OF 
 
 SEiSfECA 
 
f\TB\B 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 GIFT OF 
 Prof. George A* deCapua 
 
 UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY 
 
 
MACMILLAZST'S LATIN CLASSICS 
 
 Edited by JAMES C. EGBEKT, Ph.D. 
 Professor qf Latin, Cohwibia Vni'oereity 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NEW YORK - BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA - SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
 LONDON ■ BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 OF CANADA, Limited 
 
 TORONTO 
 
SELECTED 
 
 ESSAYS OF SENECA 
 
 AND THE 
 
 SATIRE ON THE DEIFICATION OF CLAUDIUS 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 BY 
 
 ALLAN P. BALL, Ph.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR OF CLASSICAL LANGUAGES IN THE COLLEGE OF THE 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 
 "Neia gork 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1937 
 
Copyright, 1908, 
 
 Bt the macmillan company. 
 
 All rights reserved — no part of this 
 
 book may be reproduced in any form 
 
 without permission in writing from 
 
 the publisher. 
 
 Set up and electrotj^ped. Published July, 1908. Reprinted 
 April, 1916. 
 
 
 Norisaiili ^ress 
 
 J. 8. Cashing Co. — Berwick & 8inltli Co. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 ^ 
 
PEEPACE 
 
 The present volume has been prepared in the belief not 
 only that Seneca merits more attention than has usually- 
 been paid to him by American students, but also that his life 
 and character are no less interesting than his works. This 
 is the explanation, if any is due, for an edition of a group 
 ■)f his writings chosen with a view not primarily to the 
 exemplary display of his philosophy or of his literary style, 
 but rather to his personal connection with the history of 
 bis time. The longer essays here presented are those which 
 have relation to the two emperors, Claudius and Nero, under 
 whom Seneca made most of his external career. 
 
 At the same time, these pieces with a political bearing 
 may give the reader just as typical an impression of Seneca's 
 style and philosophic attitude as those in which he appears 
 simply in the character of a man of letters. Even his un- 
 fortunate lapse into adulation of the Emperor — which is 
 itself not without value as a document of the society in 
 which he lived — does not prevent the Consolatory essay 
 to Polybius from presenting the regular Stoic exhortations; 
 and the essay on Clemency is a no less eloquent philosophic 
 tract for being in a sense a state document addressed to 
 Nero. The burlesque upon the deification of Claudius is 
 obviously in some ways exceptional; its importance as a 
 specimen of the Meuippean satire is unique; but both 
 historical and literary considerations relate it to the two 
 essays between which it stands. The ten Letters included 
 in the selection are more loosely attached to the same his- 
 
VI PREFACE 
 
 torical thread. The Epistulae Morales are generally recog- 
 nized as among Seneca's finest literary work ; they certainly 
 show his power of moral analysis at its best, and they help 
 to reveal the intellectual background of his public life. 
 
 The text here given, with very few changes, which are 
 listed at the end of the volume, is that of the current 
 Teubner editions including the essay Ad Polybium de Con- 
 solatione by Hermes, the De Clementia by Hosius, and the 
 Epistulae by Hense, and of the Weidmann edition of the 
 Apoeoloeyntosis by Biicheler. 
 
 My thanks are due to the Columbia University Press for 
 courteous permission to reproduce, at some points in the 
 notes on the Apoeoloeyntosis, phraseology which had already 
 been used in my more extended study of the same work 
 published by the Press. 
 
 In particular I wish to express my obligations to Pro- 
 fessor Egbert, Editor-in-chief of the present series, for his 
 helpful counsel, and to Professor August Rupp of the Col- 
 lege of the City of New York, who has very generously 
 aided in reading the proof of the book, and made valuable 
 suggestions. 
 
 A. P. BALL. 
 
 COLI.EQB OF THE CiTT OF NBW ToRK. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Introduction 
 
 I. The Life of Seneca 
 TI. The Stoic Philosophy . 
 
 III. Seneca's Works .... 
 
 IV. The Style of Seneca's Writings . 
 V. Editions and Worlts for Reference 
 
 Pkxt 
 
 Ad Polybium de Consolatione 
 Apocolocyntosis .... 
 Ad Neronem de Clementia, Book I 
 Ad Neronem de Clementia, Book II 
 Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales Selectae 
 
 Epistula VII 
 
 Epistula VIII . 
 
 Epistula XVII 
 
 Epistula XVIII 
 
 Epistula LVI . 
 
 Epistula LXI . 
 
 Epistula LXXIII 
 
 Epistula LXXX 
 
 Epistula CVI . 
 
 Epistula CXV 
 Notes 
 
 Ad Polybium de Consolatione 
 Apocolocyntosis 
 
 ri.8E 
 ix 
 
 . xvi 
 
 . xix 
 
 , xxii 
 
 xxxii 
 
 1 
 24 
 38 
 
 73 
 75 
 78 
 80 
 84 
 87 
 88 
 92 
 94 
 96 
 
 103 
 123 
 
VIU 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Ad Neronem de dementia . 
 Ad Neronem de dementia, Book I 
 Ad Neronem de dementia, Book II 
 Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales Seleotae 
 
 List of Textual MoniFiCATioira 
 
 Index Nomindm ...... 
 
 PAGB 
 
 151 
 152 
 179 
 186 
 
 207 
 
 209 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. THE LIFE OF SENECA 
 
 Among the Spanish writers ' who produced so much 
 of the Roman literature of the first century, Lucius 
 Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher, especially if we con- 
 sider his literary work and his political career together, 
 is easily the foremost. Taken by itself, the body of his 
 writings ig the most important of its kind in Latin liter- 
 ature, but it gains a peculiar interest when considered as 
 the literary expression of a character and a career so 
 paradoxical, in many aspects, as his. Only once, per- 
 haps, — a century later when Marcus Aurelius was on the 
 throne, — has a professed philosopher ever been nearer 
 to ruling the world. From every point of view Seneca's 
 life is noteworthy. 
 
 He was born at Corduba about 4 b.c. and was brought 
 to Rome in the latter part of the principate of Augustus. 
 His father, M. (or L.) Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca 
 Rhetor because of his works on the rhetorical exercises 
 called Suasoriae and Controversiae, was a knight and a 
 man of substance and culture. His mother, Helvia, was 
 a lady of Corduba, of whose character Seneca has given 
 us a noble estimate. His elder and younger brothers 
 were M. Annaeus Novatus, better known as that Gallio 
 
 ' Notably, besides Seneca, his father, his nephew Lucan, and Colu- 
 mella, Pomponius Mela, Martial, and QuintiUan. 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 before whom St. Paul was once vainly accused in Achaia, ' 
 and L. Annaeus Mela, father of Lucan, the author of the 
 Pharsalia. The future philosopher came to manhood 
 under Tiberius amid social conditions in which literature 
 and philosophy were by far the safest and, for a man of 
 his temperament, the most congenial fields of serious 
 intellectual activity. In accordance with his father's 
 wish, however, Seneca studied law and entered upon a 
 successful career as an advocate. He was a brilliant 
 addition also to the social life of the capital. 
 
 But his studious temperament and introspective habit 
 of mind prevented his being absorbed in the life of a rising 
 young lawyer and social favorite. The more purely in- 
 tellectual aims appealed strongly to him, and he had an 
 inclination to asceticism which in a later century might 
 have led him into a monastery. Moreover his health was 
 not vigorous. On one early occasion when a brilliant 
 speech had drawn upon him the jealous enmity of Calig- 
 ula, his life was saved by the private suggestion of some 
 one at the emperor's ear, that it was hardly worth while 
 to kill an invalid like Seneca, who could not last long even 
 if he were let alone. 
 
 Of the earlier years in which he was still free for ex- 
 periment with life, he himself tells us some of his ideal- 
 istic ventures. At one period in his youth he adopted 
 the vegetarian theory of diet,^ and adhered to its practice 
 for more than a year, giving it up finally at his father's 
 request, not because he had ceased to believe in it or, as 
 he judged, to thrive upon it, but lest it should be misun- 
 
 ' Acts, xviii. 12-17. The name was assumed after his adoption by 
 Junius Gallio. 
 2 Ep. 108. 
 
THE LIFE OF SENECA XI 
 
 derstood as a superstitious observance of some half dis- 
 reputable cult. Seneca became an authority upon super- 
 stitions — at least to the extent of writing a book about 
 them — and he had no disposition to be thought a prey 
 to one. The act was characteristic in its reconciliation of 
 a philosophic breadth of mind with the regard for appear- 
 ances and other practical considerations that are essential 
 to getting on in the world. In another letter ' he remarks, 
 apropos of his own manner of life, tamquam in conspectu 
 vivamus, — let us live without any necessity for conceal- 
 ment, — which is an honorable sentiment, but not based 
 upon a perfectly ideal independence of the opinions of 
 surrounding humanity, to which indeed even more con- 
 sistent Stoics than Seneca rarely attained. Later in this 
 same letter he describes among his frugal habits his simple 
 luncheon, consisting of such kinds of food, as he oddly 
 relates, that he does not have to wash his hands after it; 
 he takes but little exercise, he says, for after a slight exer- 
 tion he finds himself tired; he sleeps very little, as little 
 as possible, in fact; and presently he goes on to say, 
 fremitum patientissime fero. He seems to have con- 
 scientiously cultivated the practice of mental concentra- 
 tion, so that he could apply his mind to his work, as he 
 tells Lucilius, undisturbed by distracting sounds around 
 him. In Epistle 56 we find him explaining how he 
 managed to study composedly while staying in very 
 noisy lodgings over a public bath at a watering place. 
 These are the remarks of Seneca's old age, but they un- 
 doubtedly indicate an interest in mental and moral ex- 
 periment that went with him through life, along with the 
 external incidents and allurements of an active career. 
 
 » Ep. 83. 
 
xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 When Seneca was about forty-five years old, this caree» 
 received a serious check in a peremptory banishment to 
 the dreary island of Corsica. The cause is not exactly 
 known. It was charged that he was impHcated in an 
 intrigue with the notorious younger Julia, but the charge 
 came from the Empress Messalina, herself no less notorious. 
 Whether Seneca was in any way guilty, or whether he had 
 been merely indiscreet and his penalty was the result of 
 one of Claudius's ill-directed efforts at old-fashioned 
 Roman severity, we cannot say. Tacitus alludes to 
 Seneca's memory of his exile as an iniuria. At any rate, 
 though at first he faced it courageously (as we infer from 
 his essay ad Helviam matrem de Consolatione) , it caused 
 him a distress which in the Consolatio ad Polybium and 
 the Epigrams he made very evident. It lasted for about 
 eight years, until by the influence of the new-made em- 
 press, Agrippina, he was recalled to be the tutor of her 
 son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, whom we know as the 
 Emperor Nero. Seneca was thus reinstated in the 
 highest social life of Rome, to his own great satisfaction 
 and that of the people, with whom he was a favorite, and 
 partly for the sake of whose good opinion Agrippina is 
 said to have interfered in Seneca's favor.' 
 
 To Seneca's relation with his imperial pupil we owe an 
 amplified perception of the imperial power and function 
 
 ' Tacitus (Annates, XII. 8) .says : But Agrippina . . . obtained a pardon 
 from exile for Annaeus Seneca, and at the same time obtained the prae- 
 torship for him, having in view both his popularity with the public on 
 account of his scholarly distinction and also the advantage of such a 
 teacher for the youth of Domitius, and of their having his advice in their 
 effort to secure the throne, since it was believed that Seneca would be 
 faithful to Agrippina in gratitude for her kindness, and an enemy to 
 Claudius in resentment for the injury that had been done him. 
 
THE LIFE OF SENECA XIU 
 
 which is not without importance in the history of political 
 ideas. When a palace revolution had removed Claudius 
 by means of the historic poisoned mushrooms and had 
 placed Nero on the throne, Seneca, in cooperation with 
 Burrus, the elderly commander of the Pretorian guard, 
 was practically the ruler of the empire during the first 
 five years of Nero's principate, the Quinquennium Neronis 
 which Trajan praised so highly, while the bad qualities 
 of the would-be artist-emperor were kept under cover by 
 the amiability of his own ingenuous youth and the con- 
 trolling presence of his teacher. Seneca undertook to 
 teach the lesson of imperial clemency, which he already - 
 saw was peculiarly needed. 
 
 But Agrippina's jealous ambition presently made her 
 intolerable to the son whom she had placed on the throne. 
 When Nero had finally secured his mother's assassina- 
 tion (59 A.D.) Seneca, while he is not known to have 
 participated in the criminal design in advance, so far lent 
 himself to it afterward, it was believed, as to write Nero's 
 apology for it to the Senate, justifying it on the ground 
 of state necessity. The extent of Seneca's culpability for 
 this is something that we cannot judge. The situation 
 was complex; even the statement that Seneca wrote 
 Nero's defence has been denied ; more probably, however, 
 it seemed to him that there was no alternative if he was 
 to keep any influence over his increasingly difficult pupil. 
 The well-known fresco ' from Herculaneum, representing 
 a butterfly in a chariot driving a griffon, is commonly sup- 
 posed to have been intended to suggest the relation of 
 Seneca to Nero, the butterfly as the symbol of the soul 
 standing for such control as could be exercised through 
 
 • In the Naples Museum. 
 
xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 the higher impulses upon the savage nature of the 
 emperor. 
 
 At any rate, Seneca's influence waned. There were 
 disagreements over Nero's treatment of his adoptive 
 sister and wife, Octavia, and in other ways the emperor, 
 urged on by worse advisers and by his passion for Pop- 
 paea, found Seneca and the things that Seneca upheld 
 increasingly distasteful. Seneca retired, so far as he could, 
 from public life. He asked permission of the emperor — 
 who did not grant it — to surrender to him the vast for- 
 tune which had represented so boundless an imperial 
 ~ favor, and go into seclusion. But even this was not 
 enough. Nero had sworn that he would perish rather 
 than injure his old teacher, but Seneca had been too long 
 conspicuously envied and too long the personification of 
 restraint; and though he stayed in a doubtful security 
 for a time, writing philosophic epistles and edifying him- 
 self with the grim consolations of the Stoic religion, he 
 was finally implicated by his enemies in the suspicion of 
 being the intended beneficiary of Piso's conspiracy, and 
 the imperial order was given that he should die (65 a.d.). 
 
