Seneca Notes Bea Keady
Seneca (b. c. 4 BC – d. 65 AD)
Life
- Early Life
o Born in Spain between 4BC and 1 AD to a wealthy equestrian family.
His father was a respected rhetorician.
o He received a high level education in Rome which is described in his letters.
o Seneca established a reputation as a great orator but convicted of involvement in affair and exiled for 8 years to Corsica
- Health
o Seneca struggled with ill health throughout his life – in his 20s he went to Egypt where his aunt nursed him during a bad
bout of health.
At one point Caligula ordered Seneca to commit suicide and Seneca was only saved because he became seriously
ill and Caligula was told he would die anyways.
- Political Career
o Under Caligula Seneca gained reputation as an orator, Seneca was unexiled by Agrippina to tutor her 12-year-old son
Nero. He later became Nero’s political advisor and minister after his ascension to emperor.
Seneca was Nero’s Tutor then Political Advisor and Speech writer.
Tacitus (and others) credit the positive first few years of Nero’s reign to Seneca’s influence.
He wrote Nero’s speeches and his essay On Mercy after Nero had Britannicus (Claudius’ 13 year old son)
murdered.
o Seneca’s letters make very little reference to his world and despite having been a significant political figure, he doesn’t
mention Rome.
Nero is “conspicuously absent” – Catharine Edwards
o Nero forced Seneca to commit suicide in 65 CE for allegedly participating in the attempted Pisonian conspiracy to kill
Nero.
- Work
o Used a range of genres – philosophy, tragic plays, comedy (like the Pumpkinification, a satire criticising Claudius), and
he is one of the best sources on Roman Stoicism.
o He also wrote numerous letters (124 survive) to Lucilius his friend and Procurator in Sicily, towards the end of his life.
o Letters
Other philosophers like Epicurus were celebrated for writing to a network of philosophers beyond Athens.
Seneca refers to Epicurus’ letters on numerous equations including quoting them
o Edwards sees this as potentially a form of competition, setting himself up as the Roman Epicurus.
Roman letter-writers like Horace’s epistles and Cicero also contain philosophical and political elements.
o Seneca compares himself to Cicero – Letter 21 – “Cicero’s letters keep the name of Atticus from
perishing. [...] That which Epicurus could promise his friend, this I promise you, Lucilius.”
o Also Letter 118 – “There will always be something for me to write about, even omitting all the kinds of
news with which Cicero fills his correspondence: [gives examples of political stuff like who is a
candidate for consulship or who is living on borrowed resources] it is preferable to deal with one’s own
ills, rather than with another’s”
Seneca’s epistolary structure – urging, lots of imperatives – encouraging Lucilius to focus on philosophy
“In antiquity letters were regarded as the most informal type of prose literature” – Catharine Edwards
o Critics, including Seneca himself, consider it as similar to friendly conversation and therefore likely to
be impactful in changing their world view and encouraging people to turn to his view of philosophy.
“Seneca is very self-conscious about literary style” – Catharine Edwards
o Quite often writes about literary style in the letters like Letter 100 which discusses Cicero’s style, Letter
114 very critical of literary style of Augustus’ advisor Maecenas
- Reception by a contemporary audience:
o Ideas of Stoicism might have seemed old-fashioned to some Romans whose thoughts of community or service to
humanity ended with the demise of the democratic Republic.
o His work did find favour among contemporary Stoics and some of the elite of Rome.
o He was considered great help in the early years of Nero’s reign (credited with the stability of the first 5 years of Nero’s
pricipate).
o His work survives to today suggesting Romans thought it worth reproducing.
o Cassius Dio criticised the hypocrisy in the differences between his philosophy and life.
Love
- Seneca’s version of stoicism allowed the wise man human interaction and love – to Seneca, love is pure and separate from
vices.
