Bust of Pseudo-Seneca, Peter Paul Rubens, 1600-1626. Robert Lehman Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art.
- Motivation - description of & motivation for this repository.
- Book I - letters 01-12
- Book II - letters 14-21
- Book III
- Book IV
- Book V
- Book VI
- Notes - works cited
I first came across Seneca through the work of Nassim Nicholas Taleb - specifically his book Antifragile. There might be a popular conception of Stoic philosophers as unfeeling people, unmoved by the events of life. I've found myself more interested in Taleb's characterization of Stoics as 'Buddhists with an attitude problem'[1].
Approximately 100 of Seneca's letters to his friend Lucilius are collected in Seneca - Selected Letters, as translated by Elaine Fantham. What follows are transcriptions of the introductions to each letter. Fantham's translation was chosen because of her fresh approach to the classics and view of 'history as a living thing'[2], in addition to her expertise on the subject.
This 'indexing' exists as a live experiment in reading and study. I'd come across a primer on HOW TO STUDY[3] on Hacker News a while ago, and it recently resurfaced again on 'popular' page of Pinboard. There was advice on reading texts quickly the first time through, and then more studiously the second. The idea is to get an overview of the writing first, and then delve into unpacking the details.
I thought I'd try that advice out here. Perhaps down the line there will be a tool or website built that accesses each letter and corresponding notes in a novel way.
In answer to Lucilius, who has declared himself determined to make the best use of his time.
On restlessness, whether in physical travel or indiscriminate reading.
On the proper basis of real friendship. Seneca warns Lucilius against making a man into a friend before he knows the man's character. But once someone has become a friend, he should be trusted and should share one's anxieties.
On cultivating tranquility of mind and rejecting fear of death. Seneca starts from the comparison of a man becoming wise to a boy coming of age. It is equally foolish to scorn life and to fear death, and calmness can be achieved by learning that there is no reason to fear death, which is always with us.
On avoiding conspicuous austerity and the meaning of 'living according to Nature.' Adopting a severe lifestyle is one aspect of the wider issue of shunning the crowd, and actually withdrawing or retiring from public life raised in letters 7 and 8.
Seneca offers Lucilius evidence of his own gradual advance in virtue.
On the gratuitous cruelty of public executions in the arena and the moral harm done by contact with the crowd of spectators and their vicious relish for human suffering. But any contact with vicious men will only corrupt (•6). One has to avoid either imitating common attitudes or hating them, and teach only those ready to learn, not trying to convert a general audience. Even a single listener, or none at all, is good enough for the man behaving rightly. It is important to distinguish the enforced combats of batches of condemned criminals sent to fight until one of their opponents should kill them, from the skilled combat of trained gladiators in appropriate defensive armour. See M. Wistrand, Entertainment and Violence in Rome in the First Century AD (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1978).
On withdrawal (secedere): Seneca continues the theme of withdrawal from letter 7, but adds that his withdrawal is a positive retirement in order to write for the future enlightenment of posterity. Lucilius should shun the tastes and indulgences of the crowd. Instead Seneca turns to recommendations (based on his own example) for a life spent in withdrawal even from accepted social obligations.
On self-sufficiency and the value of friendship. Seneca returns to the theme of friendship from a new point of view; the wise man should not need friends. But he does need them to be objects of his kindness, and Seneca distinguishes between self-interested and altruistic friendship.
On the potential harm from bad company and the need to address only honest prayers to God even away from other men.
On physical blushing and moral bashfulness. Seneca argues that there are physical reactions a man cannot control and should not be blamed for. In •8 he uses his 'Epicurean' envoi[4] to change to a different theme; the recommendation to imagine one's actions under the observation of a respected and virtuous man.
Seneca uses a visit to his childhood home to illustrate how the decay in his country villa, the decline of plane trees he himself planted, and finally the ageing of his childhood playmate have convinced him of his advanced age. This leads to consideration (•6) of each day as a fraction of a larger unit of natural time and the span of life, and the proper way to look forward to death, not unlike the maudlin Pacuvius (•8) who staged a performance of his own funeral every evening.
Seneca discusses human concern for one's own body, and fear of suffering physical pain, especially pain imposed upon us by an oppressor or tyrant figure. (By listing as potential oppressor the common people or a faction of the senate before mentioning a single autocrat, Seneca comes as near as he dare approach to his own situation under the power of Nero.)
The wise man will never provoke the anger of the crowd or the powerful individual, yet (•12) Cato in his wisdom opposed Pompey and Caesar both during ad before the outbreak of civil war.
For Seneca, as for his nephew Lucan (especially in Book II of the Civil War), Cato serves as a safely removed model for the wise man's attitude, enabling Seneca to postpone indefinitely (•14) the larger issue of whether the wise man should even participate in public life.
