Seneca the Younger

 
 
 
 

Vocabulary

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Video (first 8:30 min)

 

 
 
 
 

Transcript

 
“We suffer more in imagination than in reality.” ~ Seneca the Younger

If something bad does happen, you’ll know what to do. If it doesn’t happen, you can keep doing what you’re doing. So where do we start with Seneca? I get this question all the time. Maybe you’ve heard about Seneca from my writings, or you saw some quote on Instagram, and now you want to read more.

I was introduced to Seneca when I was 19 or 20 years old. I got really lucky—I feel like I bought the right translation at the right time in my life. My life hasn’t been the same since reading Seneca.

In this episode, I want to talk to you about who this amazing, complicated, and fascinating figure was, why you should read him, what you should read of him, and how you should read Seneca. Hopefully, by the end of it, you’ll know the right place to start reading this beautiful, wise thinker.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

Who was Seneca?

Seneca was born in the same year as Jesus Christ—both were born in provinces of the Roman Empire, and both became immensely influential philosophers. Seneca’s father was a wealthy man, a bit of a writer himself, and he had his young children tutored in philosophy.

Did he want them to be philosophers? No, he was probably planning for Seneca to become a lawyer. That’s the track Seneca was on as a young man until he was diagnosed with what we think was tuberculosis. This forced him to travel all the way to Egypt, where they thought the climate would be better for his health.

Just as his legal career was about to take off, he had to take almost a 10-year break far away from Rome.

Early on, Seneca was learning, as he talks about in his letters and essays, that fortune is not fair, that it’s full of reversals and surprises. Fortune lands blows upon us, and all we can do is choose how we respond.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

Seneca eventually made his way back to Rome, and his political career picked up where he left off. He climbed his way back to the top of Roman political life.

But again, just as his career was taking off, he ran afoul of the Emperor Caligula and then Claudius, and he was exiled. He was sent away from Rome, the place he had just come back to, to Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean where he spent the next seven or eight years. Twice in his life, Seneca was sent away through no fault of his own.

This is where we think Seneca began writing. He did not take this exile well—it was hard on him. Although he consoled his mother at the loss of her son, you can tell he was feeling really sorry for himself.

He was struggling, not just talking about these ideas in the abstract but really struggling with them as a human being. Imagine your career is just taking off, and then you’re forced to move to a rock in the middle of the ocean with none of your friends or the things you hold dear.

That would be so hard, and that’s what Stoicism is: not just a philosophy in theory, but a philosophy for hard adversity, just like that.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

Seneca was given a reprieve when he was brought back to Rome to tutor a young boy who was in line to be emperor. The boy, about 16 years old, took to Seneca, and Seneca took to him. Seneca began to tutor this boy in philosophy, just as he had been tutored. This boy did become emperor, and this all sounds like a happy story, but it gets really complicated because that boy was Nero.

Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, was a tutor and then worked in the court, holding positions of leadership during the administration of one of the worst Roman emperors.

This raises a provocative question: Was Seneca complicit in Nero’s crimes, or was Seneca the adult in the room? The first couple of years of Nero’s reign went really well, and Seneca was credited for that, but as Nero spun into insanity, Seneca was also implicated. So, it’s this tension — did Seneca live up to his teachings? Was he selfless, or was he part of the problem?

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

Seneca was rich — immensely wealthy. Is this a contradiction? Some people thought so, even in Seneca’s time. But Seneca said we should cease to forbid philosophers from the possession of money.

“No one has condemned wisdom to poverty,” he said. “A philosopher can own ample wealth, but it should have been wrested from no man, nor should it be stained with another man’s blood. Wealth acquired without harm to any man, without base dealing, is no less honorable and should make no man groan, except the spiteful.”

But this is true: Seneca did get bloodstained money; he got it from Nero. But his point was that a philosopher could be rich. What mattered was whether you were indifferent to wealth. If you had the wealth, you should enjoy it. In fact, Marcus Aurelius says something similar about his stepfather Antoninus —what made Antoninus great was that while he had abundance, he enjoyed it. But when it was gone or when it wasn’t there, he didn’t miss it.

In the end, Nero turned on Seneca, or Seneca turned on Nero, and Seneca was driven from public life one more time. This is where he spent the rest of his life doing his most important work.

He said the duty of a man is to be useful to his fellow man — if possible, to be useful to many; failing this, to be useful to a few; failing this, to be useful to his neighbors; and failing this, to himself. When he helps others, he advances the general interests of mankind.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

 

I think Seneca’s most important work is not his political work, but his writing. His writing is what survives to us today, and what I hope you will start reading. He knew what it was like to be successful, and he knew that the real purpose was doing this philosophical work.

He spent the last three years of his life completing his books and letters. Toward the end, he reflected, “My days have this one goal, as do my nights. This is my daily task and my study —to do away with old evils before I grow old. I took care to live well, and in old age, I take care to die well.”

Ultimately, one of the most prevalent themes in all of Seneca’s writings is death. Seneca says, “The time that passes belongs to death.” He says that we shouldn’t think of death as something that might come 40 years from now.

If I’m 34 right now, I might be lucky to live to be 80, so I’ve got 45 or so years. But I should think of death as something that has already happened to me—I’ve already died 33 years. How we spend our time is what makes death either a tragedy or simply the final chapter of a wonderful life.

In the end, Seneca was forced to make good on all his teachings. Nero suspected that Seneca had conspired against him and put to death some of Seneca’s closest family members and friends.

Ultimately, he came for Seneca too. Seneca had been out of power for several years when Nero’s goons came for him and demanded his suicide. Seneca now had to meet death bravely because he had written about it so much.

He went bravely to his death. First, he slit his wrists, but he was too old and lean for this to work. Then, he took poison, but that didn’t work. Finally, he was smothered to death in the bath. He met death as something he had been, in effect, preparing for his entire life. It was his greatest moment.

It’s captured in many beautiful paintings and has become an inspiration of resistance to tyrants everywhere — a reminder that we can be dignified even in our last moments. He said, “Yes, Nero is taking my life, but in the end, evil drinks the largest of its own poison.” He knew that ultimately it was better to be him than to be Nero.

*     *     *     *     *     *     *

 

Questions

 

Thales. According to Seneca, people should let their external world control themselves and their lives. True or false?

Pythagoras. Was Seneca born about the same time as Thales, Socrates, or Zeno of Citium? Did he come from a poor family?

Socrates. Seneca spend his entire life in the Iberian Peninsula. Is this right or wrong?

Plato. Is life (always) straightforward, predicable and fair, according to Seneca?

Aristotle. Was he only a philosopher? Did he only write and lecture?

Pyyrho of Elis. Did Seneca go to Corsica to relax and have fun?

Epictetus. The Roman Emperor Nero hired Seneca as a palace decorator. Is this right or wrong? Did they have a good relationship?

Zeno of Citium. All death is a great, terrible tragedy. What did Seneca think of this?
 
 
 
Cleanthes. My classmates and I studied Ancient Greek and Roman history and literature. Yes or no? Did you understand everything?

Chrysippus. Are the Ancient Greece and Rome admired and respected?

Diogenes of Babylon. Is their philosophy well known and followed?

Carneades. Is there controversy about the Ancient Greeks and Romans?

Seneca the Younger. What might happen in the future?

Marcus Aurelius. Should people “revert” to classical philosophy?