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During his retirement, Seneca’s major work was his Epistulae Morales (`Moral Letters’), a collection of letters written to his younger friend Lucilius Iunior, who was then governor of Sicily. They contain advice and discussions of philosophical questions, often drawing on the writer’s own experience.
In letter 56 Seneca describes to Lucilius the noise pollution he endures living over a public bathhouse. A partial translation of this was included in stage 10 of the Cambridge Latin Course. He argues that, troublesome as the noise is, true inner calmness can defeat it .
Noise from weightlifters was one of the problems. The picture, from a 4th century A,.D. Villa Romana del Casale in Sicily, shows a female practitioner of the sport.
Seneca writes that he was `finished’ when he heard the sound of a ballplayer (pilīcrepus) counting his throws.
The unctiō plēbēia (`cheap massage’) Seneca mentions involved the use of oil (unctiō is literally anointing) but seems to have been less gentle than the one shown here
A lot of the noise probably may have come from a palaestra (seen here) or hall next to the baths rather than from the baths themselves
He refers at the end to how Ulysses dealt with the Sirens, whose unbearably beautiful singing lured sailors to their death: he equipped his crew with ear-plugs and had himself tied to the mast so that he could listen but be unable to harm himself
SENECA AS PHILOSOPHER • Though accepting ideas from other traditions, Seneca, like many upper class Romans and like the fictional Euphrosyne in Book IV of the Cambridge Latin Course, was basically a Stoic and believed that true happiness depended on the ability to accept any event with inner calmness, not on the events themselves. • He believed in the divinity of nature itself rather than in the multiple gods of popular belief. However, he accepted the value of prayer and his surviving works do NOT contain the statement often nowadays attributed to him that `Religion is considered by the many as true, by the wise as false and by rulers as useful.’ • He emphasised the importance of living a virtuous life but accepted the possibility that death could mean just the ending of conscious existence – not to be feared because this was also our state before we were born. • Though arguing that one should not allow oneself to become attached to anything that could be lost, he stressed the importance of affection for friends and children and also of laughter. • Whilst not an advocate of human rights in the modern sense, he recognised the humanity of slaves and argued for treating them humanely (see next slide)
ON THE TREATMENT OF SLAVES (Epist. Mor. 47.10) • Vīs tū cogitāre istum quem servum tuum vocās ex īsdem sēminibus ortum eōdem fruī caelō, aeque spīrāre, aequē vīvere, aequē morī! tam tū illum vidēre ingenuum potes quam ille tē servum.Vīve cum servō clementer, comiter quoque, et in sermōnem illum admitte et in cōnsilium et in convīctum. • Will you reflect that the man you call your slave comes from the same seed, enjoys the same sky, lives and dies just as you do! You can see the freeman in him just as he can see the slave in you. Be kind and also affable in your dealings with a slave, admit him to your conversation, your plans and your dinner-table.
SENECA AS A WRITER • Seneca’s work, which included essay as on various philosophical topics as well as his plays and the Letters to Lucilius, was intended to be read by (or to) the public. His letters are thus crucially different from from those of Cicero which were never intended for publication. • His writing tends to avoid the `periods’ (long, complex sentences) found in Livy and other Earlier prose writers. • He is always trying to impress with clever statements, a feature which some critics have found annoying: • Fronto, tutor to the 2nd.century emperor Marcus Aurelius, compared Seneca to a diner who threw olives into the air and caught them in his mouth. • The 19th century British historian Lord Macaulay complained `I cannot bear Seneca….His works are made up of mottoes. There is hardly a sentence which might not be quoted but to read him straightforward is like dining on nothing but anchovy sauce (鳀魚醬 ).’
In 64 B.C., a fire destroyed a large area of the city of Rome and Nero took advantage of this to start construction of a huge new palace (the `Domus Aurea’) though he also directed relief work and promoted rebuilding of the rest of the city on safer lines. There were rumours that Nero himself had started the blaze deliberately but Nero put the blame on Rome’s small Christian community and is said by the historian Tacitus to have even burned Christians alive as human torches.
In 65 B.C. a conspiracy against Nero was discovered and Seneca was accused, rightly or wrongly, of involvement. He was ordered to commit suicide and attempted this by the normal method of having his veins opened (as did Salvius in the last stage of the Cambridge LatinCourse) but neither this nor poison proved fatal and he finally died of suffocation from steam in a hot bath. His death became a favourite subject for painters in later ages.
During his lifetime and afterwards, Seneca was accused of failure to practise what he preached and it was alleged by one of his enemies that he had become immensely wealthy through service to Nero. The Greek historian Cassius Dio also claims that he lent a large sum of money to a British chieftain and that demands after the man’s death for immediate repayment were one reason for the rebellion led by the king’s widow, Boudicca, in 61 A.D.
Our information about Nero comes largely from historians who were members of the Roman aristocracy. There is, however, some evidence that Nero was popular among ordinary people and a 16th century scholar Girolamo Cardano argued that he was in fact a good ruler, a view also held by Napoleon Bonaparte. An English translation of Cardano’s book has recently been published and the translator’s own defence of Nero (and criticism of Seneca) can be read at http://es.scribd.com/doc/127342048/Neronia-Electronica-Fascicule-2
SENECA’S REPUTATION: CONFLICTING ASSESMENTS • A noble philosopher who guided Nero well in his early years and met an undeserved death courageously? • A hypocritical champion of his own interests and of those of the Roman elite, whose advice Nero discarded in order to take better care of ordinary citizens? • A source of inspiration and sound practical advice down the centuries? • The Dutch Renaissance scholar Erasmus advised a friend `to study Plato and Seneca, love his wife, and disregard the world’s opinion’ • Queen Elizabeth I of England `did much admire Seneca’s wholesome advisings’
