Dialogues and Letters (19 page)
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Authors: Seneca
17
. Apparently a reference to the practice of chaining a prisoner to his guard, with the guard having his left hand bound to the prisoner's right.
18
. From his speech
Pro Milone
92.
19
. Publilius Syrus lived in Rome in the first century
BC
and wrote mimes, from which a selection of maxims has survived.
20
. This Pompey seems to be the consul of
AD
14, and related to the Julian dynasty: hence his relationship with the emperor Gaius.
21
. Prefect of the praetorian guard under Tiberius and executed in
AD
31.
22
. The last king of Lydia (
c
. 560â546
BC
).
23
. King of Numidia, captured and executed by the Romans in 104
BC
.
24
. A fourth-century
BC
Cyrenaic philosopher, known as the âAtheist'. The tyrant referred to was Lysimachus, king of Thrace.
25
. We know nothing about him apart from this anecdote.
26
. A sixth-century
BC
tyrant of Acragas, notorious for his cruelty.
27
. A very distinguished philosopher from Ephesus (flourished
c
. 500
BC
).
28
. Consul in 105
BC
and, after conviction on a dubious charge of extortion, exiled to Smyrna.
29
. Hercules cremated himself in unendurable agony from the shirt of Nessus.
30
. Regulus was captured by the Carthaginians in 255
BC
and subsequently tortured to death by them for refusing to co-operate in negotiating with Rome.
31
. Probably the elder Cato (the âCensor': 234â149
BC
), a man of legendary strictness and moral austerity.
32
. Scipio Africanus Maior (236â184/3
BC
), the conqueror of Hannibal in the war against Carthage.
33
. He lived 76
BC
â
AD
4, and was a notable politician, poet and historian, as well as an orator.
34
. A great Athenian law-giver and poet, and chief archon in 594/3
BC
.
35
. Head of the Platonic Academy in the mid third century
BC
.
36
. Certain identification is difficult, but the quotation might fit Alcaeus or Anacreon. The Plato reference is to
Phaedrus
245a, and the Aristotle reference is to the pseudo-Aristotelian
Problems
953a.
ON THE SHORTNESS OF LIFE
1
. Paulinus is not certainly identifiable, but it appears from sections 18 and 19 that his job was
praefectus annonae
, overseeing the importing and distribution of corn. He may also have been connected to Seneca through Seneca's wife Paulina.
2
. Hippocrates, who lived around the second half of the fifth century
BC
.
3
. Seneca seems to be confusing Aristotle with his pupil and successor Theophrastus, to whom Cicero attributes this thought (
Tusc
. 3.69).
4
. The quotation has not been identified.
5
. Seneca gives a run-down of Augustus' struggles to establish himself in power and consolidate his empire, from the time of the Civil War (âfellow-countrymen') to the settlement of the Alpine area (8
BC
). The dates of the conspiracies were: Lepidus 30
BC
, Murena and Caepio 23
BC
, Egnatius 19
BC
.
6
. Julia, notorious for her licentious conduct. Among her adulterous relationships was that with Iullus Antonius (son of the triumvir), which led in 2
BC
to her banishment and his suicide. Hence Seneca's comparison (âa second formidable womanâ¦') with Cleopatra and the elder Antony, whom Augustus had to deal with in 31
BC
.
7
. Cicero's brother-in-law, to whom he addressed a great many of his letters.
8
. Tribune in 91
BC
: he proposed some revolutionary measures which provoked fierce opposition and led to his assassination.
9
. Virgil,
Georgics
3.66â7.
10
. Papirius Fabianus taught Seneca himself and was much admired by him (Letter 100).
11
. Gaius Duilius, consul in 260
BC
, defeated the Carthaginian fleet in the same year and celebrated the first naval triumph.
12
. For Dentatus see n.
10
to
Tranq
. Seneca refers to his triumph over Pyrrhus in 275
BC
.
13
. Appius Claudius Caudex, consul in 264
BC
.
14
. As consul in 263
BC
he captured Messana in Sicily from the Carthaginians.
15
. During his praetorship in 97
BC
. Bocchus was king of Mauretania.
16
. This was the occasion of the opening of Pompey's theatre (the first stone theatre in Rome) in 55
BC
.
17
. The âsomebody reporting which Roman generalâ¦' above. Lucius Caecilius Metellus captured the Carthaginian war elephants in Sicily in 250
BC
.
18
. The religious boundary of a city, beyond which the auspices could not be taken.