 There was a dignity in his death, comparable, by his 
 own intention, it was hinted, to that of Socrates.' Seneca 
 was at a villa not far from the city with his heroic young 
 wife, Paulina. Denied the privilege of making a will 
 in favor of the faithful attendants who had remained 
 
 ' An antique double bust that was discovered in Rome early in the 
 nineteenth century (now in Berlin) bears the name of Socrates under the 
 well-known countenance of that philosopher and the name of Seneca 
 under the other. This is entitled to consideration as a portrait. Cf. J. 
 J. Bernoulli, Romische Ikonographie, I. 276. The busts of an emaciated 
 old man that are traditionally named as portraits of Seneca in the UfBzi 
 Gallery (Florence) and the Naples Museum are of quite a different type 
 
THE LIFE OF SENECA XV 
 
 with him, he left to them, as he said, "the example of his 
 life," the remembrance of which would bring them the 
 highest rewards.' Calmly continuing, he bade a noble 
 farewell to his wife, till she insisted upon dying with him, 
 and he could not, in philosophic consistency, refuse his 
 consent. "I have showed you the consolations of life," 
 he said; "you prefer the glory of death. I will not be- 
 grudge you the distinction. Let an equal bravery be 
 shown in the death of us both ; but in your end there will 
 be the greater honor." The veins of their arms were 
 opened by the same stroke. But by the emperor's orders, 
 it is reported, her life was saved, and she lived afterward 
 for some years of pale widowhood. Seneca's own death 
 was retarded by the slow circulation in his emaciated 
 body. He had veins cut in his legs as well as his arms, 
 and suffered an agony from the sight of which he had his 
 wife removed. Even poison was ineffective, as well as 
 a bath of hot water to which he resorted to hasten the 
 flow of blood, but he finally died in a hot vapor bath. He 
 was buried, by directions which he had given in the days 
 of his greatness, with little ceremony. 
 
 The career of Seneca was one of apparent inconsisten- 
 cies. In his writings, first and last, there is not a little 
 by way of apology for the man who, in accommodating 
 himself to the exigencies of this world, fails to make his 
 practice square with his ideals. He took an almost 
 humorous interest in the problem.^ But the contradic- 
 tory elements in his life and his philosophy have perhaps 
 counted too much in the popular judgment of him. The 
 spectacle, to take only the most obvious, of a powerful 
 courtier and one of the most colossally rich men in a day 
 
 ' Toe. Ann. XV. 62 seq. ' Cf. Ep. 56, 15. 
 
xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 of world-wide fortunes, preaching the charms of a life oi 
 unworldliness and poverty, was calculated to excite 
 detractors ; * and Seneca's character has been a subject 
 of endless dispute from his own day to ours. With the 
 early Christiah church he was in high favor, partly no 
 doubt because of the asceticism of his life, as well as 
 because of the noble morality of his philosophy and the 
 supposed relations between him and St. Paul; St. Jerome 
 even included Seneca in his list of Christian saints. Much 
 of the contemporary detraction of him was doubtless the 
 result of envy and misunderstanding. Tacitus, whose 
 account is most entitled to our credence, leaves us with 
 the impression that in a situation of the utmost difficulty, 
 while his policy was not always beyond criticism, Seneca 
 was essentially a good man as well as a great one, who did 
 for the empire a service worthy of a patriot and a teacher 
 of virtue. 
 
 II. THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY 
 
 Apart from his personal history, Seneca claims our 
 attention as the leading exponent of Roman Stoicism. 
 Most of his prose works are Stoic tracts; and in the exi- 
 gencies of a time of religious decay and political repression 
 and, in the highest quarters, of personal peril, the Stoic 
 attitude toward life and death was one which appealed 
 vitally to many of the best qualities of the Roman mind. 
 Stoicism undoubtedly attained a social importance among 
 the Romans far in excess of what its theoretic value may 
 seem to have warranted. 
 
 The Stoic school, founded by Zeno of the Porch (Stoa) in 
 Athens in the third century b.c, had from the first, hke 
 
 ' Cf. Bp. 17, 3, and note, p. 192. See also Dio Cassius, LXI. 10. 
 
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY xyii 
 
 its natural opposite, the school of the Epicureans, dealt 
 more with the practical questions of moral philosophy 
 than with the speculative inquiries of the Platonists and 
 the Peripatetics. This difference of aim, to which the 
 difference of national temperament reacted, made the 
 two former the predominant influences in Roman philos- 
 ophy. Zeno, Cleanthes, and Chrysippus, in Greece, are the 
 less conspicuous as compared with the great names of the 
 Academy anJ the Lyceum; but Rome has no great spec- 
 ulative philosophers to compare with her great Stoic 
 moralists, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, and 
 the eclectic essayist, Cicero. 
 
 The Stoics were not, of course, without a psychological 
 theory as to the problem of knowledge, and they had their 
 theory of the constitution of the universe. They taught 
 that God and Nature are really one, working by fixed laws 
 to which every part of the universe is subject. But the 
 ethical implication of the doctrine received by far their 
 greatest attention. Man being subject to law, his only 
 real success consists in bringing his will into harmony 
 with the essential laws of his being. H ence, to break 
 illusion and all disturbing passions^and the desires wh ose 
 fulfilme nt de pends upon things__not under a man's own 
 control , is the condition of his attaining th e^^hje"*^'"^" h''° 
 existence. 'I'he man who perfectly attains this result is 
 the ideal wise man, Sapiens, the constant theme of Stoic 
 preaching. 
 
 The chief aim of the Stoics was liberty and indepen- 
 dence of character, freedom from rehance upon adventi- 
 tious circumstances of every kind. To "live according 
 to Nature— was.,the slogan of the sect,^yEich thus voiced 
 th e charg e so many tiriiei since reiteratedj -that -civilized 
 
xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 .society with its artificial needs has corrupted character 
 Iby departing from the simplicity of fundamental prin- 
 'ciples and forgetting the moderation of elementary self- 
 control. 
 
 There seems to be an underlying pessimism in the 
 common Stoic assumption that Fate is likely to be malig- 
 nant and that man's only security is in not caring for the 
 things which it can take away ; but this is only from the 
 point of view of ease and comfort in life; it counts for 
 little when we reflect that the only thing that is really 
 worth while is virtue. This being the only important 
 object, "the gods" have done well (and not malignantly) 
 in arranging the world as a place upon which they look 
 down as upon a spectacle,* of training under severe rules 
 for strength and nobility. Throughout Stoic literature 
 the changes are rung upon the idea that a man should 
 make his reliance upon his own soul : in the words of the 
 Stoic poet Persius, nee te quaesiveris extra,^ " seek not thy- 
 self outside thyself." The body, Seneca remarks in one 
 of the Epistles,' needs all sorts of nourishment and ap- 
 paratus in order to develop its powers. The soul needs 
 nothing but itself. Animus ex se crescit, se ipse alit, se 
 exercet. Quid tibi opus est, he asks, ut sis bonus ? The 
 answer is the one word, velle. This way of dealing with 
 the facts of human life took on, in the minds of its noblest 
 followers, quite the character of a religion.' The "philo- 
 sophical director" became, in certain circles, almost as 
 definite a functionary as the "spiritual director" in the 
 
 ' Cf. Sen. de Prov. ii. 8 seq. 
 
 = Pers. Sai. i. 7. " Ep. SO, 3, q.v. 
 
 * Cf. Ep. 90, 1 : Quis dubitare . . . potest, quin deoTum immortalium 
 munus sit quod viviTnus, philosophiae guod bene vivimus. 
 
SENECA'S WORKS xix 
 
 Christian church. Without external rites and cere- 
 monies, however, and without any vulgar personal hope, 
 the Stoic religion could not expect to appeal to the masses 
 and it did not. It was evidently a religion for an ethical 
 aristocracy only. 
 
 It is not to be overlooked that in some aspects the 
 Stoic doctrine of living according to nature and the 
 Epicurean principle of making the most there is to be 
 made out of the opportunities of life, were not very far 
 apart, when the latter received its nobler interpretations. 
 Seneca frequently quotes Epicurus — "I go over into 
 the opposite camp," said he, "not as a deserter but as 
 a scout "^ — and perhaps his personal "inconsistencies" 
 are most fundamentally accounted for by his tempera- 
 mental inclination toward the best of the Epicurean aims. 
 From the hardness and limitation of some of his Stoic 
 brethren he was saved by his only half-suppressed in- 
 stinct for art and his intellectual curiosity, as well as by 
 his ineradicable human feelings.^ 
 
 III. SENECA'S WORKS 
 
 Of Seneca's philosophical works a large part are still 
 extant ; his popularity in the mediaeval church undoubt- 
 edly helped to secure the preservation of his work in 
 numerous copies. We have in greater or less complete- 
 ness the twelve moral treatises called Dialogues (after the 
 allusion in Quintilian, x. i. 129, and because they are 
 
 • Ep. 2, 5. 
 
 ' At times he makes an explicit distinction between his own views 
 and those of his sect. Thus in lip. 1 13, 1, he says in answer to a request, 
 faciam quod desideras, et quid nostris (i.e. Stoicis) videatur, exponam; sed 
 me in alia esse setitentia profiteor. Cf. also Ep. 117, 1 ; primum exponam 
 quid Stoicis videatur; deinde tunc dicere sententiam audebo. 
 
XX INTRODUCTION 
 
 largely composed in the argumentative second person) 
 which he wrote at different times throughout his life and 
 dedicated to various friends, as follows : — 
 
 I. Ad Lucilium. Qiuire aliqua incommoda bonis viris 
 accidant cum Providentia sit, sive de Providentia. 
 
 II. Ad Serenum. Nee iniuriam nee eontumcliam ae- 
 cipere sapientem, sive de Constantia Sapientis. 
 
 III-V. Ad Novatum. De Ira. 
 
 VI. Ad Mareiam. De Consolatione. 
 
 VII. Ad Gallionem. De Vita Beata. 
 
 VIII. Ad Serenum. De Otio. 
 
 IX. Ad Serenum. De Tranquillitate Animi. 
 
 X. Ad Paulinum. De Brevitate Vitae. 
 
 XI. Ad Polybium. De Consolatione. 
 
 XII. Ad Helviam matrem. De Consolatione. 
 
 The two books (there were originally three) De dementia, 
 ad Neronem Caesarem, the seven books Ad Aebutium 
 Ldberalem de Beneficiis, and the collection of Epistulae 
 Morales ad Lueilium (of which one hundred and twenty- 
 four are now extant) are also moral essays, of much the 
 same character as the others. Likewise addressed to 
 Lucilius are the seven books of Maturates Quaestiones, a 
 partial evidence of Seneca's scientific interests; but the 
 greater part of his work in natural science has perished. 
 In addition to these we have the satire on the apotheosis 
 of Claudius known as the Apocolocyntosis, a few epigrams 
 on Seneca's exile, and the tragedies, nine in number, 
 literary imitations of the Greek drama and founded on 
 the same legends, but probably not intended for stage 
 representation. Though not all of the nine are of as- 
 sured authenticity, most of them, including the Medea, 
 
SENECA'S WORKS xxi 
 
 the Hercules Furens, the Troades, and the Phaedra, are 
 generally accepted as Seneca's. With them is a tenth, 
 the praetexta entitled Octavia, which Seneca almost cer- 
 tainly did not write; it is founded upon contemporary 
 history and he himself is a character in it.' 
 
 A considerable part of Seneca's works is lost, portions 
 of those which we have and others entirely, to which 
 allusions are made either in his own extant writings or by 
 other authors. Among the more interesting of them ap- 
 pear to have been the De Situ et Sacris Aegyptiorum, which 
 was one of the fruits of a temporary residence in Egypt 
 during his early life, the De Forma Mundi, in which, ac- 
 cording to a reference in Boethius, there is stated a theory of 
 the spherical shape of the earth, and the Dialogus de Super- 
 stitione, to which St. Augustine alludes in his De Civitate 
 Dei (VI. 10), besides several other moral essays. Seneca 
 also wrote a biography of his father, and various published 
 Epistulae now lost, to say nothing of important addresses 
 which he prepared for Nero, and the uncounted speeches 
 which he produced in his practice as an advocate. The 
 alleged correspondence between Seneca and St. Paul, as 
 well as several of the works which were credited to Seneca 
 in the Middle Ages, are now known to be spurious.^ 
 
 ^ In the early printed editions of Seneca, there was for a long time a 
 failure to distinguish between the works of the Philosopher and those of 
 his father, Seneca Rhetor. Later, some critics undertook to distinguish 
 a third writer of the name, Seneca Tragicus; but it is now generally 
 assented that there was no such separate person. 
 
 ' Attacks have been made also upon the authenticity of both tho 
 Consolatio ad Polybium and the Apocolocyntosis (or Ludus de Morte 
 Claudii) alternately, but though they are admittedly inconsistent with 
 each other, and both are in different ways inconsistent with a partial 
 aspect of Seneca's character, the objections to the manuscript tradition 
 of Seneca's authorship are now generally discredited, and the internal 
 evidence of their style tends thoroughly to confirm it. 
 
xxn INTRODUCTION 
 
 Of the works included in the present volume, the Con- 
 solatia ad Polybium represents the part of Seneca's life 
 when he was in exile, which, though he was nearly fifty 
 years old, was early in his strictlj'- hterary career; the 
 Apocolocyntosis and the essay on Clemency express two 
 diverse aspects of his mind in the early part of the reign 
 of Nero ; the Letters for the most part at least were written 
 when Seneca was old and out of favor. The Apocolo- 
 cyntosis is closely related to Seneca's attitude toward the 
 two emperors, Claudius and Nero. The Consolatio ad 
 Polybium belongs among his reactions to the former. 
 The De dementia is an important appeal to what seemed 
 the best side of Nero's character and typically represents 
 Seneca's attitude toward him. The Letters which have 
 been selected supplement the view of Seneca's personal 
 relations to history, not so much by the addition of spe- 
 cific facts as by throwing light upon some of the complex- 
 ities of his character, amid the difficulties of being both a 
 man of the world and an experimental moralist. Epistle 
 73, in particular, is his exposition of the attitude of phi- 
 losophy toward the imperial government. 
 
