Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“ Introduction Among the personalities of the early Roman Empire there are few who offer to the readers of to-day such dramatic interest as does Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the author of the Epistles which are translated in this volume. Born in a province, educated at Rome, prominent at the bar, a distinguished exile, a trusted minister of State, and a doomed victim of a capricious emperor, Seneca is so linked with the age in which he lived that in reading his works we read those of a true representative of the most thrilling period of Roman history. ”

“ He left Corduba, and went to Rome, where he became a Roman knight. His son Lucius Annæus Seneca, who was born about six years before Christ, was early distinguished by his extraordinary talents. He was taught eloquence by his father, and received lessons in philosophy from the best and most celebrated stoics of the age. As one of the followers of the Pythagorean doctrines, Seneca observed the most reserved abstinence, and in his meals never ate the flesh of animals ”

“ Lucius Annæus Seneca, the Roman philosopher, destroyed himself by order of Nero. He was born in the first year of the Christian era, received a careful education, and became a disciple of the stoic school of philosophy. He was the tutor of Nero, who, listening to the calumnies of his enemies, had him accused of treason and condemned. He professed a contempt for luxuries, but was not indifferent to wealth, for he acquired an immense estate. His Morals have often been republished in English.
276. Marcos Claudius Tacitus, emperor of Rome, died, at Tyana upon Saurus. ”

“ It was the birthplace of the rhetorician Marcus Annaeus Seneca, and his more famous son Lucius (c. 3 B.C.–A.D. 65) ; of the poet Lucan (A.D. 39–65) ; of the philosophers Averroes (1126–1198) and Maimonides (1135–1204) ”

“ All the same, he was not quite master of his wits, and had some fear of a blow from the fool. Claudius, seeing a mighty man before him, saw things looked serious and understood that here he had not quite the same pre-eminence as at Rome, where no one was his equal: the Gallic cock was worth most on his own dunghill. So this is what he was thought to say, as far as could be made out: "I did hope, Hercules, bravest of all the gods, that you would take my part with the rest, and if I should need a voucher, I meant to name you who know me so well. ”

“ The knee is nearer than the shin [13] . This man you see, who for so many years has been masquerading under my name, has done me the favour of murdering two Julias, great-granddaughters of mine, one by cold steel and one by starvation; and one great grandson, L. Silanus--see, Jupiter, whether he had a case against him (at least it is your own if you will be fair.) Come tell me, blessed Claudius, why of all those you killed, both men and women, without a hearing, why you did not hear their side of the case first, before putting them to death? ”

“ And such a foe as Lycus be thy last.635
I go myself to drink his hateful blood.
Hercules: My Theseus, stay thou here, lest violence
From some new source arise. This war is mine.
Let thy embraces wait awhile, my sire,
And thine, my wife. Let Lycus first announce
To Dis that I have safe returned to earth.640
[Exit.]
Theseus: Now let thy face give o'er its grief, my queen;
And thou, O father, check thy falling tears,
Since this thy son is safe returned to thee.
If I know Hercules, for Creon's death
This Lycus soon shall pay the penalty.
"Shall pay" is slow; he pays; nay more, has paid. ”

“ Besides the centralization of the external action around an inner spiritual theme and the fixing of the structural form, other less fundamental results of the Senecan influence are evident in the sixteenth and seventeenth century English drama. The Senecan tragedies belong to the age of the Julian successors of Tiberius,—an age when reason had lost its control, when changes were wrought by intrigue, cunning, and brute force ”

“ No, by Hercules! the Athenians call Harmodius and Aristogiton, tyrannicides; the hand of Mucius which he left on the enemy's altar was equivalent to the death of Porsena, and valour struggling against fortune is always illustrious, even if it falls short of accomplishing its design. He who watches each opportunity as it passes, and tries to avail himself of one after another, does more to show his gratitude than he whom the first opportunity enabled to be grateful without any trouble whatever. "But," says our adversary, "he gave you two things, material help and kindly feeling ”

