ABSTRACT
Seneca asserts in Letter 121 (14-16) that we mature by exercising self-care as we pass through successive psychosomatic “constitutions.” These are babyhood (infantia), childhood (pueritia), adolescence (adulescentia), and young adulthood (iuventus).1 Augustine, of course, divides the narrative of his own development into these stages in the Confessions,2 a text wherein he claims familiarity with more than a few works of Seneca (Conf. 5.6.11). This raises the question: Does Augustine use the renowned Stoic theory of “affiliation” (oikeiôsis, conciliatio), upon which Seneca’s account of maturation depends, as a motif in his own philosophical autobiography? If he does, that will update our understanding of the Confessions as a work in the history of philosophy. Traditionally, interpretations of this work have tended to see it as containing exclusively Neoplatonic or uniquely Christian thought.3