This letter too starts from concern with the body. Seneca deplores modern forms of physical training, but recognizes the value of fitness, and suggests simpler substitutes. (See also letter 83, ••1-5 on his own health regime.)
Compliments to Lucilius lead to warnings that he is not yet secure in his own moral stability. At •4 Seneca introduces the problematic issue of what is fated and cannot be averted. His injunction to obey fate gladly but fortune with resistance might have led to real confusion, so he relinquishes it (•6) for the simpler topic of living according to nature, not human opinions.
It is the holiday season of the Saturnalia. Seneca debates how far to go along with society's increasing frivolity, and suggests an exercise in self-imposed austerity.
Seneca congratulates Lucilius on his moral progress, and warns him against the distraction of his present public career and of worldly ambition.
Seneca uses the unspecified anxieties of Lucilius to advise him about the triviality of external concerns and importance of being at peace with himself. This letter marks Seneca's adherence to the two traditions of philosophical letters of advice (Epicurus) and personal correspondence (Cicero), before moving on to Epicurus' precepts about reducing desires (••7-9) and praising the spirit of austerity symbolized by both the inscription and keeper of Epicurus' garden.
Seneca advises Lucilius not to waste his peace of mind worrying about everyday anxieties, or feating loss and death. This letter (the longest in the correspondence up to this point) is one of his most impassioned, maximizing the rhetoric of death in order to inspire fearless courage. Seneca uses both the standard Stoic examples of constancy and the standard Epicurean denunciation of false beliefs about life after death to reinforce his exhortations.
On old age and its loss of powers as a gentle approach towards death. More thoughts about facing death (to be continued in letter 27).
Seneca acknowledges that while prescribing behaviour to Lucilius he is merely a fellow patient, talking to his friend as he would to himself. They should focus on lasting goods, particularly the mind's own good, virtue. Virtue cannot be delegated, as one ignorant man tried to delegate his literary culture to his slaves. Men must practice virtue for themselves.
Lucilius has supposedly complained that travelling abroad has not relieved his discontent. Seneca tells him that his mental condition is not dependent on his circumstances; no place is alien, and yet nowhere is so disturbing as his regular haunt, the Forum. In a partial answer to the problem posed in letter 14, he now claims the wise man will choose peace rather than public involvement.
This is the first of several letters focused on the recurring theme of defining what is 'the good' and how it is related to what is honourable. Seneca touches incidentally on the 'vanity of human wishes', a theme which will be central to letter 60. Then he offers various definitions of the good: 'knowledge of life', 'an even tenor of life and knowledge of things human and divine', and 'a good and upright spirit'.
Lucilius has reproached Seneca because he has not quoted any sayings of Epicurus since letter 29. Now he justifies this at two levels: first by contrasting the nuggets of moral instruction offered by Epicurus and his followers with the continuous argumentation of Zeno and his followers; and secondly by criticizing the habit of recying on other men's sayings instead of working out one's own moral precepts.
On the difference between loving and being a true friend. Seneca cites his age and Lucilius' mortality as motives for urgency in developing his love and hastening their reunion.
A friend of Lucilius wants to retire from public service and is meeting criticism. After commending training to face misfortune, Seneca turns to disparaging the fear of death since death is inevitable and brings no suffering.
A comparison of the philosopher's oath of service with that of gladiators.
Lucilius has asked Seneca to write more frequently.
Seneca answers Lucilius' request for a compendium of recommendations, but sends him to the ethical writers: his noble nature will respond to moral incentives and not be suberged in vice like men ruined by success.
Seneca believed in the importance of style because of its power to arouse and convince an audience for philosophical as well as rhetorical purposes. Here he argues about the appropriate delivery for teaching philosophy. Starting from Lucilius's supposed comment on the eloquence of the showpiece lecturer Seapion (more sophist than philosopher), Seneca reviews the factors determining the slower pace proper to philosophers' speech as opposed to speakers in the lawcourts and declaimers, then contrasts Greek with Roman eloquence and Cicero with contemporary orators.
_On the divine origin of reason in the human spirit. Seneca compares the sacred power within a man to our perception of sacredness when we contemplate mysterious and beautiful elements in natural landscape. As for divine inspiration or spirit, it is natural and cannot be simulated by adornment. _
_On the difference between social and moral standing. Seneca reproaches Lucilius for feeling socially inferior as a mere knight, and compares the moral nobility and humble social origin of Socrates and other great philosophers. References to movement between slavery and free status point ahead to the direct discussion coming in letter 47. _
Seneca praises the book Lucilius has written and sent to him (but lets us know nothing about its content.)
On the proper treatment of slaves, and how to reform the cruel and insulting behaviour of bad masters at dinner. Seneca's chief arguments are that slavery is the product of chance, which any man can suffer, and that treating slaves with some respect both wins their goodwill and brings moral improvement to master and slave.
