it aims at explaining the meaning of this passage by giving new arguments to support the view that the participles chlamydati and coronati refer to the aristocrats, who are usually excluded from the vulgus. Thirdly, it situates this definition in Stoicism and Seneca’s works.