 IV. THE STYLE OF SENECA'S WRITINGS 
 
 Seneca's literary style is one of the types of Silver Age 
 Latinity which severer classicists from the days of Quin- 
 tilian onwards have united to condemn. Reactionary 
 critics of the age that shortly followed his own regarded 
 Seneca as modern and decadent. But however truly he may 
 be "of the second rank as a classic" * in the strict sense of 
 
 * Mackail, Latin Literature, p. 171. Seneca himself says, apropos of a 
 change of diction that he noticed in his own day, olim cum latine loquere- 
 mur {Ep. 39, 1). 
 
THE STYLE OF SENECA'S WRITINGS xxiii 
 
 that term, he is all the more worth attention for the student 
 of the historical development of Latin style. Quintilian's 
 famous characterization of his work is as follows : * — 
 
 "I have purposely postponed speaking of Seneca in 
 connection with every kind of literature, on account of 
 the idea falsely circulated about me, that I disapprove of 
 him and even hate him. This is due to the fact that I 
 have been striving to recall to stricter standards a kind 
 of composition which has been damaged by every sort of 
 fault. Moreover, he was almost the only author in the 
 hands of our students. I was not trying to exclude him 
 entirely, but I did object to his being preferred to better 
 writers, whom he had never ceased to attack, since he 
 apprehended that if they were popular, his own very dif- 
 ferent style could not be so. Besides, our young men 
 admired him more than they emulated him, and they 
 departed from his standard as far as he had fallen below 
 that of the classics (ab antiqids descenderat) . It would 
 have been very desirable if they had equalled or even 
 approached him. But they liked him only because of 
 his faults, and each one applied himself to reproducing 
 such of these as he could ; so when he boasted that he was 
 composing in the same manner, he was slandering Seneca. 
 Certainly the latter had many great merits, — a ready and 
 productive mind, very great scholarly devotion, and a 
 great fund of information, though in this he was some- 
 times misled by those to whom he had intrusted the in- 
 vestigation of particular points. He dealt, too, with 
 almost the whole range of scholarly topics; for we have 
 from him orations, poems, letters, and dialogues. In 
 philosophy he was not very accurate, but he was a dis- 
 
 ' Inst. Orat. X. i. 125 seq. 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 tinguished assailant of moral faults. In his works there 
 are many noble utterances, and many things that are 
 worth reading for their ethical value; but his style has 
 many objectionable features, the more pernicious for the 
 reason that they are often attractive. You could wish 
 that he had used his own talent but some other man's 
 taste. For if he had scorned a few things, if for some 
 he had not cared, if he had not been fond of all his own 
 productions, if he had not frittered away the force of his 
 reasoning by fragmentary aphorisms, he would be com- 
 mended by the united judgment of competent critics 
 rather than by the admiration of boys. But even as he 
 is, he should be read by those who are already strong and 
 sufficiently secured in their tastes by a severer style, 
 especially for the reason that he gives occasion for the 
 exercise of critical discrimination. For many things, as 
 I have said, are to be commended in him; many things 
 even are to be admired; only one must take care to 
 choose them. This he might well have done himself. 
 For that talent which accomplished what it wished was 
 worthy of wishing for better things." 
 
 This rather adverse but suggestive criticism, we must 
 remember, came from a man who consciously held a 
 brief for the earlier Ciceronian style. A decidedly more 
 bitter attack upon the literary respectability of Seneca is 
 that of Aulus Gellius, in whose time (the age of the An- 
 tonines), if we may judge by his testimony, Seneca was 
 out of the fashion. He devotes a chapter to some of Sen- 
 eca's opinions upon the older writers, for whom Gellius's 
 archaistic taste is well known. 
 
 "Annaeus Seneca," he begins,* "some regard as a 
 
 ' Nodes Atticae, XII. ii. 
 
THE STYLE OF SENECA'S WRITINGS XXV 
 
 worthless writer, whose books it is not in the least worth 
 while to take up, because his diction seems common and 
 hackneyed, his matter and sentiments either of a foolish 
 and superficial vehemence, or, as it were, of a frivolous 
 and self-assertive cleverness, and his learning limited and 
 popular, having nothing either of grace or of dignity from 
 the writings of the ancients. Others, while not denying 
 that there is too little elegance in his words, yet maintain 
 that he has no lack of knowledge and learning of the siib- 
 jects which he treats, and a not uncommendable dignity 
 and severity in reproving moral faults. There is no 
 occasion for me to pass judgment upon all his qualities 
 and all his writings; but what he thought of M. Cicero 
 and Q. Ennius and P. Vergilius we will set down for our 
 consideration." Then Gellius goes on to quote from 
 Seneca's twenty-second book of Letters to Lucilius (now 
 lost) some unflattering comments upon the poetry of 
 Ennius and upon Cicero and Vergil for imitating it. 
 Seneca, according to Gellius, is a trifler (nugator) who 
 animadverts very stupidly (insulsissime) upon authors 
 much greater than he. Finallj', indeed, Gellius admits 
 an occasional merit in him, but he concludes with 
 the judgment that the good things in Seneca's work 
 are not so helpful to the developing character of young 
 men (adulescentium indolem) as the bad things are 
 injurious. 
 
 In estimating Gellius's opinion we bear in mind that it 
 is that of a very limited man who was notoriously fond of 
 old-fashioned tendencies in preference to those of a more 
 recent day. But Gellius's contemporary Fronto, another 
 teacher of rhetoric like Quintilian, is even more severe in 
 condemnation of Seneca's "modulated, dancing, jingling" 
 
XXVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 style.' All these criticisms, so far as they refer at all to 
 the part of Seneca's work which we now have, represent 
 for us the attitude of reaction against literary changes 
 which were a natural symptom of changes fundamen- 
 tally social. 
 
 It is not to be supposed that all the ancient criticisms 
 of Seneca were hostile. Quintilian himself, in another 
 place, uses the term copia to describe Seneca's distinctive 
 literary characteristic, and there were many highly com- 
 plimentary references to him. One other unfavorable 
 ancient opinion, however, is more worth quoting. It is 
 that of the half-mad emperor Caligula. Suetonius,^ after 
 speaking of the vigor of Caligula's own oratory, and es- 
 pecially his powers of denunciation, says he "so far de- 
 spised the milder and more elegant sort of composition 
 that he said that Seneca, who was then highly admired, 
 composed mere prize-declamations (commissiones) , 'sand 
 without lime' (et harenam esse sine calce)." The remark 
 has often been misapplied. Caligula could not have 
 meant the philosophical works of Seneca which we have 
 now, for they were written later; it must have referred 
 to his speeches, and in view of its context it must mean 
 that Seneca, in the emperor's judgment, lacked strength 
 and force. But it is commonly taken to imply that 
 Seneca's work lacked cohesion, and to refer to the frag- 
 mentary conciseness which makes it abound in detach- 
 able aphoristic phrases. 
 
 Few authors, indeed, furnish so large a proportion of 
 sententious observations that may be quoted apart from 
 their occasion, though many things in Seneca which seem 
 quite epigrammatic in form are, nevertheless, very depend- 
 
 ' Front, ed. Naber, p. 156. » Calig. 53. 
 
THE STYLE OF SENECA'S WRITINGS xxvii 
 
 ent upon their connection for their sense. Preoccupied as 
 Seneca was with ethical interests, he perpetually rounded 
 his thought up into quotable generahzations.* And the 
 talent for generalization carried Seneca far in the manner 
 of it. He undoubtedly cared very much to be effective, 
 and we often feel in his writings the air of effort which is 
 almost inseparable from an epigrammatic style. 
 
 It is this, perhaps quite as much as the striking differ- 
 ence between the austerity of his philosophy and the opu- 
 lence of his life, which has produced the impression of cant 
 and insincerity upon the minds of some of his readers. 
 Seneca had a taste for preaching, and for preaching artis- 
 tically; he was almost as much of an artist and psycholo- 
 gist as he was philosopher; but to attack his honesty on 
 this account shows, chiefly, antagonism of temperament 
 on the part of the critic. 
 
 Moreover, Seneca himself, not so queerly as it may seem, 
 had a liking for downrightness and directness, a scorn of 
 literary subtleties. He says to Lucilius, nimis anxium 
 ease te circa verba et compositionem nolo ; ^ and elsewhere, 
 "it is a trivial game to play," — latrunculis ludimus, in 
 supervacuis subtilitas ieritur, nee faciunt bonos ista, sed 
 doctos;" and in countless other places the burden of his 
 speech is as he once sums it up: doce quod necesse est.* 
 Even if there is some cant in Seneca, it does not prove his 
 general insincerity, but simply that he was sometimes 
 carried away by his manner of thinking. It is a fault, 
 but not to be dismissed with condemnation unqualified.' 
 
 ' Many of these, as has been often observed, in striking similarity to 
 passages in the Christian Scriptures. 
 
 ' Ep. 115, 1, q.v. » Bp. 106, 11. * Ep. 109, 18. 
 
 ' His flattery of the emperor is another matter. The whole subject 
 of the adulation of the head of the Roman state is a thing apart. It may 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 His expressed ideas on the subject of style ' often seem 
 as inconsistent as some aspects of his life and his philos- 
 ophy. His Uterary principles are apparently at variance 
 with each other and with his own usage. At one time he 
 seems to be disparaging careful hterary art as unworthy 
 of a philosopher: oratio sollicita philosophum non decet,^ 
 he says, and even, quis enim accurate loquiUir nisi qui 
 vult putide (i.e. with disgusting affectation) loqui ?^ At 
 another time he blames & lack of deliberation and order- 
 liness, and urges that the manner should be as dignified 
 as the matter. Hoc non probo, he says, speaking of im- 
 petuous unconsidered fluency in a lecturer, in philosopho, 
 cuius pronuntiatio quoque, sicut vita, debet esse composita* 
 — his delivery ought to be as carefully ordered as his life. 
 In another place, quoting the proverb, talis hominibus fuit 
 oratio qualis vita, he compares the slovenly literary style of 
 Maecenas to his negligent manner of dress and behavior: 
 non oratio eius aeque soluta est, quam ipse discinctus f ' The 
 whole epistle in which this occurs is devoted to an interest- 
 ing discussion of the influences which go to produce faults 
 
 be viewed as a necessary practical precaution or as a fault in the taste of 
 the time ; it was evidently both ; at any rate it may be well studied in 
 Seneca, in whom it is not so gross as in some writers and whose ex- 
 hibitions of it are ingeniously tempered and deflected by the philosophic 
 ideals which we might wish had prevented it altogether. Cf. Nat. 
 Quaest. IV., Praef. 9 : eo enim iam dementiae venimuSj ut qui parce 
 adulatur, pro maligna sit. It may be that even the details of Seneca's 
 literary style were affected for the worse when he was trying to appeal 
 to Nero's meretricious theatrical tastes. It was charged by Seneca's 
 enemies that he wrote more poetry as Nero developed a fondness for it. 
 Cf. pp. 103 and 151. 
 
 ' See F. I. Merchant, Seneca and his Theory of Style, Amer. Jour, oj 
 Philology, 1905, pp. 44r-59. 
 
 ' Ep. 100, 4. ' Ep. 75, 1. 
 
 * Ep. 40, 2. » Ep. 114, 4. 
 
THE STYLE OF SENECA'S WRITINGS xxix 
 
 of style, some of them the very ones with which Seneca 
 himself is commonly charged. 
 
 Seneca's inconsistencies, however, are rarely of the kind 
 which cannot be resolved; and we can perhaps fairly 
 summarize his preferences in a way not essentially out of 
 harmony with his practice in his own prose. He wanted 
 the style to be natural ^ and appropriate, as an artistic 
 Stoic should. He disliked what he thought grandiose 
 and pretentious. Bombastic affectation he expressly 
 ridicules in the A-pocolocyntosis} He records his dislike 
 for long periodic sentences ; " this obviously squares 
 with his practice. Of his epistolary style, which was 
 practically that of all his philosophic works, he says that 
 he wished it to be simple and unaffected like his conversa- 
 tion, which was inlahoratus et facilis; tales esse epistulas 
 meas volo, quae nihil habent accersitum (i.e. far-fetched, 
 recherchi) nee fictum.* 
 
 But in commending the epistolary style of Lucilius 
 he says, habes verba in potestate,^ and when in another place 
 he observes that it is disgraceful to say one thing and 
 mean another, — turpe est alivd loqui aliud sentire : quanta 
 turpius alivid scribere, aliud sentire ° — he is clearly think- 
 ing not so much of the question of sincerity as of a suffi- 
 cient command of one's diction to be able to say effectively 
 just what one means. While Seneca disapproved of the 
 appearance of elaboration, he did like a neatness and pre- 
 cision which accentuated his points, put the effective 
 word in the right place, and in general made the expres- 
 sion fit the thought. He spoke often contemptuously of 
 
 ' Yet he confesses {Nat. Quaeat. III. 18, 7), Non tempera mihi, quin 
 utar interdum temerarie verbis et proprietatis modum excedam. 
 
 2 II. 1. ^Ep. 114, 16. 'Ep. 75, 1. 'Ep. 59. 4. ' Ep. 24, 19. 
 
XXX INTRODUCTION 
 
 the popular taste; nevertheless he endeavored to clothe 
 his philosophy in language which should be attractive 
 to a wide circle of readers. Hence the aptness of Tacitus's 
 comment on Seneca's ingenium amoenum et temporis eius 
 auribus accommodatum,} 
 
 The effort to make his work interesting underlay, of 
 course, the tendency to use in prose words and idioms that 
 in an earlier day would have been restricted to poetic 
 usage, a tendency which he shared with his time, to which 
 such "rhetorical vices" are very freely imputed. It 
 seems evident that such a tendency was a natural sign of 
 growth in a language which even the Gelliuses and Fron- 
 tos could not prevent from being a living tongue. The 
 characteristic peculiarities of Seneca's style were espe- 
 cially of another sort, due to his constant effort after a 
 concise, antithetic brilliancy. Some of them, if we apply 
 the Spencerian test of economy of attention, are such as 
 tend to facilitate the reader's apprehension of the thought ; 
 others retard it. The habit of antithesis is certainly one 
 of the former, however it may be in danger of meriting 
 Gellius's strictures.^ It stimulates the reader's attention 
 and helps his mental arrangement of the ideas. The 
 effort after variety with conciseness, however, often is 
 troublesome rather than helpful, leading as it does to 
 the breaking up of the simple logical arrangement of the 
 sentence and the replacing of regular correlatives with 
 their synonyms. His occasional trick, too, of reversing 
 the natural emphasis in phrases with pairs of correlatives 
 like tarn . . . quam, non minus . . . quam, etc., has a 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. XIII. 3. 
 
