Moral Essays, Volume I: De Providentia. De Constantia. De Ira. De Clementia

by Seneca, John W. Basore (Translator)

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, born at Corduba (Cordova) ca. 4 BCE, of a prominent and wealthy family, spent an ailing childhood and youth at Rome in an aunt's care. He became famous in rhetoric, philosophy, money-making, and imperial service. After some disgrace during Claudius' reign he became tutor and then, in 54 CE, advising minister to Nero, some of whose worst misdeeds he did not prevent. Involved (innocently?) in a conspiracy, he killed himself by order in 65. Wealthy, he preached indifference to wealth; evader of pain and death, he preached scorn of both; and there were other contrasts between practice and principle.

We have Seneca's philosophical or moral essays (ten of them traditionally called Dialogues)--on providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility, the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness-- and treatises on natural phenomena. Also extant are 124 epistles, in which he writes in a relaxed style about moral and ethical questions, relating them to personal experiences; a skit on the official deification of Claudius, "Apocolocyntosis" (in Loeb number 15); and nine rhetorical tragedies on ancient Greek themes. Many epistles and all his speeches are lost.

His moral essays are collected in Volumes I-III of the Loeb Classical Library's ten-volume edition of Seneca.

Genres: Philosophy, Classics, Nonfiction, History, Essays, Roman

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 64

About the author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca or Seneca the Younger); ca. 4 BC – 65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero, who later forced him to commit suicide for alleged complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to have him assassinated.

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do as he said, not as he did.

[Simon Howard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not someone who would naturally pick up a book written 2000 years ago. I'm no classicist. But there has been so much written online and in magazines in recent years about Seneca's Moral Essays that I thought I'd pick up a translation to see what all the fuss was about.

I went for the Loeb Classical Library volumes recommended by Ryan Holiday, which feature a 1920s translation by John W Basore. They have the Latin text and the English translation on facing pages, which makes me realise how little I've retained of the little Latin I did in secondary school. Occasionally, Basore's footnotes are in ancient Greek - while this is of limited practical use to me, the first time I spotted one it made me laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all.

This volume contains Seneca's essays On Providence, On Firmness, On Anger and the sliver that survives of On Mercy.

I was completely blown away. These essays are many times better than anything modern I've read on character or morality. The translations are highly readable and engaging. If you'd have told me a month ago that I'd be sitting up at night to read just a little bit more of a book on the morality of anger written two millennia ago, I would have laughed in your face... and yet there I was.

There were parts that made reference to Seneca's contemporaries or cultural/religious figures that slightly went over my head, but the down-to-Earth "life advice" was astounding. It also made me reflect that there's more in this single volume on effective management of people than anything I've ever previously read.

I don't usually include selected quotes in Goodreads reviews, but I marked up so much in this book that I can't resist.

On Providence

To what energetic man is not idleness a punishment?

You are a great man; but how do I know it if Fortune gives you no opportunity of showing your worth? You have entered as a contestant at the Olympic games, but none other besides you; you gain the crown, the victory you do not gain. You have my congratulations - not as a brave man, but as if you have obtained the consulship or praetorship; you have enhanced your prestige. In like manner, also, I may say to a good man, if no harder circumstance has given him the opportunity whereby alone he might show the strength of his mind, "I judge you unfortunate because you have never been unfortunate; you have passed through life without an antagonist; no one will know what you can do - not even yourself." For if a man is to know himself, he must be tested; no one finds out what he can do except by trying.

On Firmness

To such a pitch of absurdity have we come that we are harrowed not merely by pain but by the idea of pain, like children who are terror-stricken by darkness and the ugliness of masks and a distorted countenance; who are provoked even to tears by names that are unpleasant to their ears, by gesticulation of the fingers, and other things which in their ignorance they shrink from in a kind of blundering panic.

(Could that not just as easily be taken from an essay today about "snowflake millennials"?!)

On Anger

Moreover, if you choose to view its [anger's] results and the harm of it, no plague has cost the human race more dear. You will see bloodshed and poisoning, the vile countercharges of criminals, the downfall of cities and whole nations given to destruction, princely persons sold at public auction, houses put to the torch, and conflagration that halts not within the city-walls, but makes great stretches of the country glow with hostile flame.