“ Theseus offers his own Athens as a place of refuge, where his friend may find at once asylum and cleansing from his sin:
My land awaits thy coming; there will Mars
Wash clean thy hands and give thee back thy arms.
That land, O Hercules, now calls to thee,
Which even gods from sin is wont to free.
THE HIPPOLYTUS OF EURIPIDES, AND THE HIPPOLYTUS OF SENECA
Prologue.—Venus complains that Hippolytus alone of all men sets her power at naught and owns allegiance 473 to her rival, Diana. ”

“ SENECA THE ELDER. (1) LIFE.
Annaeus Seneca (for the praenomen Marcus, usually given, there is no authority: in the best MSS. it is Lucius, possibly through confusion with his son) was a native of Corduba: Mart. i. 62, 7,
‘Duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum
facunda loquitur Corduba.’
The date of his birth is probably about B.C. 55, for he was old enough to have heard Cicero if the civil wars had not prevented him leaving his native town: Contr. i. praef. ”

“ But it was determined not to let off any of the old stagers, lest Claudius should dare to hope for any such relief. It was agreed that some new punishment must be devised: they must devise some new task, something senseless, to suggest some craving without result. Then Aeacus decreed he should rattle dice for ever in a box with no bottom. ”

“ When they speak of him as the father and the fountain of all beings, they call him Bacchus: and under the name of Hercules, they denote him to be indefatigable and invincible; and in the contemplation of him in the reason, order, proportion, and wisdom of his proceedings, they call him Mercury; so that which way soever they look, and under what name soever they couch their meaning, they never fail of finding him; for he is everywhere, and fills his own work. If a man should borrow money of Seneca, and say that he owes it to Amnæus or Lucius, he may change the name but not his creditor ”

“ After the giants' impious blood was spilled 134
In Phlegra's vale, and gods were reinforced,445
What need we yet to prove his parentage?
Do we make false pretense of Jupiter?
Then Juno's hate believe.
Lycus: Why blaspheme Jove?
The race of mortals cannot mate with gods.
Amphitr.: Such is the origin of many gods.
Lycus: But were they slaves before their heaven was gained?450
Amphitr.: The Delian at Pherae kept the flocks.
Lycus: But he did not in exile roam the world.
Amphitr.: His mother bore him in a roaming land,
Herself a fugitive.
Lycus: Did Phoebus fear
Wild beasts and monsters? ”

“ Auge, an Arcadian maiden, loved by Hercules, and mother by him of Telephus, H. Oet. 367. Augēan Stables, the stables of Augeas, king of Elis, containing three thousand head of cattle, and uncleansed for thirty years; they were cleaned by Hercules in a single day, H. Fur. 247. Augustus, the first emperor of Rome; his rule cited by Seneca to Nero as a model of strong but merciful sway, Oct. *477; his bloody path to power described by Nero, ibid. *505; deified at death, ibid. 528. Aulis, a seaport of Boeotia, the rendezvous of the Greek fleet, whence they sailed to Troy. ”

“ Nyctelius, ibid. 492; destroyed Lycurgus, king of Thrace, because of that king's opposition to him, H. Fur. 903; inspired his maddened worshipers, the women of Thebes, to rend Pentheus in pieces, Oed. 441, 483; helped Jupiter in war against the giants, H. Fur. 458; found Ariadne on island of Naxos, where she had been deserted by Theseus, made her his wife, and set her as a constellation in the heavens, Oed. 488, 497; Hip. 760; H. Fur. 18; dithyrambic chorus in his praise, giving numerous incidents in his career, Oed. **403; won the favor of Juno and the homage of her city of Argos, ibid. ”

“ Felicity is an unquiet thing; it torments itself, and puzzles the brain. It makes some people ambitious, others luxurious; it puffs up some, and softens others; only (as it is with wine) some heads bear it better than others; but it dissolves all. Greatness stands upon a precipice: and if prosperity carries a man never so little beyond his poise, it overbears and dashes him to pieces. It is a rare thing for a man in a great fortune to lay down his happiness gently; it being a common fate for a man to sink under the weight of those felicities that raise him. ”