- Love is natural
o Seneca’s view of love is that “it’s how you use it that matters” – Gloyn
o “love in and of itself is neither good nor bad” – Gloyn
o “It is not the utility which draws [the wise man] to friendship, but a natural instinct.” (Letters on Morality 9.17)
, Seneca Notes Bea Keady
o “he and the later stoics stressed the regulation of emotions rather than denial. Seneca maintains that [love] is
honourable” – Motto
- Love is essentially friendship
o “The passion of lovers [...] is maddened friendship” (Letters on Morality 9.11)
- Pure love seeks no advantage
o “To have someone I can die for, to have someone I can follow into exile, for whose death I might exchange my own and
pay the price instead” (Letters on Morality 9.10)
o “For what could be more pleasant than to be so dear to a wife that because of this you become dearer to yourself”
(Letters on Morality 104.5)
- Seneca’s focus
o Love and relationships was “not a core topic” or focus of Seneca and exists in his work in hints/passing mentions – Liz
Gloyn
Little survives – for example his On Marriage is only preserved in fragments by St. Jerome.
- Emotions other than love
o Stoics split emotions into irrational and rational emotions.
Patheia(?) is irrational and arises from misunderstandings of what is virtuous – this includes appetite, fear, distress
and pleasure.
Eupathaeia – rational and includes Caution, Volition and Joy
o Whether an emotion is good or not relies on whether the beliefs underlying the emotions are rational or not.
- Eros/Amor in Seneca’s Stoicism
o They represent a wish to create a friendship with someone based on their physical and moral attractiveness whereas
affectus is a form of corrupted extreme love.
Fragment from On Marriage describes a couple so caught up in affectus that the man used to bind up his chest with
his wife’s (bra equivalent) in public, had to always drink the same drink out of the same cup.
o Love is an indifferent which alone will not prevent you living virtuously.
But falling in love for the wrong reasons (appearance, wealth, status) can be dangerous.
“While Love itself is an indifferent, what gives it moral value is how it’s applied and what it’s grounded in.” – Liz
Gloyn
Lust and Desire
- Desire in general
o Seneca’s view of love is that “it’s how you use it that matters” – Gloyn
o Where love is like friendship, desire is the physical longing of the body.
Stoics should put reason over the needs of the body so should not indulge desire.
o Lust and gluttony are the worst of the vices to Seneca.
“sexual intercourse is the antithesis of reason” – Kreitner
“There is a dishonourable stain on those who throw themselves into gluttonous pleasures and lust” (On the
Shortness of Life 7.1)
Lust is “a lowly thing, coming from the service of our filthy and vile limbs, and ultimately foul” (On Benefits
7.2.2)
Seneca questions if anyone would want a life of seeking sexual pleasure
Who “would want to be titillated day and night and give his full attention to his body, leaving his mind
behind?” (On the Shortness of Life 5.4)
To Seneca, our mind sets us apart from animals – to engage in pleasures is to become more animalistic and less
human.
“lust does not concern god” (Letters on Morality 74.14)
The Stoic god is beyond the human flaws projected onto the Olympian deities.
- Physical symptoms of desire
o Overindulgence of lust leads to a ruining of the body
“Pleasures which have been enacted on a body too small to have taken them, have begun to fester” (Letters on
Morality 59.17)
o “lust which rips the soul apart through its pleasure” (Consolation to Marcia 19.6)
He is reassuring Marcia that her son is now beyond the suffering of human life including desire which damages the
soul.
o “‘Lust and fear and boldness give their own indications and are able to be recognised; for no overly violent passion
enters us which does not change our expression” (On Anger 1.7)
Our face is a key indicator of “violent passion[s]” including desire.
In Seneca’s Phaedra, he shows the physical effects of her desire for Hippolytus – “no more reddish hue on
her shining face” (pale, trembling and weak).
- Resisting desire
o Desire should be controlled so reason can rule
“If reason succeeds, passions will not even begin [...] it is easier to keep [passions] in check when they have just
begun than to rule them when they are at full force” (Letters on Morality 85.9)
Desire wastes our energy and distracts us from the pursuit of virtus.
