A Stylometric Analysis of Seneca’s disputed plays: Authorship Verification of Octavia and Hercules Oetaeus

Description

This project delves into the authorship verification of Lucius Annaeus Seneca Minor's disputed plays, specifically Octavia and Hercules Oetaeus. To address this, we employ computational methods like Principal Component Analysis, Bootstrap Consensus Network, and the Imposters method (o2 verification system) as outlined in:

Koppel, M. and Winter, Y. (2014) ‘Determining if two documents are written by the same author’, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 65(1), pp. 178–187. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.22954 (accessed 31 October 2022).

Throughout the study we use several datasets to test different scenarios. Most of the variations are centered around the dataset verse_corpus. However, in one of the scenarios we also augment the aforementioned corpus with the corpus used by Kestemont et al. (2016), Authenticating the writings of Julius Caesar, Expert Systems with Applications, 63, pp. 86-96.

Datasets

The section below will present which datasets were used in which cases. The study is split into two phases: the validation phase (see validation), where we test the performance of the methods and the main analysis part (see analysis) where—using PCA, BCT, and GI- we proceed to the main analysis phase.

For the validation:

Directory name	Description	Number of distinct authors	Number of texts	Name of distinct authors	Name of distinct work	Results
validation_corpus_PCA	The dataset used to validate the PCA method (does not contain Seneca's plays). It is a subset of the works of Lucan, Ovid, Persius, and Statius. The filenames for Amores by Ovid, the fourth Satire by Persius, and the first book of Thebaid by Statius are being renamed using the following format: unknown_{work}.txt. The code can be found in valid_PCA_BCT.Rmd	4	44	Lucan, Ovid, Persius, Statius	Pharsalia, Ars Amatoria, Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia	PCA-corr
validation_corpus_BCT	The dataset used to validate the BCT method (does not contain Seneca's plays). It is a subset of the works of Lucan, Ovid, Persius, and Statius. The filenames for Medicamina Faciei Femineae by Ovid, the fourth Satire by Persius, and the first book of Thebaid by Statius are being renamed using the following format: unknown_{work}.txt. The code can be found in valid_PCA_BCT.Rmd	4	44	Lucan, Ovid, Persius, Statius	Pharsalia, Ars Amatoria, Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Thebaid, Achilleid, Silvae	BCT/MFCs-4grams
validation_imp_corpus	The corpus used to validate the GI method. It contains all the texts of impostors plus Seneca (excluding the two disputed plays under investigation). Each text becomes the test set and is compared against the others. Code can be found in valid_imposters_4grams_char.Rmd	9	88	Lucan, Manilius, Ovid, Persius, Phaedrus, Seneca the Younger, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus	Pharsalia, Astronomica, Ars Amatoria, Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Fabulae, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Punica, Achilleid, Silvae, Thebaid, Argonautica	validation_imposters/results

For the main analysis:

Directory name	Description	Number of distinct authors	Number of texts	Name of distinct authors	Name of distinct work	Results
corpus_pca_bct	The corpus used for the experiments of PCA and BCT with a sample of impostors used. Code can be found in pca_bct_sen_stat_ovid.R	3	33	Lucan, Seneca the Younger, Statius	Pharsalia, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus, Octavia	pca_sen_luc_stat and bct_sen_luc_stat accordingly.
corpus_seneca	the corpus of Senecan plays used for the first experiment in the main analysis phase, where we compare the Senecan plays with each other.	1	10	Seneca the Younger	Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus, Octavia	pca_seneca_corpus
corpus_sen_hero_chunks	the corpus of the Senecan plays but Herc.Oetaeus is split into two halves. Code can be found in: pca_hero_chunks.R	1	11	Seneca the Younger	Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus chunk 1 & 2, Octavia	pca_sen_hero_chunks
corpus_imposters	The entire corpus of impostors (including the Senecan plays) with the texts untouched. Code can be found in: gi_scenario_1a.R. For each disputed play we exclude each other from the test set.	9	90	Lucan, Manilius, Ovid, Persius, Phaedrus, Seneca the Younger, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus	Pharsalia, Astronomica, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae or Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Fabulae, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus, Octavia, Punica, Achilleid, Silvae, Thebaid, Argonautica	Octavia = 1 & Herc. O = 1
corpus_imp_hero_chunks	The entire corpus of impostors (including the Senecan plays) but only Herc. Oetaeus is split exactly in the middle. Code can be found in: gi_ho_scenario_2.R	9	91	Lucan, Manilius, Ovid, Persius, Phaedrus, Seneca the Younger, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus	Pharsalia, Astronomica, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae or Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Fabulae, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus chunks 1 & 2, Octavia, Punica, Achilleid, Silvae, Thebaid, Argonautica	Octavia = 1 & Herc. O = 1
corpus_imposters_cento	The entire corpus of imposters (including the Senecan plays) but from the disputed plays we have removed lines that returned similarity score above 0.6. Code can be found in: cosine_simil.ipynb and gi_scenario_3a.R	9	90	Lucan, Manilius, Ovid, Persius, Phaedrus, Seneca the Younger, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus	Pharsalia, Astronomica, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae or Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Fabulae, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus chunks 1 & 2, Octavia, Punica, Achilleid, Silvae, Thebaid, Argonautica	Octavia = 1 & Herc. O = 1
corpus_chunks	The entire corpus of imposters (including the Senecan plays) split into chunks of 500 tokens. Code can be found in: split_chunks.py and gi_scenario_4.R	9	1199 chunks	Lucan, Manilius, Ovid, Persius, Phaedrus, Seneca the Younger, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus	Pharsalia, Astronomica, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae or Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Fabulae, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus chunks 1 & 2, Octavia, Punica, Achilleid, Silvae, Thebaid, Argonautica	GI_results/
corpus_kestemont	Corpus of Kestemont et al. (2016), Authenticating Caesar's writings augmented with our corpus_chunks. Code can be found in: gi_scenario_5.R	35	3015 chunks	Ammianus Marcellinus, Quintus Asconius Pedianus, Aulus Gellius, Calpurnius Flaccus, M. Tullius Cicero, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Eutropius, Rufius Festus, Florus, G. Julius Hyginus, Titus Livius, Lucius Ampelius, Macrobius, M. Minucius Felix, Nazarius, G. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Pomponius Mela, Quintus Tullius Cicero, M. Fabius Quintillianus, G. Sallustius Crispus, Seneca the Younger, Seneca the Elder, Suetonius, Tacitus, Valerius Maximus, Varro, Velleius Paterculus, Lucan, Manilius, Ovid, Persius, Phaedrus, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus	Res Gestae A Fine Corneli Taciti, Orationum Ciceronis Quinque Enarratio, Noctes Atticae, Declamationes, Academica, Laelius de Amicitia, Pro Archia, Brutus, Pro Caecina, Pro Caelio, Cato Maior de Senectute, De Divinatione, De Fato, De Finibus, Pro Milone, De Natura Deorum, De Officiis, De Optimo Genere Oratorum, Orator, De Oratore, Paradoxa Stoicorum,In Pisonem, De Re Publica, Topica, Tusculanae Disputationes, Historiarum Alexandri Magni Libri Qui Supersunt, Breviarium Historiae Romanae, Festi Breviarium Rerum Gestarum Populi Romani, Epitome De T. Livio Bellorum Omnium Annorum DCC Libri Duo, Fabulae, Ab Urbe Condita Libri, Liber Memorialis, Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis, Octavius, Panegyricus Constantini, Epistularum Libri Decem, Panegyricus, De Chorographia, Commentariolum Petitionis, Declamationes Maiores, Institutiones, Bellum Catilinae, Epistola ad Caesarem I & II, Bellum Iugurthinum, De Beneficiis, De Brevitate Vitae, De Clementia, De Consolatione, Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium, De Vita Beata, De Ira, Quaestiones Naturales, De Otio, De Providentia, De Tranquilitate Animi, Controversiae, De Vitis Caesarum-Augustus, De Vitis Caesarum-Gaius, De Vitis Caesarum-Divus Claudius, De Vitis Caesarum-Domotianus, De Vitis Caesarum-Galba, De Vitis Caesarum-Divus Iulius, De Vitis Caesarum-Nero, De Vitis Caesarum-Otho, De Vitis Caesarum-Tiberius, De Vitis Caesarum-Tiberius, De Vitis-Caesaris-Titus, De Vitis Caesarum-Divus Vespasianus, De Vitis Caesarum-Vitellius, Agricola, Annales, Historiae, Dialogus De Oratoribus, Factorum Et Dictorum Memorabilium Libri Novem, De Lingua Latina, Rerum Rusticarum De Agri Cultura, Historiae Romanae, Pharsalia, Astronomica, Ars Amatoria, Epistulae or Heroides, Fasti, Ibis. Medicamina Faciei Femineae, Metamorphoses, Epistulae ex Ponto, Remedia Amoris, Tristia, Satires, Fabulae, Agamemnon, Hercules Furens, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Phoenissae, Thyestes, Troades, Hercules Oetaeus chunks 1 & 2, Octavia, Punica, Achilleid, Silvae, Thebaid, Argonautica	GI_results/