"But against the enemy," it is said, "anger is necessary." Nowhere is it less so; for there the attack ought not to be disorderly, but regulated and under control. What else is it, in fact, but their anger - its own worst foe - that reduces to impotency the barbarians, who are so much stronger of body than we, and so much better able to endure hardship? So, too, in the case of gladiators skill is their protection, anger their undoing. Of what use, further, is anger, when the same end may be accomplished by reason? Think you the hunter has anger towards wild beasts? Yet when they come, he takes them, and when they flee, he follows, and reason does it all without anger.

No one should be angry at the mistakes of men. For tell me, should one be angry with those who move with stumbling footsteps in the dark? with those who do not heed commands because they are deaf? with children because forgetting the observance of their duties they watch the games and foolish sports of their playmates? Would you want to be angry with those who become weary because they are sick or growing old? Among the various ills to which humanity is prone there is this besides - the darkness that fills the mind, and not so much the necessity of going astray, as the love of straying. That you may not be angry with individuals, you must forgive mankind at large, you must grant indulgence to the human race. If you are angry with the young and the old because they sin, be angry with babies as well; they are destined to sin. But who is angry with children who are still too young to have the power of discrimination? Yet to be a human being is an even greater and truer excuse for error than to be a child. That is the lot to which we are born - we are creatures subject to as many ills of the mind as of the body, and though our power of discernment is neither blunted nor dull, yet we make poor use of it and become examples of vice to each other.

Animosity, if abandoned by one side, forthwith dies; it takes two to make a fight. But if anger shall be rife on both sides, if the conflict comes, he is the better man who first withdraws; the vanquished is the one who wins. If some one strikes you, step back; for by striking back you will give him both the opportunity and the excuse to repeat his blow; when you later wish to extricate yourself, it will be impossible.

The lofty mind is always calm, at rest in a quiet haven; crushing down all that engenders anger, it is restrained, commands respect, and is properly ordered. In an angry man you will find none of these things. For who that surrenders to anger and rage does not straightaway cast behind him all sense of shame? Who that storms in wild fury and assails another does not cast aside whatever he had in him that commands respect? Who that is enraged maintains the full number or the order of his duties? Who restrains his tongue? Who controls any part of his body? Who is able to rule the self that he has set loose?

So it happens that the man who is unwilling to approach easy tasks, yet wishes to find easy the tasks he approaches, is often disappointed in his desire.

Socrates, it is said, when he once received a box on the ear, merely declared that it was too bad that a man could not tell when he ought to wear a helmet while taking a walk. Not how an affront is offered, but how it is bourne is our concern.

No man when he views the lots of others is content with his own. This is why we grow angry even at the gods, because some person is ahead of us, forgetting how man men there are behind us, and how huge a mass of envy follows at the back of him who envies but a few. Nevertheless, such is the presumptuousness of men that, although they have received much, they count it an injury that they might have received more. ... Express thanks rather for what you have received; wait for the rest, and be glad that you are not yet surfeited. There is pleasure in having something left to hope for. Have you outstripped all others? Rejoice that you are first in the regard of your friend. Are there many who outstrip you? Consider how many more you are ahead of than behind. Do you ask me what is your greatest fault? Your book-keeping is wrong; what you have paid out your rate high; what you have received, low.

On Mercy

For added to all the rest, this is still cruelty's greatest curse - that one must persist in it, and no return to better things is open; for crime must be safeguarded by crime. But what creature is more unhappy than the man who now cannot help being wicked?

Nature herself conceived the idea of king, as we may recongise from the case of the bees and other creatures; the king of the bees has the roomiest cell, placed in the central and safest spot; besides, he does no work, but superintends the work of the others, and if they lose their king, they all scatter; they never tolerate more than one at a time, and they discover the best one by means of a fight; moreover, the appearance of the kind is striking and different from that of the others in both size and beauty. His greatest mark of distinction, however, lies in this: bees are most easily provoked, and, for the size of their bodies, excellent fighters, and where they wound they leave their stings; but the king himself has no sting. Nature did not wish him to be cruel or to seek a revenge that would be so costly, and so she removed his weapon, and left his anger unarmed.

