Seneca
Practise what you ask of life.
A Stoic writer, statesman and dramatist who examines time, anger, friendship and power from a life entangled with wealth and Nero’s court.
How can philosophical commitments survive the pressures of ambition, comfort and power?
Biography
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was born at Corduba around 4 BCE into a prosperous family whose connections made education and public advancement possible. His father, Seneca the Elder, preserved the world of Roman rhetorical performance; the younger Seneca combined that training with philosophy under teachers including Attalus and Sotion. Accounts of illness and time in Egypt complicate any image of uninterrupted ambition. His writings remember bodily vulnerability as well as intellectual enthusiasm. Stoicism supplied a framework for judging desires and duties, but his literary imagination also drew on competing schools, historical examples and the techniques of persuasive speech.
02 /Philosophy
Life is diminished when attention is surrendered without examination. The issue is the quality and direction of activity, not a demand to work constantly.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
Recover the use of your time
Read On the Shortness of Life as an inquiry into commitments, leisure and the meaning of being occupied.
On the Shortness of LifePause before wanting punishment
Trace the movement from a first emotional shock to the deliberate endorsement of revenge.
On AngerRead friendship against social rank
Bring letters 3, 9 and 47 together to examine trust, independence and the limits of Seneca’s moral community.
Moral Letters to Lucilius