A selection of Seneca’s most significant letters that illuminate his philosophical and personal life.
In the year 62, citing health issues, the Roman philosopher Seneca withdrew from public service and devoted his time to writing. His letters from this period offer a window into his experience as a landowner, a traveler through Roman Italy, and a man coping with the onset of old age. They describe the roar of the arena, the festival of Saturnalia, and the perils of the Adriatic Sea, and they explain his thoughts about political power, the treatment of slaves, the origins of civilization, and the key points of Stoic philosophy.
This selection of fifty of his letters brings Seneca to readers in a fresh modern voice and shows how, as a philosopher, he speaks to our time. Above all, these letters explore the inner life of the individual: from the life of heedless vanity to the first interest in philosophy, to true friendship, self-determination, and personal excellence.
A selection of Seneca’s most significant letters that illuminate his philosophical and personal life.
In the year 62, citing health issues, the Roman philosopher Seneca withdrew from public service and devoted his time to writing. His letters from this period offer a window into his experience as a landowner, a traveler through Roman Italy, and a man coping with the onset of old age. They describe the roar of the arena, the festival of Saturnalia, and the perils of the Adriatic Sea, and they explain his thoughts about political power, the treatment of slaves, the origins of civilization, and the key points of Stoic philosophy.
This selection of fifty of his letters brings Seneca to readers in a fresh modern voice and shows how, as a philosopher, he speaks to our time. Above all, these letters explore the inner life of the individual: from the life of heedless vanity to the first interest in philosophy, to true friendship, self-determination, and personal excellence.
Preface
Introduction
Margaret Graver and A. A. Long
Fifty Letters
1 Taking charge of your time
2 A beneficial reading program
3 Trusting one’s friends
6 Intimacy within friendship
7 Avoiding the crowd
8 Writing as a form of service
9 Friendship and self-sufficiency
11 Blushing
12 Visiting a childhood home
14 Safety in a dangerous world
15 Exercises for the body and the voice
16 Daily study and practice
18 The Saturnalia festival
20 Consistency
21 How reading can make you famous
23 Real joy is a serious matter
30 An Epicurean on his deathbed
31 Our mind’s godlike potential
33 The use of philosophical maxims
38 Fewer words achieve more
40 Oratory and the philosopher
41 God dwells within us
46 A book by Lucilius
47 The evils of slavery
49 Remembering old times
53 A bad experience at sea
54 A near-fatal asthma attack
56 Noisy lodgings above a bathhouse
57 A dark tunnel
58 A conversation about Plato
63 Consolation for the death of a friend
65 Some analyses of causation
70 Ending one’s own life
75 What it means to make progress
76 Only the honorable is good
79 A trip around Sicily brings thoughts of glory
83 Heavy drinking
84 The writer’s craft
86 The rustic villa of Scipio Africanus
90 The beginnings of civilization
91 A terrible fire at Lyon
97 A trial in the time of Cicero
104 Why travel cannot set you free
108 Vegetarianism and the use of literature
112 A difficult pupil
113 Is a virtue an animate creature?
116 The Stoic view of emotion
121 Self-awareness in animate creatures
123 Resisting external influences
124 The criterion for the human good
Notes
Textual Notes
Bibliography
Index
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4BCE-65CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, and advisor to Emperor Nero. Margaret Graver is the Aaron Lawrence Professor in Classics at Dartmouth College. Her publications include Cicero on the Emotions: Tusculan Disputations 3 and 4; Stoicism and Emotion; and, in collaboration with A.A. Long, a complete translation of Seneca's Letters on Ethics. A.A. Long is chancellor's professor of classics emeritus and affiliated professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His books include Greek Models of Mind and Self and Epictetus: How to be Free.
"The letters’ intimate voice, their accessibility, and their focus
on everyday challenges make the letters relevant for readers of all
ages and academic levels. In addition, explanatory notes at the end
of the book add depth and offer clarification for readers
unfamiliar with Seneca or Stoic philosophy. A good representative
sample of Seneca’s letters, Fifty Letters is an approachable text
and a good introduction to Roman Stoicism. . . . Recommended."
*Choice*
"In 2015 Chicago did the great service of publishing G. and L.’s
magisterial translation and commentary on all 124 surviving letters
to Lucilius (Seneca: Letters on Ethics to Lucilius)... With this
volume, G. and L. have now produced a very reasonably priced soft
covered selection of slightly under half of the full corpus
of Letters to Lucilius."
*Classics for All*
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