For just as the magnanimous man is not he who makes free with what is another's, but he who deprives himself of what he gives to some one else, so I shall not call him merciful who is peaceable when the smart is another's, but him who, though the spur galls himself, does not become restive, who understands that it is magnanimous to brook injuries even where authority is supreme, and that there is nothing more glorious than a prince who, though wronged, remains unavenged.

[Asa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part 5 Stoicism

A motivational speech from your billionaire boss explaining why your burnout is actually character-building. Seneca's stoicism offers dignity, sure, but only if you accept that suffering is cosmic CrossFit and systemic injustice is just another opportunity for your virtue gains.

What follows are what I thought were memorable quotes:

No man," said he, " seems to me more unhappy than one who has never met with adversity."

For such a man has never had an opportunity to test himself. Though all things have flowed to him according to his prayer, though even before his prayer, nevertheless the gods have passed an adverse judgement upon him. He was deemed unworthy ever to gain the victory over Fortune, who draws back from all cowards, as if she said, "Why should I choose that fellow as my adversary? He will straightway drop his weapons; against him I have no need of all my power - he will be routed by a paltry threat; he cannot bear even the sight of my face. Let me look around for another with whom to join in combat. I am ashamed to meet a man who is ready to be beaten."

It is only evil fortune that discovers a great exemplar.
But the greater his torture is, the greater shall be his glory.
I judge you unfortunate because you have never been unfortunate; you have passed through life without an antagonist; no one will know what you can do, - not even yourself.

Truly, to be always happy and to pass through life without a mental pang is to be ignorant of one half of nature.

For if a man is to know himself, he must be tested; no one finds out what be can do except by trying.

True worth is eager for danger and thinks rather of its goal than of what it may have to suffer, since even what it will have to suffer is a part of its glory.

How can I know with what spirit you will face poverty, if you wallow in wealth?

Do not, I beg of you, shrink in fear from those things which the immortal gods apply like spurs, as it were, to, our souls. Disaster is Virtue's opportunity. Justly may those be termed unhappy who are dulled by an excess of good fortune, who rest, as it were, in dead calm upon a quiet sea; whatever happens will come to them as a change.
In no better way can God discredit what we covet than by bestowing those things on the basest men while withholding them from the best.

See to what a height virtue must climb! you will find that it has no safe road to tread:

What possible reason have you to complain of me, you who have chosen righteousness? Others I have surrounded with unreal goods, and have mocked their empty minds, as it were, with a long, deceptive dream. I have bedecked them with gold, and silver, and ivory, but within there is nothing good. The creatures whom you regard as fortunate, if you could see them, not as they appear to the eye, but as they are in their hearts, are wretched, filthy, base - like their own house-walls, adorned only on the outside. Sound and genuine such good fortune is not; it is a veneer, and that a thin one. So long, therefore, as they can stand firm and make the show that they desire, they glitter and deceive; when, however, something occurs to overthrow and uncover them, then you see what deep-set and genuine ugliness their borrowed splendour hid.

Within I have bestowed upon you every good; your good fortune is not to need good fortune.

as a rule every man decides that that is a justifiable passion which he acknowledges as his own.

tranquillity is possible only if we avoid most of the activities of both private and public life, or at least those that are too great for our strength. The man who engages in, many affairs is never so fortunate as to pass a day that does not beget from some person or some circumstance a vexation that fits the mind for anger.

In order, therefore, that the mind may have peace, it must not be tossed about, it must not, as I have said, be wearied by activity in many or great affairs, or by attempting such as are beyond its powers.

So it happens that the man who is unwilling to approach easy tasks, yet wishes to find easy the tasks he approaches, is often disappointed in his desire.

We should live with a very calm and good- natured person - one that is never worried or captious; we adopt our habits from those with whom we associate, and as certain diseases of the body spread to others from contact, so the mind transmits its faults to those near-by.

an invalid does not benefit so much from a suitable location or a more healthful climate as does the mind which lacks strength from association with a better company.

It will, therefore, be a man's duty to avoid all those who he knows will provoke his anger.

It is easier to refrain than to retreat from a struggle.

let there be no approval of our anger.

Whoever it may be, let us say to ourselves on his behalf that even the wisest men have many faults, that no man is so guarded that he does not sometimes let his diligence lapse, nor so seasoned that accident does not drive his composure into some hot-headed action, none so fearful of giving offence that he does not stumble into it while seeking to avoid it.

