Stoicism: A Practical Guide to the Select Works of Seneca

Stoicism: A Practical Guide to the Select Works of Seneca

M. James Ziccardi

Copyright 2013 by M. James Ziccardi

Smashwords Edition

Cover Image: The Death of Seneca painted by Dominguez Sanchez, 1871.

Section 1 - Notes on the Text

With regard to quotations, content found within square brackets [] is mine; content found within parentheses () belongs to Seneca.

Sections in bold type or that are underlined are intended by me to highlight critical points.

Portions of this book have been extracted from Roman Stoicism: Words to Live (and Die) By by M. James Ziccardi.

Section 2 - Introduction

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Younger)

(c. 4 BC – 65 AD)

Although Stoicism can be traced back to the third century BC with the teachings of Zeno of Citium (who preached his philosophy from the Stoa Poikile, or Painted Porch, at the Agora in Athens), its lasting achievements came in the Hellenistic Period through the works of three of its most celebrated writers: Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. By all accounts Stoicism, with its doctrines in physics, epistemology, and logic, is a self-contained philosophy. Yet without a doubt it is in ethics where we find Stoicism to be most recognized and revered. Its central theme is that for man to achieve his highest good he must live his life in accordance with nature.

The Stoics held that to live according to nature one must accept nature as it is, and that to struggle against nature is the source of all human sorrow. Accordingly, the first thing we need to understand is that nature is beyond our control; therefore, we must learn to accept it without complaint. Indeed, to complain of nature is not only useless, but contemptible. The next thing we need to consider is that in life there are some things which are within our power to control, and others which are not. As such, we need only trouble ourselves with those things that are within our power; we must leave the rest to God.

Moreover, only those things that are within our power can truly be said to be good or evil; thus it is only these which have the power to harm us. So while external things may indeed injure us, they can never wrong us – they simply behave as nature intends. Furthermore, all things that are truly within our power are contained within ourselves and can never be taken away. To the contrary, external blessings should be regarded as the temporary gifts of fortune, of which it is foolish to place our happiness in. Finally, happiness can only be achieved by living virtuously: something that is completely within our power and which is in itself its own reward.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the first of the three great Stoics, was born into a wealthy family in Cordoba Spain. Both his father (Seneca the Elder) and older brother, Junius Annaeus Gallio, were successful writers and statesmen, and it was their intention that the young Seneca should follow in these pursuits as well. Hence, at an early age Seneca, accompanied by his aunt, was sent to Rome where he was educated in a form of philosophy which consisted in a mixture of both Stoic and Neo-Pythagoreanistic doctrines. But as Seneca was to be plagued with health problems throughout his life, an illness interrupted his studies, and while still a young man he travelled to Egypt (again accompanied by his aunt) to undergo a prolonged convalescence. When he returned to Rome in 31 AD, he picked up where he left off and embarked upon what would become a successful career in both politics and law. Furthermore, it was during this time that he came to be widely regarded as an important writer, amassing not only a sizable collection of essays, but of tragedies as well.

In time, however, Seneca fell out of favor with the then Emperor Caligula, who had accused him of committing adultery with his sister, Princess Julia Livilla. Consequently, in 41 AD Emperor Claudius, Caligula’s successor, ordered Seneca to be sent away to Corsica. (Due to Seneca’s protracted poor health, it wasn’t considered worthwhile to have him executed.) During his time in exile Seneca devoted almost all of his time to writing and the study of philosophy. Then in 49 AD, at the urging of Claudius’ wife, Agrippina, Seneca was recalled to Rome where he was compelled to be the tutor her son, the twelve year old and future Emperor, Nero. A year later, Seneca married Pompeia Paulina, a well-connected woman of considerable influence. It was shortly after Nero’s ascendancy to the throne in 54 AD that Seneca assumed the role of chief minister to the Emperor.

However, as is common among those so near to the seat of power, Seneca soon found himself at odds with various political enemies, so much so, in fact, that in 62 AD he was forced to retire from public life altogether. This, unfortunately, did not end his political troubles, for in 65 AD Seneca became embroiled in a plot to murder Nero. This failed plot, known as the Pisonian Conspiracy, marked the beginning of Nero’s fall from power, and would eventually lead to his own suicide. Nonetheless, and despite history’s having no account of Seneca’s involvement in the plot, Seneca along with forty others where either exiled or executed, mostly by way of forced suicide. For his own part, Seneca fell into the latter group, and in traditional Roman fashion, he committed suicide by lying in a hot bath and opening the veins of his arms and legs. Pompeian Paulina tried to accompany her husband in death by slashing her own wrists, but when Nero heard the news of her attempt, he ordered his soldiers to bandage her wounds and stop the bleeding, not so much in an effort to save her life, but rather out of spite toward the conspirators.

For two thousand years Seneca’s writings have been an inspiration to theologians and moral philosophers alike. With regard to Christianity, Seneca’s works were studied and revered by such early thinkers as St. Augustine, Jerome, and Boethius. There is even evidence to suggest that Seneca was acquainted with Paul the Apostle. (Seneca’s brother Gallio is written about in the New Testament book, the Acts of the Apostles.) As for moral philosophy, Seneca’s influence can be seen in the works of Dante, Chaucer, Calvin, Montaigne, and Rousseau. And whether he was aware of it or not, Immanuel Kant’s famous Categorical Imperative can be shown (and later will be shown) to have its roots in the ethical teachings of Seneca.

With that, we will now begin our examination of some of the most important ideas and quotes that Seneca puts forward in six of his most famous works: On the Shortness of Life, On Anger, On the Happy Life, On Peace of Mind, On Benefits, and On Clemency.

Section 3 - On the Shortness of Life

(Written around 49 AD)

The following is based on the translation by John W. Basore, 1932.

From Chapter 1

The majority of mortals…complain bitterly of the spitefulness of Nature, because we are born of a brief span of life, because even this span that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live. Nor is it the common herd and the unthinking crowd that bemoans what is, as men deem it, a universal ill; the same feeling has called forth complaint also from men who were famous. It was this that made the greatest of physicians [Hippocrates] exclaim that ‘life is short, art is long;’ it was this that led Aristotle, while expostulating with Nature, to enter an indictment most unbecoming to a wise man – that, in point of age, she has shown such favor to animals that they drag out five or ten lifetimes, but that a much shorter limit is fixed for man, though he is born for so many and such great achievements.

It is not that we live a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.

Life is long enough, and it has been given in sufficiently generous measure to allow the accomplishment of the greatest things if the whole of it is well invested. But when it is squandered in luxury and carelessness, when it is devoted to no good end, forced at last by the ultimate necessity we perceive that it has passed away before we were aware that it was passing.

So it is – the life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it.

Life is amply long for him who orders it properly.

From Chapter 2

Why do we complain of Nature? She has shown herself kindly; life, if you know how to use it, is long.

I cannot doubt the truth of that utterance which the greatest of poets delivered with all the seeming of an oracle: ‘The part of life we really live is small.’ For all the rest of existence is not life, but merely time.

From Chapter 3

"Men do not suffer anyone to seize their estates, and they rush to stones and arms if there is even the slightest dispute about the limit of their lands, yet they allow others to trespass upon their life – nay, they themselves even lead in those who will eventually possess it.