 ' Sententiae aid inepto inanique impelu . . . aut . , , ^uasi dicaci 
 argutia. Noct. Attic. XII. ii. 1. 
 
THE STYLE OF SENECA'S WRITINGS XXXi 
 
 tendency to throw the reader from the track.^ His in- 
 dulgence in zeugma is another natural result of his love 
 for conciseness. An occasional vagueness is caused, too, 
 by peculiarities in the use of demonstrative pronouns, and 
 particularly the omission of them when a more "classical" 
 writer, less afraid of being too obvious, would have put 
 them in; so also by the illegitimate allusion to something 
 as if it had been already introduced when it has not been. 
 Such instances as hanc . . . multitudinem and hoc iugum, 
 in the beginning of the De dementia, have a parallel in 
 certain modern vulgar colloquial usages, and may have 
 appeared in Seneca from a similar source. The frequent 
 use of substantive infinitives seems also to show something 
 of the colloquial tendency which Seneca frankly avowed 
 in his epistles. It is found in other Silver Age writers 
 with the same bent in this direction. 
 
 Whatever may be said of Seneca's ordinary Latin style, 
 that of the satire on the deification of Claudius obviously 
 departs much farther from the classical literary standards. 
 It happens to be the only ancient Latin specimen which is 
 extant, in any completeness, of the so-called Menippean 
 satire,^ a literary genre which owes its name to the Cynic 
 philosopher Menippus of Gadara, and was introduced 
 into Latin literature by the antiquary Varro. Its formal 
 characteristic is its irregular mixture of prose and verse, 
 with a tendency to parody ; and in style it affected a racy 
 homeliness of manner, which is well exemplified in the 
 Apocolocyntosis. Written in a vein of broad burlesque, 
 this is full of the jocularities of colloquial phraseology, 
 
 ' Cf. De dementia, I. iii. 3 and xx. 2, and notes. 
 
 2 This character, however, is often ascribed to the Satiricon of Pe- 
 tronius ; and several specimens were produced by scholars of the Renais" 
 sance. 
 
xxxii INTRODUCTION 
 
 popular proverbs, words of more or less distinctly plebeian 
 formation and use, vulgar tautologies, and occasionally 
 downright slang, variously grouped for cumulative effect. 
 Even its syntax has leanings in the same direction. In 
 turns of phrase, however, and tricks of style, it has marked 
 resemblances to Seneca's more serious works ; and though 
 in its general character it is strikingly different from them, 
 it is reasonably to be considered as the product of a Stoic 
 philosopher turned Cynic (like Menippus) on a Saturn a- 
 lian holiday for the amusement, none too good-natured, oi 
 himself and his friends. 
 
 V. EDITIONS AND WORKS FOR REFERENCE 
 
 The editio princeps ' of Seneca was published at Naples in 1475. 
 It contains some spurious works and some works of Seneca the 
 Elder, as well as most of those extant by Seneca the Philosopher, 
 including the Consolatio ad Polybium, the De Clementia, and the 
 Epistles, but not the Apocolocyntosis, which did not appear in 
 print until 1513. The editio princeps of this is entitled ImcH 
 Annaei Senecae in nwrte Claudii Caesaris Ludus nuper repertus, 
 Romae, MDXIII. 
 
 There is a long line of later editions, conspicuous among them 
 being those associated with the names of the great editors, Eras- 
 mus (first edition, Basle, 1515), and Justus Lipsius (first edition, 
 Antwerp, 1605). 
 
 Some interest attaches to the fact that John Calvin, the pre- 
 destinarian theologian, in his student days, edited the De Cle- 
 mentia (Paris, 1532); Jean Jacques Rousseau published a trans- 
 lation of the Apocolocyntosis (included in his Works, vol. ii., 
 Geneva, 1781). 
 
 More recent editions of Seneca's (prose) writings are by the 
 following : — 
 
 F. E. RuHKOPP (Works, with critical notes and commentary, 
 5 vols., Leipzig, 1797-1811). 
 
 ' In reference to the Msa. of Seneca, see pp. 105, 123, 152, 187. 
 
EDITIONS AND WORKS FOR REFERENCE XXXIU 
 
 M. N. BouiLLET (Works, in the Lemaire Bibliotheca Classica 
 Latina, with notes and selected commentary, 5 vols., Paris, 
 1827-1832). 
 
 C. R. FicKERT (Works, with critical notes, 3 vols., Leipzig, 1842- 
 1845). 
 
 F. Haase (Works, text ed., 3 vols., Leipzig, Teubner, 1852 seq.). 
 
 M. C. Gertz (De Beneficiis and De dementia, with critical notes, 
 Beriin, 1876). 
 
 (Dialogi XII., Copenhagen, 1886). 
 
 O. Hense (Epistulae, Leipzig, 1898). 
 
 C. Hosius (De Beneficiis and De dementia, Leipzig, 1900). 
 
 E. Hermes (Dialogi XII., Leipzig, 1905). 
 
 These last three belong to the current Teubner text edition. 
 
 Fr. BiJCHELER (Apocolocyntosis, with commentary, included in 
 the Symbola PhUologorum Bonnensium, 1864, and now out 
 of print). 
 
 (Apocolocyntosis, editio minor, text; with his Petronius, Ber- 
 lin, 1871; 4th ed., 1904). 
 
 A. P. Ball (Apocolocyntosis; the Satire of Seneca on the Apothe- 
 osis of daudius, New York, 1902). 
 
 Fragments of Seneca's lost works are in Haase's edition, vol. iii., 
 pp. XV. and 419 seq. 
 
 The chief classical sources for the life of Seneca are his own 
 works and Tacitus's Annales (libr. XII.-XV. passim), but there are 
 numerous references to him and his writings in other authors; 
 among them Dio Cassius (especially LXI. 10), Suetonius (Calig. 
 53; Nero, 35, etc.), Quintilian (Institutio Oratoria, X. 1, 125 seq.), 
 Aulus Gellius (Nodes Atticae, XII. 2, etc.), and many more. 
 
 On Seneca's literary style, see especially 
 
 A. Gebcke, Seneca-Studien, in Jahrbucher fiir classische Philologie, 
 Supplement bd. 22, Leipzig, 1896, pp. 1-333 (especially pp. 134 
 seq.). 
 
 E. NoRDEN, Die antike Kunstprosa, vom VI. Jahrhundert v. Chr. 
 
 bis in die Zeit der Renaissance, Leipzig, 1898; vol. i., pp. 306 
 seq. 
 
 F. I. Merchant, Seneca and His Theory of Style, American Journal 
 
 of Philology, xxvi. (1905), pp. 44 seq. 
 
xxxiv INTEODUCTION 
 
 BI06RAPHICAI. AND HISTORICAL WORKS 
 
 Charles Aubbrtin, Etude critique sur les rapports supposes entre 
 SirUque et Saint Paul, Paris, 1857. 
 
 S. Baring-Gould, The Tragedy of the Caesars, vol. ii., London, 
 1892. 
 
 Ch. Beule, Le sang de Germanicus, Paris, 1869 (German transla- 
 tion by E. Doehler, Halle, 1874). 
 
 Gaston Boissier, La religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins, 6th 
 ed., Paris, 1906 (especially Book I., chapter ii., on L'apothiose 
 imp Oriole). 
 
 L'Opposition sous les C4sars, 3d ed., Paris, 1892. 
 
 D. Diderot, Essai sur les rkgnes de Claude et de Neron et sur les 
 
 moeuTS et les ecrits de Sinkque, London, 1782, etc. 
 
 Samuel Dill, Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, Lon- 
 don, 1904 (especially Book III., chapter i., on the Philosophic 
 Director). 
 
 Die's Roman History, translated, with notes, by H. B. Foster, 6 
 vol., Troy, N.Y., 1905-1906 (especially Books LX.-LXIII.). 
 
 F. W. Farrar, Seekers after God (i.e. Seneca, Epictetus, and Mar- 
 cus Aurelius), London, 1874. 
 
 L. Friedlander, Der Philosoph Seneca, in Historische Zeitschrift, 
 n. f. 49, Miinchen u. Leipzig, 1900 (pp. 193-249). 
 
 B. W. Henderson, The Ldfe and Principate of the Emperor Nero, 
 Philadelphia, 1903. 
 
 W. R. Inge, Society in Rome under the Caesars, New York, 1888. 
 
 J. B. LiGHTPOOT, St. Paul and Seneca, in edition of the Epistle to 
 the Philippians, London, 1879 (pp. 270-333). 
 
 Constant Martha, Les moralistes sous I'Empire Romain, phi- 
 losophes et poHes, 5th ed., Paris, 1886. 
 
 Charles Merivale, History of the Romans under the Empire, 
 New York, 1896 (especially chapters xlix.-lv.). 
 
 Adolf Stahr, Agrippina, Berlin, 1867. 
 
 E. Zeller, The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, translated from 
 
 the German by O. T. Reichel, new ed., London, 1892. 
 
SELECTED ESSAYS OF SENECA 
 
L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 AD POLYBIUM 
 
 DE CONSOLATIONE 
 
 Liber 
 
 I. [20.] *** nostrae compares, firma sunt; si redigas 1 
 ad condicionem naturae omnia destruentis et unde edidit 
 eodem revocantis, caduca sunt. Quid enim immortale 
 manus mortales fecerunt? Septem ilia miracula et si 
 qua his multo mirabiliora sequentium annorum exstruxit '" 
 ambitio aliquando solo aequata visentur. Ita est: nihil 
 perpetuxun, pauca diu'turh'k sunt; aliud aho modo fragile 
 est, rerum exitus variantur, ceterum q^icquid coepit et 
 desinit. Mundo quidam minantur intferituiii et hoc 2 
 universum, quod omnia divina humanaque complectitur, 1 1 
 si fas putas credere, dies aliquis dissipabit et in confusionem 
 veterem tenebrasque demerget: eat nunc aliquis et 
 singulas comploret animas; Carthaginis ac Numantiae 
 Corinthique cinerem et si quid aliud altius cecidit lamen- 
 tetur, cum etiam hoc quod non habet quo cadat sit in- 
 teriturum; eat aliquis et fata tantum aliquando nefas 
 ausura sibi non pepe^cisse conqueratur. [21.] Quis tam 3 
 superbae impotentisque adrogantiae est, ut in hac naturae 
 necessitate omnia ad eundem finem revocantis se unum 
 ac suos seponi velit ruinaeque etiam ipsi mundo immi- 
 nenti aliquam domum subtrahat? Maximum ergo so- 4 
 lacium est cogitare id sibi accidisse, quod omnes ante se 
 
2 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 passi sunt omnesque passuri; et ideo mihi videtur rerum 
 natura, quod gravissimum fecerat, commune fecisse, ut 
 crudelitatem fati consolaretur aequalitas. 
 
 1 II. Illud quoque te non minimum adiuverit, si cogi- 
 taveris nihil profulurum dolorem tuum nee illi, quem 
 desideras, nee tibi; noles enim longum esse, quod inritum. 
 est. Nam si quicquam tristitia profecturi sumus, non 
 reeuso quicquid lacrimarum fortunae meae superfuit 
 tuae fundere; inveniam etiamnunc per hos exhaustos 
 iam fletibus domesticis oculos quod effluat, si modo id 
 
 2 tibi futurum bono est. Quid cessas? Conqueramur, 
 atque adeo ipse banc litem meam faciam: 'iniquis- 
 sima omnium iudicio Fortuna, adhuc videbaris eum 
 hominem continuisse, qui munere tuo tantam venera- 
 tionem receperat, ut, quod raro ulli contigit, felicitas eius 
 effugeret invidiam: ecce eum dolorem illi, quem salvo 
 Caesare accipere maximum poterat, impressisti, et cum 
 bene ilium undique circuisses, intellexisti hac parte 
 
 3 tantummodo patera ictibus tuis. Quid enim illi aliud 
 faceres? Pecuniam eriperes? Numquam illi obnoxius 
 fuit; nunc quoque, quantum potest, illam a se abigit 
 et in tanta facilitate adcfuirendi nullum maiorem ex ea 
 
 4 fructum quam contemptum eius petit. Eriperes illi 
 amicos? Sciebas tam amabilem esse, ut facile in locum 
 amissorum posset alios substituere ; unum enim hunc 
 ex eis, quos in principal! domo potentes vidi, cognovisse 
 videor, quem omnibus amicum habere cum expediat, 
 