If a man gets angry, let us give him enough time to discover what he has done; he will chastise himself.

The mark of true greatness is not to notice that you have received a blow.

The man who does not get angry stands firm, unshaken by injury; he who gets angry is overthrown.

Do what you will, you are too puny to disturb my serenity. Reason, to whom I have committed the guidance of my life, forbids it. My anger is likely to do me more harm than your wrong. And why not more? The limit of the injury is fixed, but how far the anger will sweep me no man knows."

What difference does it make what weakness it is that makes a person irresponsible? The plea of irresponsibility holds equally good for all. "

the greatest punishment of wrong-doing is the having done it, and no man is more heavily punished than he who is consigned to the torture of remorse.

Only one thing can bring us peace -the compact of mutual indulgence.

But as it is, we obey our first impulse; then,
although we have been aroused by mere trifles, we continue to be angry for fear that we may seem to have had no reason to be so from the first, and -what is most unjust - the very injustice of our anger makes us the more obstinate. For we hold on to it and nurse it, as if the violence of our anger were proof of its justice.

no man ever made a more generous use of victory, from which he claimed nothing for himself except the right to give away - but how could he gratify such unconscionable desires, since every one of them coveted as much as any one could possibly covet?

No man when he views the lot of others is content with his own. This is why we grow angry even at the gods, because some person is ahead of us, forgetting how many men there are behind us, and how huge a mass of envy follows at the back of him who envies but a few. Nevertheless such is the presumptuousness of men that, although they may have received much, they count it an injury that they might have received more.

All our senses ought to be trained to endurance. They are naturally long-sufffering, if only the mind desists from weakening them.

Anger will cease and become more controllable if it finds that it must appear before a judge every day.

after this don't have encounters with ignorant people; those who have never learned do not want to learn.

In the future, consider not only the truth of what you say, but also whether the man to whom you are speaking can endure the truth.

The mind will meet bravely everything for which it has been prepared.

let us endure with heroic mind our short-lived ills.

Now fear in moderation restrains men's passions, but the fear that is constant and sharp and brings desperation arouses the sluggish to boldness, and urges them to stop at nothing.

the king himself has no sting. Nature did not wish him to be cruel or to seek a revenge that would be so costly, and so she removed his weapon, and left his anger unarmed.
there is nothing more glorious than a prince who, though wronged, remains unavenged.

the sins repeatedly punished are the sins repeatedly committed.

no school is more kindly and gentle, none more full of love to man and more concerned for the common good, so that it is its avowed object to be of service and assistance, and to regard not merely self- interest, but the interest of each and all.

no sorrow befalls the wise man; his mind is serene, and nothing can happen to becloud it.

operations of mercy, not of forgiveness.

On to Part 6, another modern take on Stoicism: Derren Brown.

[Carlotta Raiano · Rating 4 out of 5]

(De Providentia)

[Concrastinator7 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seneca's On Anger is, by far, the best written piece of prose I have ever encountered. It alone, if widely applied, would make the world truly livable, maybe even laudable, as opposed to the current situation of it being barely bearable. Many of the other essays are simply exquisite, especially On Grief.

Highly recommended to be read and reread often.

[C. Çevik · Rating 4 out of 5]

De Constantia Sapientis çevirimde buradaki Latince metni temel aldım.

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic ...

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moral Essays – De Providentia, De Constantia, De Ira, De Clementia by Seneca – one of the greatest thinkers of all time, author of On The Happy Life and other essays, my note on this is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... with hundreds of other reviews

10 out of 10

Let us start with De Providentia, and say that the stoics insisted ‘it is not what happens, but what you make of what happens, be happy with what you are given, wish for what you already have’ and other rules along the same lines, critics will say it was easy for Seneca to be so serene, he was perhaps the richest man of ancient Rome

