📖 Lucius Annaeus Seneca - Letters from a Stoic
Remember to add your book recommendations in the comments below.
Today’s book is:
Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca
"It is philosophy that has the duty of protecting us...without it no one can lead a life free of fear or worry."
For several years of his turbulent life, Seneca was the guiding hand of the Roman Empire. His inspired reasoning derived mainly from the Stoic principles, which had originally been developed some centuries earlier in Athens.
This selection of Seneca's letters shows him upholding the austere ethical ideals of Stoicism—the wisdom of the self-possessed person immune to overmastering emotions and life’s setbacks—while valuing friendship and the courage of ordinary men, and criticizing the harsh treatment of slaves and the cruelties in the gladiatorial arena.
The humanity and wit revealed in Seneca’s interpretation of Stoicism is a moving and inspiring declaration of the dignity of the individual mind.
You can buy the book here (Amazon link).
part 2 of the comment from part 1
here is a link to a more modern translation of the complete works for download.
https://archive.org/details/epictetus-robin-waterfield-the-complete-works-handbook-discourses-and-fragments-2022
and also an extract that caught my eye:
1.19 The Proper Attitude To Have Toward Tyrants
[1] “Arrogance is absolutely inevitable in a person— an uneducatedperson, that is— who enjoys some advantage, or at least thinks he does, even if he doesn’t. [2] A tyrant, for example, claims to be the most powerful man in the world. So what can you do for me with your power? Can you ensure that my desires are never impeded? How could you, when you can’t do that for yourself? That my aversions effectively prevent the occurrence of things I want to avoid? No, because you can’t do that for yourself. That my inclinations never lead me astray? I don’t see that as one of your gifts. [3] Tell me: when you’re on a ship, do you place your trust in yourself or in the expert? When you’re on a wagon— yourself or the expert? [4] What about any other area of expertise? Same story. So what does your power amount to?
“‘I’m the focus of everyone’s attention.’ Yes, and I attend to my plate; I wash it and dry it, and I drive a peg into the wall for my oil flask. Does that make these things more powerful than me? No, but they’re useful to me, and that’s why I attend to them. Don’t I also attend to my donkey? [5] Don’t I wash its feet and rub it down? Can’t you see that everyone attends to his own needs, and attends to you as he does his donkey? I mean, who cares for you as a person? Point him out to me. [6] Who wishes to be like you? Who takes you as a role model, as they do Socrates? ‘But I can have you beheaded.’ You’re right. I’d forgotten that I should attend to you in the same way that I attend to a fever or cholera— that I should set up an altar to you, just as Fever has an altar in Rome.*
[7] “What is it that’s usually found troubling, even frightening? The tyrant? His bodyguards? Is that possible? Hardly! It’s impossible for something that’s naturally free to be troubled or impeded by anything except itself. [8] Only his own judgments trouble a person. When a tyrant tells someone, ‘I’m going to chain your leg,’ only a person who has come to value his leg says, ‘Please, no! Have mercy!’ But anyone who judges his will important says, ‘Go ahead, if you think
p114 Epictetus: the Complete Works
that’s the most expedient thing for you to do.’ ‘Don’t you care?’ ‘No, I don’t.’ [9] ‘I’ll show you that I’m your master.’ ‘How will you do that? Zeus has set me free. Do you really think he’s going to let his own son be enslaved? You’re the master of my carcass: take that.’ [10] ‘You mean to say that when you’re in my presence, I’m not the focus of your attention?’ ‘No, I’m attending to myself. If you want me to tell you that I attend to you as well, here’s what I say: I give you the same kind of attention that I give my kettle.’
[11] “This isn’t selfishness; the creature in question was born like this. It does everything for itself.* Even the sun does everything for itself, and so, for that matter, does Zeus himself. [12] But sometimes Zeus wishes to be ‘the Bringer of Rain,’ ‘the Fruitful,’ and ‘Father of Gods and Men,’ and you can see that he can’t perform these functions and deserve these titles unless he makes some contribution to the common good. [13] And (without going into details) he equipped the rational creature with a nature which is such that its own particular goods are unattainable unless it makes some beneficial contribution to the common good. [14] In which case, doing everything for oneself isn’t selfish. [15] Anyway, do you seriously expect someone to neglect himself and his own interest? In that case, how could all living creatures share the same fundamental drive; namely, appropriation to themselves?
[16] “It follows, then, that when someone entertains uncouth views about things that aren’t subject to will— that is, when he labels such things good and bad— he is absolutely bound to dance attendance on tyrants. [17] If only it was just the tyrants, and not their chamberlains as well! How does a person become wise all of a sudden when Caesar puts him in charge of his closestool? How come we suddenly say, ‘Felicio had some wise words for me’? [18] I’d like to see him demoted from his dung heap, so that you’d regard him once more as a fool. [19] Epaphroditus had a shoemaker who was so useless that he sold him. But then it so happened that the man was bought by a member of Caesar’s household and became Caesar’s shoemaker. You should have seen the respect Epaphroditus showed him! [20] ‘What’s up, Felicio, my very dear friend?’* [21] Moreover, if one of us asked, ‘What’s the master doing?’ he was told, ‘He’s in a meeting with Felicio.’ [22] But hadn’t he sold him as useless? So
discourses, book 1 p115
who suddenly made him wise? [23] This is what happens when someone regards as important anything other than what is subject to will.
[24] “‘He’s been made a tribune.’ Everyone who runs into him offers his congratulations. One kisses his eyes, another his neck, slaves kiss his hands. He goes home and finds lamps being lit for him.* He goes up to the Capitol and offers a sacrifice. [25] But who has ever performed a sacrifice in thanks for the fact that his desires went well, or because his inclinations were in accord with nature? After all, it’s things we count as good for which we thank the gods.[26]
“Someone was talking to me today about the priesthood of Augustus.* ‘Steer well clear of it, man!’ I advised him. ‘You’ll incur considerable expenses for nothing.’ [27] ‘But when bills of sale are drawn up, they’ll be inscribed with my name.’ ‘But you won’t actually be there when people read these contracts, will you? “Look: that’s my name written there.” [28] And then, even supposing that you were in fact able to be physically present at every signing, what will you do after your death?’ ‘My name will survive me.’ ‘Carve your name on a rock and it’ll survive you. But tell me: who will remember you beyond Nicopolis?’ [29] ‘But I’ll wear a golden crown.’ ‘Well, if you really want a crown, get a crown of roses and put it on. That’ll look more chic.’”
1.20 On Reason And Its Ability To Examine Itself
[looks like an interesting discussion.]
all the best with what has changed in 2024! and with everything that is to change in 2025! everything changes! with peace, respect, love and exuberant joy.
🙏❤️🧘♂️🙌☯️🙌🧘♂️❤️🙏
Pretty sure if stoicism and actual philosophy was still taught in schools (not the BS versions currently passing as "philosophy"), we wouldn't have ended up here as a society or had the last 5yrs.😉🤔🤦♀️