The matter on which Lucilius has requested advice is left unclear: it is merely an opening gambit to enable Seneca to discuss the proper relationship between friends. From (•6), however, Seneca is concerned with rejecting syllogistic[5] argument, and his addressee is no longer Lucilius but an imagined philosopher. Unfortunately, several key phrases in (••8-9) are damaged beyond restoration.
Seneca is now in Campania, the favourite holiday resort of many elite Romans, and Lucilius' birthplace (he came from Pompeii). Remembered time seems short, but actual time is very short (•4), too short to waste on syllogistic puzzles; instead we must make th emost of our life and approacghing death by striving to perfect our reason.
Seneca's main theme is the avoidance of corrupting resorts, like Baiae, which he claims to have left after less than a day.
Seneca starts by reporting his own (rather desperate) reaction to seasickness on a short trip in a private boat from Naples (Parthenope) to Puteoli; after twice making the steersman change his course, Seneca dived out fo the boat and swam to land. He is now somewhat amazed (as are we) at his own foolhardiness, but passes quickly (••5-7) from consideration of physical sickness to ailments of the mind.
On Seneca's experience of asthmatic seizures, from which he profits by learning to anticipate death.
Seneca uses his experience in being carried past the luxurious retirement villa of Servilius Vatia to distinguish between a retirement that is death-in-life and proper retirement applied to study and moral self-development.
Seneca has tested his powers of concentration by taking lodging over a public bath-house, and describes its echoing cacophony.
Again Seneca describes an extraordinary physical ordeal, perhaps a combination of whirling sandstorm and the kind of claustrophobia engendered by tunnels. He discusses other forms of phobia and distinguishes them from ostensibly reasonable fears, none of which are really justified.
Like some later letters (63 and 67, this starts from a conventional phrase - 'it was a great pleasure to read your letter' - and uses it to discriminate between the popular use of pleasure (voluptas) and Stoic values, which regard pleasure as a harmful emotion but value instead joy (gaudium) as a genuine response to real moreal success. As for Lucilius's letter, Seneca speaks only of its forceful style, giving no idea of its content. (We may compare his treatment of Lucilius' book in letter 46.) This is profoundly frustrating for us as readers if Seneca is referring to actual compositions by Lucilius, but if this is merely a fiction to give the correspondence authenticity, it keeps the focus on the nature of writing itself as a philosophical or ethical exercise.
The main body of the letter moves from Lucilius' use of didactic analogies to a military analogy used by Sextius, and compares the stupidity of an ill-led force to the folly of the individual who confuses the false pleasure of external and contingent success with the lasting joy that comes only from the achievement of virtue and wisdom.
- ...the false pleasure of external and contingent success
[1] “Taleb Delivers Commencement Speech at American University of Beirut 2016.” YouTube, Manish Sharma, 9 June 2016, youtu.be/Fzmr3urk28I?t=3m36s.
Taleb: "...self-respect, on the other hand, is robust. That's the approach of the Stoic school, which is, incidentally, a Phoenician movement. So someone wonders, 'Who are the Stoics?' - I'd say they're Buddhists, with an attitude problem."
[2] Allemang, John. “Elaine Fantham: Scholar was a 'rock star' of the classics world.” The Globe and Mail, Phillip Crawley, 24 Mar. 2017, The Globe and Mail.
Allemang on Fantham: "The wartime bombing of Liverpool affected her deeply. Studying the fall of Troy, she couldn't help but see Britain under siege. Her talent for treating the past as a living thing began with her astonishment that she could experience ancient hexameters as if they were written for her."
[3] Rappaport, William J. “HOW TO STUDY.” Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Department of Philosophy, and Center for Cognitive Science State University of New York at Buffalo, 25 Jan. 2018, Last Update: Thursday, 25 January 2018.
Rappaport: "If the text is a work of literature (a story, novel, play, poem, etc.), it is often best to read it once all the way through without stopping, just as you would read something for fun, so that you get to know what it's about and can appreciate it as a work of literature...Then you can use the slow and active reading techniques for a second (or third, or fourth, or ...) reading when you are studying the text.
Actually, even for non-fiction, it can be useful to read the text through once, quickly, to get an overview, perhaps making notes if something strikes you, and then doing the slow and active reading techniques when you are studying the text."
[4] Definition of envoi: a short stanza concluding a ballade, or (literary) an author's concluding words. via Google search.
[5] Definition of syllogistic:
- Logic. an argument the conclusion of which is supported by two premises, of which one (major premise) contains the term (major term) that is the predicate of the conclusion, and the other (minor premise) contains the term (minor term) that is the subject of the conclusion; common to both premises is a term (middle term) that is excluded from the conclusion. A typical form is “All A is C; all B is A; therefore all B is C.”.
- deductive reasoning.
- an extremely subtle, sophisticated, or deceptive argument. via dictionary.com