Indeed, with that, he was one of the wealthiest of all time, because we have to convert the coins he owned into our money, and besides, there is also the issue of what the others had, which is an exercise in futility, if we are to use the Stoic precepts, and we can also say he knew about having a fortune, he was not confabulating
One wonderful argument in favor of Seneca and the Stoics is that studies in psychology have demonstrated they were right ‘Happiness Activity No 6: Developing Strategies for Coping-practicing ways to endure or surmount hardship or trauma, Happiness Activity No 7: Learning to Forgive –keeping a journal or writing a letter in which you work on letting go of anger and resentment toward one or more individuals who’ve hurt or wronged you’

This is from the magical, astounding, life-changing The How of Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... by Sonja Lyubomirsky, after intense, elaborate, years long studies, the conclusion is that we need to be prepared for Providentia, Forgive
Now, if this damn fate brings in an Orange Felon, to be the leader of the free world (elected, so, maybe it is not blind misfortune) what do you call that, I wonder, but I am reminded that the Stoics were so exaggerated may be the word, that they insisted we must thank those who test our stamina, as in Orange Clown, thank you

I could not do that, just as I think of an example from the How of Happiness, in the Forgiveness department, wherein she tells us about this murder, in south Africa, the parents of the victim went down there, met with the killer, and then the mother of the dead young woman not only forgave, but made an NGO with the murderer
Something to that effect, I forgot the details, but the magnanimity, probably religiosity of the mother was incredible, a sadistic, vicious thought enters my head, and I say…then she went home, and voted for…Orange Jesus

De Constantia is not really my thing, as these lines prove, I am all over the place (maybe the ‘weave’ of the often-mentioned Orange Moron sounds familiar, alas, I do it too, but I am not a candidate for, well, anything…oh, yes, I have fallen in love, a little bit, so I do want to be elected in that sense) but then, this is the challenge
To get into The Zone, be in Flow, obtain Maximum Engagement https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/10/... there are a few conditions, one is skills meet challenges, or else we have to be on the line between burnout and boredom…

‘We are what we regularly do. Excellence is not an act, it is a habit’ this argues for Consistency aka Constantia and it is attributed to Aristotle, who has another favorite rule, The Golden Mean, virtue has vice on either side, courage has madness on the left (biker going with maximum speed on ice) and cowardice on the right
Aside from Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... we have the Talmud, though I have seen it associated with Lao Tzu, the idea that ‘you need to mind your thoughts, for they become words, words become acts, acts become habits, and habits form character, character is you

De Ira aka About Anger, needless to say, a Stoic would not contemplate that – Seneca was rich, so again, why should he bother – but sometimes, it explodes, one incident is fresh, at the gym, this man I know, calm, cultivated, serene was lifting some weights, and this woman is shouting ‘pula mea’, aka ‘my cock’, though she did not have one
This is as foul as can be, well, probably there is worse, and I will be sexist here (old fashioned, passe, retrograde and all the rest) for a woman to say that, it makes me wince, and get in Thin Slicing, Harding Effect, Blink mood https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/05/... with a clear opinion

Yes, if there is harm, offense, and so on, it is not just justified, she is entitled to much more, maybe use a gun (illegal here, but as a concept) but to just scream out that, without any reason, this is disqualifying, just as it is for anybody, he, she, they, it is also true that there is this tendency to ‘show off’, and in the worst possible way
There is the wise metaphor of Buddha, to be angry is like taking some hot coals in your hand, with the intention of throwing it on your enemy, but while you do that, your hand will get burned, and then of course there is Clementia, covered above by Happiness Activity Number 7, Forgiveness, we need this for the other, but also for ourselves, it is also a gesture of kindness, like Anthony Quinn says in Lawrence of Arabia https://realini.blogspot.com/2017/07/... ‘ I am a river to my people’

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To the Hermitage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

[Galicius · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work was recommended to me for its Chapter 13 “On Groundless Fear”.

Seneca speaks of dealing with “Fortune” and gaining experience and “spirit” even from being beaten “black and blue”. We gain strength from being challenged. Seneca wants to offer some additional “safeguards”

“There are more things . . . likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.” (p. 75) The dangers which you imagine may not come at all and certainly have not yet come. “We are in the habit of exaggerating, or imagining, or anticipating sorrow.” Seneca dismisses “exaggerated ills” because judgments will differ concerning present troubles; the Stoics did not, for example, consider was evil. Seneca writes that this issue is “still in the court, so to speak”. He deals with imaginary and anticipated ills only.

