Communicating the Gift. A Pragmatic Approach to Seneca’s De beneficiis

Learning the correct modalities of communication between donor and receiver is a central aspect of Seneca’s pedagogical reflections in the De beneficiis. For this reason, approaches such as the one borrowed from pragmatics of communication can offer valid conceptual tools for the analysis of the dynamics of interaction that are explored in the Senecan treatise. More specifically, the present contribution deals with some aspects of non-verbal communication in the De beneficiis, with a brief and systematic investigation on the communicative signals that are inherent to the manipulation of time in the interaction between donor and receiver.