[PUBLILIUS SYRUS]. This name does not appear in Chaucer's work. Many of the sententiae or sentences attributed to Seneca in the Tale of Melibee are really from the Sententiae of Publilius Syrus. He was a slave from Antioch in the first century B.C. and received his freedom because of his intellectual gifts. He was also a famous mime, and the dramatic passages from his mimes were collected into a book, which Seneca, Petronius, and Aulus Gellius greatly admired. During the medieval period some of his Sententiae were collected in an anthology called De Moribus, which included aphorisms from Seneca, Ausonius, and Lactantius, and attributed, wrongly, to Martin of Braga (d. A.D. 579). Many of Chaucer's references to Seneca are either directly to Publilius Syrus or to this anthology. [Senec]

The proverb of Mel 1030 is from Publilius Syrus, Sententiae 32; Mel 1048, from Sententiae 594. The quotation attributed to Seneca at Mel 1127 is from Sententiae 281. The proverb at Mel 1135 is from Sententiae 32; "the book," Mel 1183, is from Sententiae 91. Many quotations attributed to Seneca in this tale are from Publilius Syrus. The quotation at Mel 1185 is from Sententiae 389. At Mel 1187 Dame Prudence quotes Sententiae 281 instead of Seneca. Mel 1320 is from Sententiae 607; Mel 1324 is from Sententiae 255. The attribution to Tullius, Mel 1347, is from Sententiae 125. The anonymous quotation at Mel 1439 is from Sententiae 528. Instead of Seneca at Mel 1449, Sententiae 320; Mel 1450 is from Sententiae 189; Mel 1455 is from Sententiae 172. The anonymous quotations at Mel 1463 and 1466 are from Sententiae 645 and 487. Instead of Seneca, Mel 1488, the quotation is from Sententiae 483; the anonymous author in Mel 1777 is Publilius Syrus, Sententiae 489. The quotations attributed to Seneca, Mel 1859 and 1866, are from Sententiae 64 and Sententiae 366, respectively.