Consider not what you hear if men try to talk you into believing that you are unhappy. Take counsel with your own feelings because you know your own affairs better than anyone else.

How will I know whether my sufferings are real or imaginary? The rule in this matter is to determine if we are tormented by something present or things to come or both. If you are not troubled by lack of freedom, health, or injury there is nothing wrong with today. If you insist that something will happen to you consider your proof of future troubles. It is more often a case of apprehensions. We are too often troubled by what people say. Panic fear is the most ruinous and uncontrollable. It is most often caused by idle rumors.

Unexpected things rarely happen, and what is expected often does not come to pass. Perhaps it will come but perhaps it will now. Look forward to better things. No one questions the author of a story and calls him a fool. We drift with uncertainties.

He ends with reference to a Solon quote in original Greek for which I could not find a translation and Epicurus’ “The fool, with all his other faults, has this also, he is always getting ready to live.”

This certainly makes it more than a Roman "self-help" guide. It's not high philosophy but pleasant reading with a heavy grounding in the Stoics. He quotes Epicurus in nearly, if not in every chapter.

Seneca is concerned with death and he dismisses it for any fear it may bring. He does this many times. Yet for such a lackadaisical attitude about it why does he mention death 328 times in this work? It seems indeed that he “doth protesteth too much”.

[Scot · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Providentia | On Providence

Seneca the Younger gets a bad rap. In Robert Graves' Claudius the God , for example, Seneca is portrayed as shallow and sycophantic, while T.S. Eliot summed up the disdain for Senecan tragedy when he wrote “in modern times, few Latin authors have been more consistently damned.” Most criticism these days, however, focuses on Seneca’s supposed hypocrisy. Emily Wilson, before she became famous for her translations of Homer, wrote an article entitled 'Seneca, the fat-cat philosopher’. Even the blurb introduction to the Loeb edition of the Moral Essays is not exactly selling its content when it declares “Wealthy, he preached indifference to wealth; evader of pain and death, he preached scorn of both; and there were other contrasts between practice and principle.”

I think the charge of hypocrisy is quite unfair. Reading De Providentia, there is striking, even fateful alignment between Seneca’s last writings and his death not long afterwards. Seneca had great wealth, but Tacitus tells us that he lived frugally, for Seneca knew that comfort weakens us before inevitable hardship: “even a man who has prospered long will have his share some day; whoever seems to have been released has only been reprieved” (veniet et ad illum diu felicem sua portio; quisquis videtur dimissus esse, dilatus est). Seneca’s own day did come, when he was caught up in a plot against Nero; and, despite his efforts to make a quick end to his own life, Tacitus tells us that his death was “protracted and slow”. In one way, this is an ironic contrast to what Seneca says in De Providentia—that the way out of life is mercifully faster compared to the way in (i.e., being born). Seneca opened the veins in his wrists, but this failed to kill him; severing the arteries in his legs was no better; and, finally, even poison did not help (Tac. Ann. 15.60-64). Elsewhere in De Providentia, however, Seneca actually seems to foreshadow this end, when he discusses the similarly botched suicide of Cato the Younger: “I should like to believe that this is why the wound was not well-aimed and efficacious—it was not enough for the immortal gods to look but once on Cato. His virtue was held in check and called back that it might display itself in a harder role; for to seek death needs not so great a soul as to reseek it.” Granted, it is possible that Tacitus was giving an end to Seneca that matched the man’s writings, much in the same way that the bust of a tragic old ascetic was wrongly identified as Seneca for many years,



when the real portrait is far less romantic:



The pseudo-Seneca bust just seems to match what the man preached! I think, however, that the gods did ensure that Seneca’s ideals were ultimately born out at the end of his life, and that the description of Cato’s end in De Providentia was a prediction of his own, regardless of what he intended.