 6 magis tamen etiam libet. Eriperes illi bonam opinionem ? 
 Solidior est haec apud eum, quam ut a te quoque ipsa 
 concuti possit. Eriperes bonam valetudinem? Sciebas 
 animum eius liberalibus disciplinis, quibus non innutritus 
 tantum sed innatuS est, sic esse fundatum, ut supra omnis 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 3 
 
 corporis dolores emineret. Eriperes spiritum? Quan- 6 
 tulum nocuisses! Longissimum illi ingeni aevum fama 
 promisit; id egit ipse, ut meliore sui parte duraret et 
 cofiipositis eloquentiae praeclaris operibus a mortalitate 
 se vindicaret. Quam diu fuerit uUus litteris honor, 
 quam diu steterit aut Latinae linguae potentia aut Graecae 
 gratia, vigebit cum maximis viris, quorum se ingeniis vel 
 contulit vel, si hoc verecundia eius recusat, adplicuit. 
 [22.] Hoc ergo unum excbgltasti, quomodo maxime illi 7 
 posses nocere; quo melior est enim quisque, hoc saepius 
 ferre te consuevit sine ullo dilectu furentem et inter ipsa 
 beneficia metuendam. Quantulum erat tibi immunem 
 ab hac iniuria pr£esfere eum hominem, in quem videbatur 
 indulgentia tua ratione certa pervenisse et non ex tuo 
 more temere incidisse ! ' 
 I III. Adiciamus, si vis, ad has querellas ipsius adules- 1 
 centis interceptam inter prima incrementa indolem: 
 dignus fuit ille te fratre. Tu certe eras dignissimus, qui 
 ne ex indigno quidem quicquam doleres fratre: redditur 
 illi testimonium aequale omnium hominum; desideratur 
 in tuum honorem, laudatur in suum. Nihil in illo fuit, 2 
 quod non libenter agnosceres. Tu quidem etiam minus 
 bono fratri fuisses bonus, sed in illo pietas tua idoneam 
 nacta materiam multo se liberius exercuit. Nemo 
 potentiam eius iniuria sensit, numquam ille te fratrem 
 ulli minatus est; ad exemplum se modestiae tuae forma- 
 verat cogitabatque, quantum tu et ornamentum tuorum 
 esses et onus: suffecit ille huic sarcinae. O dura fata et 3 
 nullis aequa virtutibus! Antequam felicitatem suam 
 nosset frater tuus, exemptus est. Parum autem me 
 indignari scio; nihil est enim difiicilius quam magno 
 dolori paria verba reperire. Etiamnunc tamen, si quid 
 
4 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 proficere possumus, conqueramur: 'quid tibi voluisti, 
 tam iniusta et tarn violenta Fortuna? Tarn cito te 
 indulgentiae tuae paenituit? Quae ista crudelitas est in 
 medios fratres impetum facere et tam cruenta rapina 
 concordissimam turbam imminuere, tam bene stipatam*^'^^ 
 optimorum adulescentium domum, in nullo fratre degene- 
 rantem, turbare et sine ulla causa delibare ! Nihil ergo 
 prodest innocentia ad omnem legem exacta, nihil antiqua 
 frugalitas, nihil felicitatis summae potentia summa 
 conservata abstinentia, nihil sincerus et tutus litterarum 
 amor, nihil ab omni labe'mens vacans? Luget Polybius, 
 et in uno fratre quid de reliquis possit metuere admonitus 
 etiam de ipsis doloris sui solaciis timet. Facinus indig- 
 num! Luget Polybius et aliquid propitio dolet Caesare! 
 Hoc sine dubio, impotens fortuna, captasti, ut ostenderes 
 neminem contra te ne a Caesare quidem posse defendi.' 
 
 IV. [23.] Diutius accusare fata possumus, mutare non 
 possumus : stant dura et inexorabilia ; nemo ilia convicio, 
 nemo fletu, nemo causa movet ; nihil umquam ulli parcunt 
 nee remittunt. Proinde parcamus lacrimis nihil proficien- 
 tibus; faciliiis enim nos inferis dolor iste adiciet quam 
 illos nobis reducet : qui si nos torquet, non adiuvat, primo 
 quoque tempore deponendus est et ab inanibus solaciis at- 
 que athara quadam libidine dolendi animus recipiendus est. 
 Nam lacrimis nostris nisi ratio finem fecerit, fortuna non 
 faciet. Omnis agedum mortalis circumspice, larga ubique 
 flendi et adsidua materia est: alium ad cotidianum opus 
 laboriosa egestas vocat, alium ambitio numquam quieta 
 sollicitat, alius divitias, quas optaverat, metuit et voto 
 laborat suo, alium solitudo torquet, alium semper vesti- 
 bulum obsidens turba; hie habere se dolet liberos, hie 
 perdidisse: lacrimae nobis deerunt ante quam causae 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 5 
 
 dolendi. Non vides, qualem nobis vitam rerum natura 
 promiserit, quae primum nascentium hominum fletum 
 esse voluit ? Hoc principio edimur, huic omnis sequentium 
 annorum ordo consentit. Sic vitam agimus, ideoque mod- 
 erate id fieri debet a nobis, quod saepe faciendum est, et 
 respicientes, quantum a tergo rerum tristium immineat, 
 si non finire lacrimas, at certe reservare debemus. Nulli 
 parcendum est rei magis quam huic, cuius tam frequens 
 usus est. 
 
 V. Illud quoque te non minimum adiuverit, si cogita- 
 veris nulli minus gratum esse dolorem tuum quam ei, 
 ciii praestari videtur : torqueri ille te aut non vult aut non 
 intellegit. Nulla itaque eius officii ratio est, quod ei, cui 
 praestatur, si nihil sentit, supervacuum est, si sentit, in- 
 gratum est. [24.] Neminem esse toto orbe terrarum, qui 
 delectetur lacrimis tuis, audacter dixerim. Quid ergo? 
 Quem nemo adversus te animum gerit, eum esse tu credis 
 fratris tui, ut cruciatu tui noceat tibi, ut te velit abducere 
 ab occupationibus tuis, id est a studio et a Caesare ? Non 
 est hoc simile veri. Ille enim indulgentiam tibi tamquam 
 fratri praestitit, venerationem tamquam parenti, cultum 
 tamquam superiori; ille desiderio tibi esse vult, tormento 
 esse non vult. Quid itaque iuvat dolore intabescere, 
 quem, si quis defunctis sensus est, finiri frater tuus cupit ? 
 De alio fratre, cuius incerta posset voluntas videri, omnia 
 haec in dubio ponerem et dicerem : ' sive te torqueri lacri- 
 mis numquam desinentibus frater tuus cupit, indignus hoc 
 affectu tuo est; sive non vult, utrique vestrum inhaeren- 
 tem dolorem dimitte ; nee impius frater sic desiderari debet 
 nee pius sic velit.' In hoc vero, cuius tam explorata pietas 
 est, pro certo habendum est nihil esse illi posse acerbius, 
 quam si tibi hie casus eius acerbus est, si te ullo modo tor- 
 
6 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 quet, si oculos tuos, indignissimos hoc malo, sine uJlo 
 flendi fine et conturbat idem et exhaurit. 
 
 Pietatem tamen tuam nihil aeque a lacrimis tam 
 inutilibus abducet, quam si cogitaveris fratribus te tuis 
 exemplo esse debere fortiter hanc fortunae iniuriam sus- 
 tinendi. Quod duces magni faciunt rebus adfectis, ut 
 hilaritatem de industria simulent et adversas res adum- 
 brata laetitia abscondant, ne militum animi, si fractam 
 ducis sui mentem viderint, et ipsi conlabantur, id nunc 
 tibi quoque faciendum est : indue dissimilem animo tuo 
 vultum et, si potes, proice omnem ex toto dolorem, si 
 minus, introrsus abde et contine, ne appareat, et da operam 
 ut fratres tui te imitentur, qui honestum putabunt, quod- 
 cumque te facientem viderint, animumque ex vultu tuo 
 sument. Et solacium debes esse illorum et consolator; 
 non poteris autem horum maerori obstare, si tuo indulseris. 
 
 VI. [25.] Potest et ilia res a luctu te prohibere nimio, 
 si tibi ipse renuntiaveris nihil horum, quae facis, posse sub- 
 duci. Magnam tibi personam hominum consensus im- 
 posuit: haec tibi tuenda est. Circumstat te omnis ista 
 consolantium frequentia et in animum tuum inquirit ac 
 perspicit quantum roboris ille adversus dolorem habeat 
 et utrumne tu tantum rebus secundis uti dextere scias, an 
 et adversas possis viriliter ferre: observantur oculi tui. 
 Liberiora sunt omnia iis, quorum adfectus tegi possunt; 
 tibi nullum secretum liberum est. In multa luce fortuna 
 te posuit; omnes scient, quomodo te in isto tuo gesseris 
 vulnere, utrumne statim percussus arma summiseris an 
 in gradu steteris. Olim te in altiorem ordinem et amor 
 Caesaris extulit et tua studia eduxerunt. Nihil te ple- 
 beium decet, nihil humile. Quid autem tam humile ac 
 muliebre est quam consumendum se dolori committere? 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 7 
 
 Non idem tibi in luctu pari quod tuisfratribus licet; multa 3 
 tibi non permittit opinio de studiis ac moribus tuis recepta, 
 multum a te homines exigunt, multum expectant. Si 
 volebas tibi omnia licere, ne convertisses in te ora omnium : 
 nunc tantum tibi praestandum est, quantum promisisti. 
 Omnes illi, qui opera ingenii tui laudant, qui describunt, 
 quibus, cum fortuna tua opus non sit, ingenio opus est, 
 custodes animi tui sunt. Nihil umquam ita potes indig- 
 num facere perfecti et eruditi viri professione, ut non 
 multos admirationis de te suae paeniteat. Non licet tibi 4 
 flere immodice, nee hoc tantummodo non licet; ne som- 
 num quidem extendere in partem diei licet aut a tumultu 
 rerum in otium ruris quieti conf ugere aut adsidua laboriosi 
 officii statione fatigatum corpus voluptaria peregrinatione 
 recreare aut spectaculorum varietate animum detinere 
 aut ex tuo arbitrio diem disponere. [26.] Multa tibi non 
 licent, quae humillimis et in angulo iacentibus licent: 
 magna servitus est magna fortuna. Non licet tibi quia- e 
 quam arbitrio tuo facere: audienda sunt tot hominum 
 milia, tot disponendi libelli; tantus rerum ex orbe toto 
 coeuntium congestus, ut possit per ordinem suum prin- 
 cipis maximi animo subici, exigendus est. Non licet tibi, 
 inquam, flere, ut multos flentes audire possis; ut pericli- 
 tantium et ad misericordiam mitfssimi Caesaris pervenire 
 cupientium lacrimas siccare, lacrimae tibi tuae adsiccandae 
 sunt. 
 
 VII. Haec tamen etiamnunc levioribus te remediis 1 
 adiuvabunt ; cum voles omnium rerum oblivisci, Caesarem 
 cogita. Vide, quantam huius in te indulgentiae fidem, 
 quantam industriam debeas: intelleges non magis tibi 
 incurvari licere quam illi, si quis modo est fabulis traditus, 
 cuius umeris mundus innititur. Caesari quoque ipsi, cui 2 
 
8 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 omnia licent, propter hoc ipsum multa non licent: om- 
 nium somnos illius vigilia defendit, omnium otium illius 
 labor, omnium delicias illius industria, omnium vacationem 
 illius occupatio. Ex quo se Caesar orbi terrarum dedieavit, 
 sibi eripuit, et siderum modo, quae inrequieta semper cur- 
 sus suos explicant, numquam illi licet subsistere nee quic- 
 
 3 quam suum facere. Ad quendam itaque modum tibi 
 quoque eadem necessitas iniungitur: non licet tibi ad 
 utilitates tuas, ad studia tua respicere. Caesare orbem 
 terrarum possidente impertire te nee voluptati nee dolori 
 
 i nee ulli alii rei potes : totum te Caesari debes. Adice nunc 
 quod, cum semper praedices cariorem tibi spiritu tuo 
 Caesarem esse, fas tibi non est salvo Caesare de fortuna 
 queri: hoc incolumi salvi tibi sunt tui, nihil perdidisti, 
 non tantum siccos oculos tuos esse sed etiam laetos oportet ; 
 in hoc tibi omnia sunt, hie pro omnibus est. Quod longe 
 a sensibus tuis pudentissimis piissimisque abest, ad versus 
 felicitatem tuam parum gratus es, si tibi quicquam hoc 
 salvo flere permittis. 
 
 1 VIII. Monstrabo etiamnunc non quidem firmius reme- 
 dium sed familiarius. Si quando te domum receperis, 
 tunc erit tibi metuenda tristitia: nam quam diu numen 
 tuum intueberis, nullum ilia ad te inveniet accessum, 
 omnia in te Caesar tenebit; cum ab illo discesseris, tunc 
 velut occasione data insidiabitur solitudini tuae dolor et 
 
 2 requiescenti animo tuo paulatim inrepet. Itaque non est 
 quod ullum tempus vacare patiaris a studiis: tunc tibi 
 litterae tuae tarn diu ac tam fideliter amatae gratiam refe- 
 rant, tunc te illae antistitem et cultorem suum vindicent, 
 tunc Homerus et Vergilius tam bene de humano genere 
 meriti, quam tu et de illis et de omnibus meruisti, quos 
 pluribus notos esse voluisti quam scripserant, multum te- 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 9 
 
 cum morentur : tutum id erit omne tempus, quod illis tu- 
 endum commiseris ; tunc Caesaris tui opera, ut per omnia 
 saecula domestico narrentur praeconio, quantum potes, 
 compone: nam ipse tibi optime formandi condendique 
 res gestas et materiam dabit et exemplum. [27.] Non 3 
 audeo te eo usque producere, ut fabellas quoque et Aeso- 
 peos logos, intemptatum Romanis ingeniis opus, solita tibi 
 venustate connectas. Difficile est quidem, ut ad haec 
 hilariora studia tam vehementer perculsus animus tam cito 
 possit accedere : hoc tamen argumentum habeto iam con- 
 roborati eius et redditi sibi, si poterit a severioribus scriptis 
 ad haec solutiora procedere. In iUis enim quamvis aegrum 4 
 eum adhuc et secum reluctantem avocabit ipsa rerum, 
 quas tractabit, austeritas ; haec, quae remissa f route com- 
 mentanda sunt, non feret, nisi cum iam sibi ab omni parte 
 constiterit. Itaque debebis eum severiore materia primum 
 exercere, deinde hilariore temperare. 
 