“ Anger is not only a vice, but a vice point-blank against nature, for it divides instead of joining; and in some measure, frustrates the end of Providence in human society. One man was born to help another; anger makes us destroy one another; the one unites, the other separates; the one is beneficial to us, the other mischievous; the one succors even strangers, the other destroys even the most intimate friends; the one ventures all to save another, the other ruins himself to undo another. Nature is bountiful, but anger is pernicious: for it is not fear, but mutual love that binds up mankind. ”

“ We take upon us like princes, and fly out for every trifle, as though there were life and death in the case. What a madness is it for a man to lay out an estate upon a table or a cabinet, a patrimony upon a pain of pendants, and to inflame the price of curiosities according to the hazard either of breaking or losing of them? To wear garments that will neither defend a woman’s body, nor her modesty: so thin that one could make a conscience of swearing she were naked: for she hardly shows more in the privacies of her amour than in public? ”

“ How great a part of it runs away in luxury and excess: the ranging of our guests, our servants, and our dishes! As if we were to eat and drink not for satiety, but ambition. The nights may well seem short that are so dear bought, and bestowed upon wine and women; the day is lost in expectation of the night, and the night in the apprehension of the morning. There is a terror in our very pleasures; and this vexatious thought in the very height of them, that they will not last always: which is a canker in the delights, even of the greatest and the most fortunate of men. ”

“ If I were to describe it, I would draw a tiger bathed in blood, sharp set, and ready to take a leap at his prey; or dress it up as the poets represent the furies, with whips, snakes, and flames; it should be sour, livid, full of scars, and wallowing in gore, raging up and down, destroying, grinning, bellowing, and pursuing; sick of all other things, and most of all, itself. It turns beauty into deformity, and the calmest counsels into fierceness: it disorders our very garments, and fills the mind with horror. ”

“ Must the stars quit their stations, and fall foul one upon another? must the sun stand still in the middle of his course, and heaven and earth drop into confusion? must a devouring fire seize upon the universe ”

“ He that makes himself famous by his eloquence, justice, or arms, illustrates his extraction, let it be never so mean; and gives inestimable reputation to his parents. We should never have heard of Sophroniscus, but for his son Socrates; nor for Aristo and Gryllus, if it had not been for Xenophon and Plato. ”

“ Whose attention is not arrested by the universe itself, when by night it pours forth its fires and glitters with innumerable stars? Who, while he admires them, thinks of their being of use to him? Look at that great company gliding over our heads, how they conceal their swift motion under the semblance of a fixed and immovable work. ”

“ May the ruler of the heaven dwellers who often shakes the world with his deadly thunderbolts and terrifies our mind with sacred lightning,—may he prepare to overwhelm the head of the impious chief with flames. ”

“ But the general interrupted these reflections full of grief.
“Noble Annæus,” said he, “I know how Cæsar rewarded thee for the care with which thou didst surround his years of youth. But the author of the removal of Lygia is Petronius. Indicate to me a method against him, indicate the influences to which he yields, and use besides with him all the eloquence with which friendship for me of long standing can inspire thee.”
“Petronius and I,” answered Seneca, “are men of two opposite camps; I know of no method against him, he yields to no man’s influence. ”

“ It is an obvious inference that the brothers referred to are Gallio and Mela, while it is possible that the little Marcus is no other than the gifted son of Mela, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, the epic poet. [157] The fifteenth represents him as an exile in a barren land: he appeals to a faithful friend named Crispus, probably the distinguished orator Passienus Crispus, the younger, who was consul for the second time in 44 A.D. [158] There are also other epigrams which, though less explicit, suit the circumstances of Seneca's exile. The fifth is written in praise of the quiet life. ”

“ If there was one man in all Rome whom the world envied next to the young Emperor, or even more than the Emperor himself, it was his tutor, Seneca. He was the leading man in Rome. By the popular critics of the day his style was thought the finest which any Roman had written, though the Emperor Gaius, in one of his lucid intervals, had wittily remarked that it was ‘sand without lime.’ His abilities were brilliant, his wealth was immense. ”