The underpinning of De Providentia is that the Gods are essentially good. This is an opinion held by almost all ancient philosophers. It must be said that anyone looking for a discussion of metaphysics or Stoic cosmology in De Providentia will not find it. The Loeb volume is entitled Moral Essays not Metaphysical Essays (even if ethics are held by the ancients to be downstream of metaphysics). Seneca believes that the Gods “are ever best to those who are best. For Nature never permits good to be injured by good”, which seems like a curious variation of what Socrates says in The Apology, “it is not God’s will that a better man be injured by a worse” (οὐ γαρ οἴομαι θεμιτον εἶναι ἀμείνονι ἀνδρι ὑπο χείρονος βλάπτεσθαι). According to Seneca, the Gods enjoy the spectacle of a great man subjected to great adversity – which is a fitting view for a tragedian. In typically quotable style, Seneca declares “calamitas virtutis occasio est”: one’s potential can only be realised in immense suffering. It is basically this meme:



Let us move from an old meme to hackneyed phrase: “what does not kill you, makes you stronger” – but for Seneca, what kills you also makes you stronger, for death is only the final challenge to overcome. Good men struggle all their lives, while the Gods allow the weak and dissolute to live in comfort. The latter will be unprepared when calamity strikes. This was on Seneca’s mind, in those final days out of imperial favour. He practised ascesis in the midst of great wealth, rendering his blood too slow to leave the body, in the account of Tacitus. Seneca was no hypocrite, and the alignment of his writings with his death is no accident. The Gods redeemed him in the end; for, as he says,

Fate guides us, and it was settled at the first hour of birth what length of time remains for each. Cause is linked with cause, and all public and private issues are directed by a long sequence of events. Therefore everything should be endured with fortitude, since things do not, as we suppose, simply happen—they all come.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Seneca's moral essays is less philosophical discourse, more ancient Roman self-help book: simple, uncomplicated, didactic advice for princes, lawmakers, and citizens about how to deal with anger, providence, firmness, etc. A good introduction to some of the ideas of Stoicism.

[Hayati · Rating 1 out of 5]

Quo Vadis? I go on the road that Seneca passed and preached..

[Marco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Il dialogo spiega come le sventure siano dei provvidi doni del signore per rafforzare i giusti.

[Andrej · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked it but i don't agree with him. Seems to me lot of the arguments are flawed.

[HrCristobal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Danish translation: Om Vrede, Om Mildhed, Om Sindsro, VIlly Sørensen

[Sinta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoicism is attractive to me as a method of discipline, but could never be an aspirational way of life. It offers no guidance on what projects to pursue in life - it merely enables you to endure when bad fortune strikes, and to have discipline over your passions so that you don’t have too far to fall. What about the rest of the time? Why could we not extend our realm of control temporarily and situationally, even if that is not permanent? Why shouldn’t we then have an ethic which promotes some idea of the good during those times? Stoicism will always be confined to its corner for me, a tactic more than a philosophy. In saying that, the tactics of Seneca are, on the whole, very useful.

Within these particular essays I found
- On Anger the most useful (many tactics and principles which can help manage anger)
- On Providence and On the Firmness of the Wise Person a good reminder of core Stoic commitments to endurance
- On Clemency was a complete slog - given mercy is only relevant to the powerful. Also the rhetoric was much more flowery, likely due to its audience

[Jesse Kessler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of this book is very good.

Seneca uses clear and obvious observations of nature and history in a way that is both entertaining and easy to follow along with. Repetition of the ideas from different angles, or with different examples further clarifies the points and makes them easier to remember.

I think the best essays are at the front, so, read as far as you like, then stop! The first essay on Providence might be the best along with the next essay on firmness. The next three essays on anger are good, but together a little long. The last essays on mercy are more difficult to follow, and interesting mostly because they are to Nero.

My favorite quote, however, is from the mercy essays and has to do with comparing a ruler who carries out many executions to a physician who attends too many funerals.

[Alexandru · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent ideas on stoicism.

[James Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

De Clementia was a revelation and I am sorry I had not read it before. An excellent source on Roman ideology and for reflections on the titles Pater Patriae and Augustus.

[Robert Narojek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nothing to add. It is absolutely great to refresh my classic education. I have a wish for all the "current self help gurus" to learn from the past :) MASTERS

[Morris Yen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find the Book on Anger most understandable and worthwhile to read.

[Elena Alexa Theres · Rating 2 out of 5]

(de constantia sapientis)

[Jorge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book. Definitely going to read volume 2 and 3 soon

[jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seneca's three books on anger are worth repeated readings. The entire volume is a front row seat with a view of stoicism and upper-class life in imperial Rome.