 IX. Illud quoque magno tibi erit levamento, si saepe 1 
 te sic interrogaveris : ' utrumne meo nomine doleo an eius 
 qui decessit ? Si meo, perit indulgentiae iactatio et incipit 
 dolor hoc uno excusatus, quod honestus est, cum ad utilita- 
 tem respicit, a pietate desciscere ; nihil autem minus bono 
 viro convenit quam in fratris luctu calculos ponere. Si 2 
 illius nomine doleo, necesse est alterutrum ex his duobus 
 esse iudicem: nam si nullus defunctis sensus superest, 
 evasit omnia frater meus vitae incommoda et in eum resti- 
 tutus est locum, in quo fuerat antequam nasceretur, et 
 expers omnis mali nihil timet, nihil cupit, nihil patitur: 
 quis iste furor est pro eo me numquam dolere desinere, qui 
 numquam doliturus est? Si est aliquis defunctis sensus, 3 
 nunc animus fratris mei velut ex diutino carcere emissus, 
 tandem sui iuris et arbitrii, gestit et rerum naturae specta- 
 
10 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 culo fruitur et humana omnia ex loco superiore despicit, 
 divina vero, quorum rationem tam diu frustra quaesierat, 
 propius intuetur. Quid itaque eius desiderio maceror, 
 qui aut beatus aut nullus est? Beatum deflere invidia 
 
 4 est, nullum dementia.' [28.] An hoc te movet, quod vide- 
 tur ingentibus et cum maxime circumfusis bonis caruisse ? 
 Cum cogitaveris multa esse, quae perdidit, cogita plura 
 esse, quae non timet : non ira eum torquebit, non morbus 
 adfliget, non suspicio lacesset, non edax et inimica semper 
 alienis proeessibus invidia consectabitur, non metus sollici- 
 tabit, non levitas Fortunae cito munera sua transferentis 
 inquietabit. Si bene computes, plus illi remissum quam 
 
 6 ereptum est. Non opibus fruetur, non tua simul ac sua 
 gratia ; non accipiet beneficia, non dabit : miserum putas, 
 quod ista amisit, an beatum, quod non desiderat? Mihi 
 crede, is beatior est, cui fortuna supervacua est, quam is, 
 cui parata est. Omnia ista bona, quae nos speciosa sed 
 fallaci voluptate delectant, pecunia, dignitas, potentia 
 aliaque com.plura, ad quae generis humani caeca cupiditas 
 obstupescit, cum labore possidentur, cum invidia conspi- 
 ciuntur, eos denique ipsos, quos exornant, et premunt; 
 plus minantur quam prosunt; lubrica et incerta sunt, 
 numquam bene tenentur; nam ut nihil de tempore futuro 
 timeatur, ipsa tamen magnae felicitatis tutela sollicita est. 
 
 6 Si velis credere altius veritatem intuentibus, omnis vita 
 supplicium est : in hoc profundum inquietumque proiecti 
 mare, altemis aestibus reciprocum et modo allevans nos 
 subitis incrementis, modo maioribus damnis deferens adsi- 
 dueque iactans, numquam stabili consistimus loco, pen- 
 demus et fluctuamur et alter in alterum illidimur et ali- 
 
 7 quando naufragium facimus, semper timemus; in hoc 
 tam procelloso et ad omnes tempestates exposito man 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 11 
 
 navigantibus nullus portus nisi mortis est. Ne itaque 
 invideris fratri tuo: quiescit. Tandem liber, tandem 
 tutus, tandem aeternus est. Superstitem Caesarem 
 omnemque eius prolem, superstitem te cum communibus 
 habet fratribus. Antequam quicquam ex suo favore 
 Fortuna mutaret, stantem adhuc illam et munera plena 
 manu congerentem reliquit. Fruitur nunc aperto et 8 
 libero caelo, ex humili atque depresso in eum emicuit locum, 
 quisquis ille est, qui solutas vinculis animas beato recipit 
 sinu, et nunc libere illic vagatur omniaque rerum naturae 
 bona cum summa voluptate perspicit. Erras: non per- 
 didit lucem frater tuus, sed sinceriorem sortitus est. Omni- 9 
 bus illo nobis commune est iter : quid fata deflemus ? Non 
 reliquit ille nos sed antecessit. [29.] Est, mihi crede, 
 magna felicitas in ipsa necessitate moriendi. Nihil ne 
 in totum quidem diem certi est: quis in tam obscura et 
 involuta veritate divinat, utrumne fratri tuo mors in- 
 viderit an consuluerit ? 
 
 X. Illud quoque, qua iustitia in omnibus rebus es, i 
 necesse est te adiuvet cogitantem non iniuriam tibi fac- 
 tam, quod talem fratrem amisisti, sed beneficium datum, 
 quod tam diu tibi pietate eius uti fruique licuit. Iniquus 2 
 est, qui muneris sui arbitrium danti non relinquit, avidus, 
 qui non lucri loco habet, quod accepit, sed damni, quod 
 reddidit. Ingratus est, qui iniuriam vocat finem volupta- 
 tis, stultus, qui nullum fructum esse putat bonorum nisi 
 praesentium, qui non et in praeteritis adquiescit et ea 
 iudicat certiora, quae abierunt, quia de illis ne desinant 
 non est timendum. Nimis angustat gaudia sua, qui eis a 
 tantummodo, quae habet ac videt, frui se putat et habuisse 
 eadem pro nihilo ducit; cito enim nos omnis voluptas 
 reUnquit, quae fluit et transit et paene ante quam veniat 
 
12 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 aufertur. Itaque in praeteritum tempus animus mitten- 
 dus est et quicquid nos umquam delectavit reducendum 
 ac frequenti cogitatione pertractandum est: longior fide- 
 1 liorque est memoria voluptatum quam praesentia. Quod 
 habuisti ergo optimum fratrem, in summis bonis pone! 
 Non est quod cogites, quanto diutius habere potueris, 
 sed quam diu habueris. Rerum natura ilium tibi sicut 
 ceteris fratres suos non mancipio dedit, sed commodavit; 
 cum visum est deinde, repetit nee tuam in eo satietatem 
 
 5 secuta est sed suam legem. Si quis pecuniam creditam 
 solvisse se moleste ferat, earn praesertim, cuius usum 
 gratuitum acceperit, nonne iniustus vir habeatur ? Dedit 
 natura fratri tuo vitam, dedit et tibi: quae suo iure usa 
 si a quo voluit debitum suum citius exegit, non ilia in culpa 
 est, cuius nota erat condicio, sed mortalis animi spes avida, 
 quae subinde, quid rerum natura sit, obliviscitur nee um- 
 
 6 quam sortis suae meminit, nisi cum admonetur. Gaude 
 itaque habuisse te tam bonum fratrem et usum fructumque 
 eius, quamvis brevior voto tuo f uerit, boni consule. Cogita 
 iucundissimum esse, quod habuisti, humanum, quod per- 
 didisti : nee enim quicquam minus inter se consentaneum 
 est quam aliquem moveri, quod sibi talis f rater parum diu 
 contigerit, non gaudere, quod tamen contigerit. 
 
 1 XI. 'At inopinanti ereptus est.' Sua quemque cre- 
 dulitas decipit et in eis, quae diligit, voluntaria mortalitatis 
 oblivio: natura nulli se necessitatis suae gratiam factu- 
 ram esse testata est. Cotidie praeter oculos nostros tran- 
 seunt notorum ignotorumque funera, nos tamen aliud 
 agimus et subitum id putamus esse, quod nobis tota vita 
 denuntiatur futurum. Non est itaque ista fatorum iniqui- 
 tas, sed mentis humanae pravitas insatiabilis rerum 
 omnium, quae indignatur inde excidere, quo admissa est 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 13 
 
 precario. [30.] Quanto ille iustior, qui nuntiata filii morte 2 
 dignam magno viro vocem emisit : ' Ego cum genui, turn 
 moriturum scivi.' Prorsus non mireris ex hoc natum esse, 
 qui fortiter mori posset. Non accepit tamquam novum 
 nuntium filii mortem; quid enim est novi hominem mori, 
 cuius tota vita nihil aliud quam ad mortem iter est? 
 'Ego cum genui, tum moriturum scivi.' Deinde adiecit 3 
 rem maioris et prudentiae et animi : ' et huic rei sustuli.' 
 Omnes huic rei tollimur; quisquis ad vitam editur, ad 
 mortem destinatur. Gaudeamus ergo eo, quod dabitur, 
 reddamusque id, cum reposcemur : alium alio tempore fata 
 comprehendent, neminem praeteribunt. In procinctu 
 stet animus et id quod necesse est numquam timeat, quod 
 incertum est semper expectet. Quid dicam duces du- 4 
 cumque progeniem et multis aut consulatibus conspicuos 
 aut triumphis sorte defunctos inexorabili ? Tota cum regi- 
 bus regna populique cum regentibus tulere fatum suum: 
 omnes, immo omnia in ultimum diem spectant. Non idem 
 universis finis est: alium in medio cursu vita deserit, 
 alium in ipso aditu relinquit, alium in extrema senectute 
 fatigatum iam et exire cupientem vix emittit; alio qui- 
 dem atque alio tempore, omnes tamen in eundem locum 
 tendimus; utrumne stultius sit nescio mortalitatis legem 
 ignorare, an impudentius recusare. Agedum ilia, quae 5 
 multo ingenii tui labore celebrata sunt, in manus sume 
 utriuslibet auctoris carmina, quae tu ita resolvisti, ut 
 quamvis structura illorum recesserit, permaneat tamen 
 gratia — sic enim ilia ex alia lingua in aliam transtulisti, 
 ut, quod difEcillimum erat, omnes virtutes in alienam te 
 orationem secutae sint — : nullus erit in illis scriptis liber, 
 qui non plurima varietatis humanae incertorumque casuum 
 et lacrimarum ex alia atque alia causa fiuentium exempla 
 
14 L. ANNAEI SENECAfi 
 
 6 tibi suggerat. Lege, quanto spiritu ingentibus intonueria 
 verbis: pudebit te subito deficere at ex tanta orationis 
 magnitudine desciscere. Ne commiseris, ut quisquis 
 exemplaris modo scripta tua mirabatur quaerat quomodo 
 tarn grandia tamque solida tam fragilis animus conceperit. 
 
 1 XII. Potius ab istis te, quae torquent, ad haec tot et 
 tanta, quae consolantur, converte ac respice optimos 
 fratres, respice uxorem, filium respice : pro omnium horum 
 salute hac tecum portione Fortuna decidit. Multos habes, 
 in quibus adquiescas. [31.] Ab hac te infamia vindica, 
 ne videatur omnibus plus apud te valere unus dolor quam 
 
 2 haec tam multa solacia. Omnis istos una tecum perculsos 
 vides nee posse tibi subvenire, immo etiam ultro expectare, 
 ut a te subleventur, intellegis; et ideo quanto minus in 
 illis doctrinae minusque ingenii est, tanto magis obsistere 
 te necesse est communi malo. Est autem hoc ipsum 
 solacii loco, inter multos dolorem suum dividere; qui quia 
 dispensatur inter plures, exigua debet apud te parte sub- 
 
 3 sidere. Non desinam totiens tibi offerre Caesarem: 
 illo moderante terras et ostendente quanto melius bene- 
 ficiis imperium custodiatur quam armis, illo rebus humanis 
 praesidenie non est periculum, ne quid perdidisse te sen- 
 tias; in hoc uno tibi satis praesidi, solaci est. Attolle te 
 et, quotiens lacrimae suboriuntur oculis tuis, totiens illos 
 in Caesarem derige : siecabuntur maximi et clarissimi con- 
 spectu numinis; fulgor eius illos, ut nihil aliud possint 
 
 4 aspicere, praestringet et in se haerentes detinebit. Hie 
 tibi, quern tu diebus intueris ac noctibus, a quo numquam 
 deicis animum, cogitandus est, hie contra fortunam ad- 
 vocandus. Nee dubito, cum tanta illi adversus omnes suos 
 sit mansuetudo tantaque indulgentia, quin iam multis 
 solaciis tuum istud vulnus obduxerit, iam multa, quae 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 15 
 
 dolori obstarent tuo, congesserit. Quid porro? Ut nihil 
 horum fecerit, nonne protinus ipse conspectus per se tan- 
 tummodo cogitatusque Caesar maximo solacio tibi est? 
 Dii ilium deaeque terris diu commodent ! Acta hie divi 6 
 Augusti aequet, annos vincat ! Quam diu inter mortales 
 erit, nihil ex domo sua mortale esse sentiat ! Rectorera 
 Romano imperio filium longa fide adprobet et ante ilium 
 consortem patris quam successorem aspiciat! Sera et 
 nepotibus demum nostris dies nota sit, qua ilium gens sua 
 caelo adserat ! 
 
 - XIII. [32.] Abstine ab hoc manus tuas, Fortuna, i 
 nee in isto potentiam tuam nisi ea parte, qua prodes, 
 ostenderis ! Patere ilium generi humano iam diu aegro 
 et adfecto mederi, patere quicquid prioris principis furor 
 concussit in suum locum restituere ac reponere ! Sidus 
 hoc, quod praecipitato in profundum et demerso in tene- 
 bras orbi refulsit, semper luceat ! Hie Germaniam 2 
 pacet, Britanniam aperiat, et patrios triumphos ducat et 
 novos: quorum me quoque spectatorem futurum, quae 
 ex virtutibus eius primum optinet locum, promittit 
 dementia. Nee enim sic me deiecit, ut nollet erigere, 
 immo ne deiecit quidem, sed impulsum a fortuna et 
 cadentem sustinuit et in praeeeps euntem leniter divinae 
 manus usus moderatione deposuit: deprecatus est pro 
 me senatum et vitam mihi non tantum dedit sed etiam 
 petit.- Viderit: qualem volet esse, existimet causam 3 
 meam; vel iustitia eius bonam perspiciat vel dementia 
 faciat bonam: utrumque in aequo mihi eius beneficium 
 erit, sive innocentem me scierit esse, sive voluerit. In- 
 terim magnum miseriarum mearum solacium est videre 
 misericordiam eius totum orbem pervagantem: quae 
 cum ex ipso angulo, in quo ego defixus sum, complures 
 
16 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 multorum iam annorum ruina obrutos effoderit et in 
 lucem reduxerit, non vereor ne me unum transeat. Ipse 
 autem optime novit tempus, quo cuique debeat succurrere ; 
 ego omnem operam dabo, ne pervenire ad me erubescat. 
 4 O felicem clementiam tuam, Caesar, quae efficit, ut- 
 quietiorem sub te agant vitam exsules, quam nuper sub 
 Gaio egere principes ! Non trepidant nee per singulas 
 horas gladium exspectant nee ad omnem navium con- 
 spectum pavent; per te habent ut fortunae saevientis 
 rnodum ita spem quoque melioris eiusdem ac praesentis 
 quietem. Scias licet ea demum fulmina esse iustissima, 
 quae etiam percussi colunt. 
 