19
. Seneca pinpoints the characteristic features of the main philosophical creeds: Socratic argumentation; the scepticism of Carneades, head of the Platonic Academy in the mid second century
BC
; Epicurean quietism; Stoic self-control; the extreme self-denial of the Cynics.
20
. Xerxes, on his expedition against the Greeks in 480
BC
.
21
. Gaius Marius was a major military and political figure in the later second and early first centuries
BC
: the first of his many consulships was in 107.
22
. Lucius Quintius Cincinnatus was traditionally appointed dictator in 458
BC
to fight the Aequi. The second dictatorship referred to here is historically suspect.
23
. Scipio Africanus Maior (236â184/3
BC
) defeated Hannibal in 202 and Antiochus, king of Syria, in 189. Seneca refers to Scipio's forbidding his bust to be set up in the temple of Jupiter and to his withdrawal into exile following political attacks on himself and his brother Lucius.
24
. Apparently one of the emperor Gaius' whims was to emulate Xerxes' bridging of the Hellespont (cf. n. 20) by building a bridge of boats from Baiae to Puteoli. This caused a shortage of provisions, as there were insufficient boats left to import corn.
25
. Tacitus (
Ann
. 1.7) mentions him holding the post of
praefectus annonae
, so the story is particularly appropriate for Paulinus.
26
. This was the practice with children, who were buried at night.
LETTER 24
1
. The list of examples is characteristic of Seneca and other rhetorical and moralizing writers. P. Rutilius Rufus was consul in 105
BC
and exiled in 92. Q. Metellus Numidicus, consul in 109, was exiled in 100. The story of C. Mucius Scaevola dates to the war between the Romans and the Etruscans around the end of the sixth century. Socrates died in prison in 399.
2
. Cato fought on Pompey's side in the Civil War, and committed suicide in 46. The dialogue of Plato was the
Phaedo
, which recounts the last hours of Socrates.
3
. Q. Metellus Scipio was another Pompeian commander, defeated at Thapsus in 46.
LETTER 57
1
. In Letter 53 Seneca records that he was horribly seasick on the voyage to Baiae, a fashionable holiday resort. So, to avoid repeating the experience, he returns by an alternative route, a tunnel built in the time of Augustus to connect Naples and Puteoli.
LETTER 79
1
. Now Taormina, on the eastern coast of Sicily.
2
. âLive unnoticed' was Epicurus' motto, representing his ideal of the quiet life away from the hurly-burly of public affairs. Metrodorus of Lampsacus was one of his most distinguished pupils.
LETTER 110
1
. Nomentum is the modern Mentana, about 14 miles from Rome, where Seneca had a villa.
2
. Kinds of attendant spirit (like our âguardian angel'), who looked after the individual man's or woman's fortunes.
3
. From
De Rerum Natura
2.55â6.
4
. A Stoic philosopher and one of Seneca's teachers.
from
NATURAL QUESTIONS
PRAEF. 1â10
1
. Virgil,
Aeneid
4.404, from a simile describing ants.
4A. 2. 4â6
1
. Egypt was part of the Persian Empire from 525 to 332
BC
.
Abelard, Peter
xviii
acceptance: of circumstances
46
;
accounting for time
61â2
accumulation of misfortunes
19
Achilles
35
adoption
77
adultery with Julia Livilla,
Aeneas
10
afterlife
82
Agrippina
viii
aims, personal
40â41
,
46
,
50
,
60
,
61â2
Alcestis
27
Alexandria, Library of
45
ancestors' simplicity of life
15
animals: fights in Circus
74â5
; lifespan
59
; men like ants
109
Antenor
10
anticipation
68
,
78â9
,
87
;
see also
procrastination
Antonius, Iullus
63
ants
109
anxiety
xix
,
87â92
;
see also
fear
apathy
33
Apicius (gourmet)
15â16
Apocolocyntosis
x
Arcesilas
58
Aristides
20
armour
44
army
see
military imagery
;
military service
art collections
71
Asia, province of
9
association of ideas
xx
Athens
9
,
39â40
;
see also
Socrates
Attalus (Stoic philosopher)
xiii
,
xx
,
103â4
auctions
71
audit of life
61â2
Augustine of Hippo, St
xvii
Augustus, Emperor
62â3
autobiographical information in letters
xii
Aventine Hill
75
Bacon, Sir Francis, Baron Verulam
xix
Bacon, Roger
xviii
Baiae, journey from
93â4
barber's shop
72
bias in self-appraisal
32
birth, noble or humble
46
Black Sea, Greek colonies
9
blood, sight of
94
Bocchus, king of Mauretania
74
books, ownership of
45
bridge of boats, Gaius'
81
Bruttium
35