 1 XIV. [33.] Hie itaque princeps, qui publicum om- 
 nium hominum solacium est, aut me omnia fallunt aut 
 iam recreavit animum tuum et tam magno vulneri 
 maiora adhibuit remedia. Iam te omni confirmavit 
 modo, iam omnia exempla, quibus ad animi aequitatem 
 compellereris, tenacissima memoria rettulit, iam omnium 
 praecepta sapientum adsueta sibi facundia explicuit. 
 
 2 Nullus itaque melius has adloquendi partes occupaverit: 
 aliud habebunt hoc dicente pondus verba velut ab oraculo 
 missa; omnem vim doloris tui divina eius contundet 
 auctoritas. Hunc itaque tibi puta dicere : ' non te solum 
 fortuna desumpsit sibi, quem tam gravi afficeret iniuria; 
 nulla domus in toto orbe terrarum aut est aut fuit sine 
 aliqua comploratione. Transibo exempla vulgaria, quae 
 etiam si minora, tamen innumera sunt, ad fastos te et 
 
 3 annales perducam publicos. Vides omnes has imagines, 
 quae implevere Caesarum atrium? Nulla non harum 
 aliquo suorum incommodo insignis est; nemo non ex 
 istis in ornamentum saeculorum refulgentibus viris aut 
 desiderio suorum tortus est aut a suis cum maximo animi 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 17 
 
 cruciatu desideratus est. Quid tibi referam Scipionem i 
 Africanum, cui mors fratris in exsilio nuntiata est ? Is 
 frater, qui eripuit fratrem carceri, non potuit eripere 
 fato; et quam impatiens iuris aequi pietas Africani fuerit, 
 cunctis apparuit : eodem enim die Scipio Africanus, quo 
 viatoris manibus fratrem abstulerat, tribuno quoque 
 plebis privatus intercessit. Tam magno tamen fratrem 
 desideravit hie animo, quam defenderat. Quid referam 5 
 Aemilianum Scipionem, qui uno paene eodemque tempore 
 spectavit patris triumphum duorumque fratrum funera? 
 Adulescentulus tamen ac propemodum puer tanto animo 
 tulit illam familiae suae super ipsum Pauli triumphum 
 concidentis subitam vastitatem, quanto debuit ferre vir in 
 hoc natus, ne urbi Romanae aut Scipio deesset aut Car- 
 thago superesset. 
 
 XV. [34.] Quid referam duorum Lucullorum di- 1 
 remptam morte concordiam? Quid Pompeios? Quibus 
 ne hoc quidem saeviens reliquit fortuna, ut una eademque 
 conciderent ruina: vixit Sextus Pompeius primum sorori 
 superstes, cuius morte optime cohaerentis Romanae 
 pacis vincula resoluta sunt, idemque hie vixit superstes 
 Optimo fratri, quem fortuna in hoc evexerat, ne minus 
 alte eum deiceret, quam patrem deiecerat; et post hunc 
 tamen casum Sextus Pompeius non tantum dolori, sed 
 etiam bello suffecit. Innumerabilia undique exempla 2 
 separatorum morte fratrum succurrunt, immo contra 
 vix ulla umquam horum paria conspecta sunt una senes- 
 centia; sed contentus nostrae domus exempUs ero. 
 Nemo enim tam expers erit sensus ac sanitatis, ut For- 
 tunam ulli queratur luctum intuUsse, quam sciet etiam 
 Caesarum lacrimas concupisse. Divus Augustus amisit 3 
 Octaviam sororem carissimam et ne ei quidem rerum 
 
18 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 natura lugendi necessitatem abstulit, cui caelum destina- 
 verat, immo vero idem omni genere orbitatis vexatus 
 sororis filium successioni praeparatum suae perdidit; 
 denique ne singulos eius luctus enumerem, et generos ille 
 amisit et liberos et nepotes, ac nemo magis ex omnibus 
 mortalibus hominem esse se, dum inter homines erat, 
 sensit. Tamen tot tantosque luctus cepit rerum omnium 
 capacissimum eius pectus victorque divus Augustus non 
 gentium tantummodo externarum, sed etiam dolorum 
 
 4 fuit. Gains Caesar, divi Augusti, avunculi mei magni, 
 nepos, circa primes iuventae suae annos Lucium fratrem 
 carissimum sibi princeps iuventutis principem eiusdem 
 iuventutis amisit in apparatu Parthici belli et graviore 
 multo animi volnere quam postea corporis ictus est; 
 
 6 quod utrumque et piissime idem et fortissime tulit. Ti. 
 Caesar patruus meus Drusum Germanicum patrem meum, 
 minorem natu quam ipse erat fratrem, intima Germaniae 
 recludentem et gentes ferocissimas Romano subicientem 
 imperio in complexu et in osculis suis amisit: modum 
 tamen lugendi non sibi tantum sed etiam aliis fecit ac 
 totiun exercitum non solum maestum sed etiam attonitum 
 corpus Drusi sui sibi vindicantem ad morem Romani 
 luctus redegit iudicavitque non militandi tantum dis- 
 ciplinam esse servandam sed etiam dolendi. Non po- 
 tuisset ille lacrimas alienas compescere, nisi prius pres- 
 sisset suas. 
 
 1 XVI. [35.] M. Antonius avus meus, nuUo minor nisi 
 eo a quo victus est, tunc cum rem publicam constitueret 
 et triumvirali potestate praeditus nihil supra se videret, 
 exceptis vero duobus coUegis omnia infra se cemeret, 
 
 2 fratrem interfectum audivit. Fortuna impotens, quales 
 ex humanis malis tibi ipsa ludos faeis ! Eo ipso tempore, 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 19 
 
 quo M. Antonius civium suorum vitae sedebat mortisque 
 arbiter, M. Antonii frater duci iubebatur ad supplicium ! 
 Tulit hoc tamen tam triste vulnus eadem magnitudine 
 animi M. Antonius, qua omnia alia adversa toleraverat, 
 et hoc fuit eius lugere viginti legionum sanguine fratri 
 parentare. Sed ut omnia alia exempla praeteream, ut in 3 
 me quoque ipso alia taceam funera, bis me fraterno luctu 
 aggressa fortuna est, bis intellexit laedi me posse, vinci 
 non posse: amisi Germanicum fratrem, quem quomodo 
 amaverim, intellegit profecto quisquis cogitat, quomodo 
 suos fratres pii fratres ament; sic tamen affectum meum 
 rexi, ut nee relinquerem quicquam, quod exigi deberet a 
 bono fratre, nee facerem, quod reprehendi posset in prin- 
 cipe.' 
 
 Haec ergo puta tibi parentem publicum referre exempla, 4 
 eundem ostendere, quam nihil sacrum intactumque sit 
 Fortunae, quae ex eis penatibus ausa est funera ducere, 
 ex quibus erat deos petitura. Nemo itaque miretur 
 aliquid ab ilia aut crudeliter fieri aut inique; potest enim 
 haec adversus privatas domos ullam aequitatem nosse 
 aut ullam modestiam, cuius implacabilis saevitia totiens 
 ipsa funestavit pulvinaria ? Faciamus licet illi convicium 6 
 non nostro tantum ore sed etiam publico, non tamen 
 mutabitur; adversus omnis se preces omnisque queri- 
 monias exiget. Hoc fuit in rebus humanis Fortuna, hoc 
 erit: nihil inausum sibi reliquit, nihil intactum relinquet; 
 ibit violentior per omnia, sicut solita est semper, eas 
 quoque domos ausa iniuriae causa intrare, in quas per 
 templa aditur, et atram laureatis foribus induet vestem. 
 [36.] Hoc unum obtineamus ab ilia votis ac precibus 6 
 publicis, si nondum illi genus humanum placuit con- 
 sumere, si Romanum adhuc nomen propitia respicit: 
 
20 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 hunc principem lapsis hominum rebus datum, sicut 
 omnibus mortalibus, sibi esse sacratura velit ! Discat 
 ab illo clementiam fiatque mitissimo omnium principum 
 mitis ! 
 
 1 XVII. Debes itaque eos intueri omnes, quos paulo 
 ante rettuli, aut adscitos caelo aut proximos, et ferre 
 aequo animo Fortunam ad te quoque porrigentem manus, 
 quas ne ab eis quidem, per quos iuramus, abstinet; 
 debes illorum imitari firmitatem in perferendis et evin- 
 cendis doloribus, in quantum modo homini fas est per 
 
 2 divina ire vestigia. Quamvis sint in aliis rebus digni- 
 tatum ac nobilitatum magna discrimina, virtus in medio 
 posita est : neminem dedignatur, qui modo dignum se ilia 
 iudicat. Optime certe illos imitaberis, qui cum indignari 
 possent non esse ipsos exsortes huius mali, tamen in 
 hoc uno se ceteris exaequari hominibus non iniuriam 
 sed ius mortalitatis iudicaverunt tuleruntque nee nimis 
 acerbe et aspere, quod acciderat, nee molliter et effemi- 
 nate; nam et non sentire mala sua non est hominis et 
 
 3 non ferre non est viri. Non possum tamen, cum omnes 
 circumierim Caesares, quibus Fortuna fratres sororesque 
 eripuit, hunc praeterire ex omni Caesarum numero ex- 
 cerpendum, quem rerum natura in exitium opprobrium- 
 que humani generis edidit, a quo imperium adustum 
 atque eversum funditus principis mitissimi recreat cle- 
 
 4 mentia. C. Caesar amissa sorore Drusilla, is homo, qui 
 non magis dolere quam gaudere principaliter posset, 
 conspectum conversationemque civium suorum profugit, 
 exsequiis sororis suae non interfuit, iusta sorori non 
 praestitit, sed in Albano suo tesseris ac foro et pervolgatis 
 huiusmodi aliis occupationibus acerbissimi funeris ele- 
 vabat mala. Pro pudor imperii ! Principis Romani 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 21 
 
 lugentis sororem alea solacium fuit ! Idem ille Gaius 5 
 furiosa inconstantia modo barbam capillumque sum- 
 mittens modo Italiae ac Siciliae oras errabundus 
 permetiens et numquam satis certus, utrum lugeri vellet 
 an coli sororem, eodem omni tempore, quo templa illi 
 constituebat ac pulvinaria, eos qui parum maesti fuerant, 
 crudelissima adficiebat animadversione ; eadem enim 
 intemperie animi adversarum rerum ictus ferebat, qua 
 secundarum elatus eventu super humanum intumescebat 
 modum. Procul istud exemplum ab omni Romano sit 6 
 viro, luctum suum aut intempestivis sevocare lusibus aut 
 sordium ac squaloris foeditate inritare aut alienis malis 
 oblectare minime humano solacio. 
 
 XVIII. Tibi vero nihil ex consuetudine mutandum 1 
 est tua, quoniam quidem ea instituisti amare studia, quae 
 et optime felicitatem extollunt et facillime minuunt 
 calamitatem eademque et ornamenta maxima homini 
 sunt et solacia. [37.] Nunc itaque te studiis tuis immerge 
 altius, nunc ilia tibi velut munimenta animi circumda, 
 ne ex ulla tui parte inveniat introitum dolor. Fratris 2 
 quoque tui produc memoriam aliquo scriptorum moni- 
 mento tuorum; hoc enim unum est in rebus humanis 
 opus, cui nulla tempestas noceat, quod nulla consumat 
 vetustas. Cetera, quae per constructionem lapidum et 
 marmoreas moles aut terrenos tumulos in magnam educ- 
 tos altitudinem constant, non propagant longam diem, 
 quippe et ipsa intereunt : immortalis est ingeni memoria. 
 Hanc tu fratri tuo largire, in hac eum conloca; melius 
 ilium duraturo semper consecrabis ingenio quam inrito 
 dolore lugebis. Quod ad ipsam Fortunam pertinet, 3 
 etiam si nunc agi apud te causa eius non potest — omnia 
 enim ilia, quae nobis dedit, ob hoc ipsum, quod aliquid 
 
22 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 eripuit, in visa sunt — , tunc tamen erit agenda, cum 
 primum aequiorem te illi iudicem dies fecerit; tunc enim 
 poteris in gratiam cum ilia redire. Nam multa providit, 
 quibus hanc emendaret iniuriam, multa etiamnunc dabit, 
 quibus redimat; denique ipsum hoc, quod abstulit, ipsa 
 
 4 dederat tibi. Noli ergo contra te ingenio uti tuo, noli 
 adesse dolori tuo. Potest quidem eloquentia tua quae 
 parva sunt adprobare pro magnis, rursus magna attenuare 
 et ad minima deducere; sed alio istas vires servet suas, 
 nunc tota se in solacium tuum conferat. Et tamen di- 
 spice, ne hoc iam quoque ipsum sit supervacuum ; aliquid 
 enim a nobis natura exigit, plus vanitate contrahitur. 
 
 5 Numquam autem ego a te, ne ex toto maereas, exigam. 
 Et scio inveniri quosdam durae magis quam fortis pru- 
 dentiae viros, qui negent doliturum esse sapientem: hi 
 non videntur mihi umquam in eiusmodi casum incidisse, 
 alioquin excussisset illis fortuna superbam sapientiam et 
 ad confessionem eos veri etiam invitos compulisset. 
 
 6 Satis praestiterit ratio, si id unum ex dolore, quod et 
 superest et abundat, exciderit : ut quidem nullum omnino 
 esse eum patiatur, nee sperandum ulli nee concupiscendum 
 est. Hunc potius modum servet, qui nee impietatem 
 imitetur nee insaniam et nos in eo teneat habitu, qui et 
 piae mentis est nee motae: fluant lacrimae, sed eaedem 
 et desinant, trahantur ex imo gemitus pectore, sed idem 
 et finiantur; sic rege animum tuum, ut et sapientibus 
 
 7 te adprobare possis et fratribus. Effice, ut frequenter 
 fratris tui memoriam tibi velis occurrere, ut ilium et 
 sermonibus celebres et adsidua recordatione repraesentes 
 tibi, quod ita demum consequi poteris, si tibi memoriam 
 eius iucundam magis quam flebilem feceris; naturale est 
 enim, ut semper animus ab eo refugiat, ad quod cum 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 23 
 
 tristitia revertitur. Cogita modestiam eius, cogita in s 
 rebus agendis soUertiam, in exsequendis industriam, in 
 promissis constantiam. Omnia dicta eius ac facta et aliis 
 expone et tibimet ipse commemora. Qualis fuerit cogita 
 qualisque sperari potuerit: quid enim de illo non tuto 
 sponderi fratre posset ? 
 
 Haec, utcumque potui, longo iam situ obsoleto et 9 
 heBetato animo composui. Quae si aut parum respon- 
 dere ingenio tuo aut parum mederi dolori videbuntur, 
 cogita, quam non possit is alienae vacare consolationi, 
 quem sua mala occupatum tenent, et quam non facile 
 Latina ei homini verba succurrant, quem barbarorum 
 inconditus et barbaris quoque humanioribus gravis fre- 
 mitus circumsonat. 
 
L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 LUDUS DE MORTE CLAUDII CAESARIS 
 VEL 
 
 APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 
 
 I. Quid actum sit in caelo ante diem III. idus Octobris 
 anno novo, initio saeculi felicissimi, volo memoriae tradere. 
 Nihil nee offensae nee gratiae dabitur. Haec ita vera. 
 Si quis quaesiverit unde sciam, primum, si noluero, non 
 respondebo. Quis coacturus est? Ego scio me liberum 
 factum, ex quo suum diem obiit ille, qui verum proverbium 
 fecerat, aut regem aut fatuum nasci oportere. Si libuerit 
 respondere, dicam quod mihi in buccam venerit. Quis 
 umquam ab historico iuratores exegit ? Tamen si necesse 
 fuerit auctorem producere, quaerito ab eo qui Drusillam 
 euntem in caelum vidit: idem Claudium vidisse se dicet 
 iter facientem 'non passibus aequis.' Velit nolit, necesse 
 est illi omnia videre, quae in caelo aguntur: Appiae viae 
 curator est, qua scis et Divum Augustum et Tiberium 
 Caesarem ad deos isse. Hunc si interrogaveris, soli 
 narrabit; coram pluribus numquam verbum faciet. 
 Nam ex quo in senatu iuravit se Drusillam vidisse caelum 
 adscendentem et illi pro tam bono nuntio nemo credidit, 
 quod viderit verbis conceptis adfirmavit se non indica-" 
 turum, etiam si in medio foro hominem occisum vidis3et. 
 Ab hoc ego quae tum audivi, certa clara adfero, ita ilium 
 salvum et felicem habeam. 
 
 24 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 25 
 
 II. lam Phoebus breviore via contraxerat ortum 
 lucis et obscuri crescebant tempora somni, 
 iamque suum victrix augebat Cynthia regnum 
 et deformis hiemps gratos carpebat honores 
 divitis autumni visoque senescere Baccho 
 carpebat raras serus vinderhitor uvas'. 
 
 Puto magis intellegi, si dixero: mensis erat October, 
 dies III. idus Octobris. Horam non possum certam tibi 
 dicere, facilius inter philosophos quam inter horologia 
 conveniet, tamen inter sextam et septimam erat. ' Nimis 
 rustice ! ' inquies : ' sunt omnes poetae non contenti ortus 
 et occasus describere, ut etiam medium diem inquietent; 
 tu sic transibis horam tam bonam?' 
 
 lam medium curru Phoebus diviserat orbem 
 et propior nocti fessas quatiebat habenas ' ; 
 oblique flexam deducens tramite lucem : 
 
 III. Claudius animam agere coepit nee invenire exitum 
 poterat. Turn Mercurius, qui semper ingenio eius de- 
 lectatus esset, unam e tribus Parcis seducit et ait : ' quid, 
 femina crudelissima, hominem miserum torqueri pateris? 
 Nee umquam tam diu cruciatus cesset? Annus sexa- 
 gesimus quartus est, ex quo cum anima luc^St'ur. Quid 
 huic et rei pubUcae invides? Patere mathematicos ali- 
 quando verum dicere, qui ilium, ex quo princeps factus 
 est, omnibus annis, omnibus mensibus efferunt. Et 
 tamen non est mirum si errant et horam eius nemo novit ; 
 nemo enim umquam ilium natum putavit. Fac quod 
 faciendum est : 
 
 "Dede neci, melior vacua sine regnet in aula.'" 
 
26 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 3 Sed Clotho 'ego mehercules' inquit 'pusillum temporis 
 adicere illi volebam, dum hos pauculos, qui supersunt, 
 civitate donaret ; constituerat enim omnes Graecos, Gallos, 
 Hispanos, Britannos togatos videre; sed quoniam placet 
 aliquos peregrinos in semen relinqui et tu ita iubes fieri, 
 
 i fiat.' Aperit turn capsulam et tres fusos profert: unus 
 erat Augurini, alter Babae, tertius Claudii. 'Hos' inquit 
 'tres uno anno exiguis intervallis temporum divisos mori 
 iubebo, nee ilium incomitatum dimittam. Non oportet 
 enim eum, qui modo se tot milia hominum sequentia 
 videbat, tot praecedentia, tot circumfusa, subito solum 
 destitui. Contentus erit his interim convictoribus.' 
 
 1 IV. Haec ait et turpi convolvens stamina fuso 
 abrupit stolidae regalia tempora vitae. 
 At Lachesis rediinita comas, ornata capillos, 
 Pieria crinem lauro frontemque coronans 
 Candida de niveo subtemina vellere sumit 
 felici moderanda manu, quae ducta colorem 
 adsumpsere novum. Mirantur pensa sorores : 
 mutatur vilis pretioso lana metallo, 
 aurea formoso descendunt saecula filo. 
 10 Nee modus est illis, felicia vellera ducunt 
 et gaudent implere manus, sunt dulcia pensa. 
 Sponte sua festinat opus nulloque labors 
 mollia contorto descendunt stamina fuso. 
 Vincunt Tithoni, vincunt et Nestoris annos. 
 Phoebus adest cantuque iuvat gaudetque futuris 
 et laetus nunc plectra movet, nunc pensa ministrat. 
 Detinet intentas cantu fallitque laborem. 
 Dumque nimis citharam fraternaque carmina 
 laudant, 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 27 
 
 plus solito nevere manus humanaque fata 
 20 laudatum transcendit opus. ' Ne demite, Parcae,' 
 Phoebus ait 'vincat mortalis tempora vitae 
 ille mihi similis vultu similisque decore 
 nee cantu nee voee minor. Felicia lassis 
 saecula praestabit legumque silentia rumpet. 
 Qualis diseutiens fugientia Lucifer astra 
 aut qualis surgit redeuntibus Hesperus astris, 
 qualis, cum primum tenebris Aurora solutis 
 induxit rubicunda diem, Sol aspicit orbem 
 lucidus et primos a carcere concitat axes: 
 80 talis Caesar adest, talem iam Roma Neronem 
 aspieiet. Flagrat nitidus fulgore remisso 
 vultus et adfuso cervix formosa capillo.' 
 
 Haec Apollo. At Lachesis, quae et ipsa homini formo- 2 
 sissimo faveret, fecit illud plena manu, et Neroni multos 
 annos de suo donat. Claudium autem iubent omnes 
 
 'XaipovTw;, ev^rj^novvTOi iKTrefiireiv Soficov 
 
 Et ille quidem animam ebulliit, et ex eo desiit vivere 
 videri. Exspiravit autem dum comoedos audit, ut scias 
 me non sine causa illos timere. Ultima vox eius haec 3 
 inter homines audita est, cum maiorem sonitum emisisset 
 ilia parte, qua facilius loquebatur: 'vae me, puto, con- 
 cacavi me.' Quod an fecerit, nescio: omnia certe con- 
 cacavit. 
 
 V. Quae in terris postea sint acta, supervacuum est 1 
 referre. Scitis enim optime, nee perieulum est ne exci- 
 dant quae memoriae gaudium publicum impresserit: 
 nemo felicitatis suae obliviseitur. In caelo quae acta 
 sint, audite: fides p&n!es1 aiictorem erit. Nuntiatur lovi 2 
 
28 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 venisse quendam bonae staturae, bene canum; nescio 
 quid ilium minari, adsidue enim caput movere; pedem 
 dextrum trahere. Quaesisse se, cuius nationis esset: 
 respondisse nescio quid perturbato sono et voce confusa; 
 non intellegere se linguam eius, nee Graecum esse nee 
 
 3 Romanum nee ullius gentis notae. Turn luppiter Her- 
 culem, qui totum orbem terrarum pererraverat et nosse 
 videbatur omnes nationes, iubet ire et explorare, quorum 
 hominum esset. Turn Hercules prime aspectu sane 
 perturbatus est, ut qui etiam non omnia monstra timuerit. 
 Ut vidit novi generis faciem, insolitum incessum, vocem 
 nullius terrestris animalis sed qualis esse marinis beluis 
 solet, raucam et implicatam, putavit sibi tertium deci- 
 
 i mum laborem venisse. Diligentius intuenti visus est 
 quasi homo. Accessit itaque et, quod facillimum fuit 
 Graeculo, ait : 
 
 Tt? TToOev eh avSpaiv, ttoOl toi Tr6Xi<: rjSe TOKrje'}; 
 
 Claudius gaudet esse illic philologos homines, sperat futu- 
 rum aliquem historiis suis locum. Itaque et ipse Homerico 
 versu Caesarem se esse significans ait : 
 
 'IXtodev jJie (j)epQ)v avefio<; ILiicovecTCTC ireXaa-crev. 
 
 Erat autem sequens versus verier, aeque Homericus : 
 
 evOa h' i<ya) iroKiv eTrpaOov, coKecra h' avrov^. 
 
 1 VI. Et imposuerat Herculi minime vafrb, nisi fuisset 
 illic Febris, quae fano suo relicto sola cum illo venerat: 
 ceteros omnes decs Romae reliquerat. 'Iste' inquit 
 ' mera mendacia narrat. Ego tibi dico, quae cum illo tot 
 annis vixi : Luguduni natus est, Marci municipem vides. 
 Quod tibi narro, ad sextum decimum lapidem natus est a 
 Vienna, Gallus germanus. Itaque quod Galium facere 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 29 
 
 oportebat, Romam cepit. Hunc ego tibi recipio Lugu- 
 duni natum, ubi Licinus multis annis regnavit. Tu au- 
 tem, qui plura loca calcasti quam ullus mulio perpetuarius 
 Lugudunensis, scire debes multa milia inter Xanthum et 
 Rhodanum interesse.' Excandescit hoc loco Claudius et 2 
 quanto potest murmure irascitur. Quid diceret, nemo 
 intellegebat, ille autem Febrim duci iubebat. Illo gestu 
 solutae manus et ad hoc unum satis firmae, quo decollare 
 homines solebat, iusserat illi collum praecidi. Putares 
 omnes illius esse libertos: adeo ilium nemo curabat. 
 
 VII. Tum Hercules ' audi me ' inquit, ' tu desine fatuari. l 
 Venisti hue, ubi mures ferrum rodunt. Citius mihi verum, 
 ne tibi alogias excutiam.' Et quo terribilior esset, tragicus 
 fit et ait : 
 
 'Exprome propere, sede qua genitus cluas, 2 
 
 hoc ne peremptus stipite ad terram accidas; 
 haec clava reges saepe mactavit feros. 
 Quid nunc profatu vocis incerto sonas ? 
 Quae patria, quae gens mobile eduxit caput? 
 Edissere. Equidem regna tergemini petens 
 longinqua regis, unde ab Hesperio mari 
 Inachiam ad urbem nobile advexi pecus, 
 vidi duobus imminens fluviis iugum, 
 10 quod Phoebus ortu semper obverso videt, 
 ubi Rhodanus ingens amne praerapido fluit, 
 Ararque dubitans, quo suos cursus agat, 
 tacitus quietis admit ripas vadis. 
 Estne ilia tellus spiritus altrix tui?' 
 
 Haec satis animose et fortiter; nihilo minus mentis suae 3 
 non est et timet ficopov ttXt^^^i'. Claudius ut vidit virum 
 valentem, oblitus nugarum intellexit neminem Romae sibi 
 
30 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 parem fuisse, illic non habere se idem gratiae: gallum in 
 4 suo sterqSiliiio''"plurimum posse. Itaque quantum intel- 
 legi potuit, haec visus est dicere : ' ego te, fortissime deo- 
 rum Hercule, speravi mihi adfuturum apud alios, et si qui 
 a me notorem petisset, te fui nominaturus, qui me optima 
 nosti. Nam si memoria repetis, ego eram qui tibi ante 
 templum tuum ius dicebam totis diebus mense lulio et 
 B Augusto. Tu scis, quantum illic miseriarum contulerim, 
 cum causidicos audirem diem et noctem, in quos si inci- 
 disses, valde fortis licet tibi videaris, maluisses cloacas 
 Augeae purgare: multo plus ego stercoris exhausi. Sed 
 quoniam volo' *** 
 
 1 VIII. 'Non mirum quod in curiam impetum fecisti: 
 nihil tibi clausi est. Modo die nobis, qualem deum 
 istum fieri velis. 'EiTriKovpeio<; 0eo? non potest esse : ovre 
 aiTK Trpayna e'yei Tt ovre aXKoi^ Trape^ei; Stoicus? Quo- 
 modo potest " rotundus " esse, ut ait Varro, "sine capite, sine 
 
 " praeputio"? Est aliquid in illo Stoici dei, iam video: nee 
 
 2 cor nee caput habet. Si mehercules a Saturno petisset 
 hoe benefieium, cuius mensem toto anno celebravit Satur- 
 nalicius princeps, non tulisset illud, nedum ab love, quem 
 quantum quidem in illo fuit, damnavit incesti. Silanum 
 enim generum suum oceidit propterea quod sororem 
 suam, festivissimam omnium puellarum, quam omnes 
 Venerem vocarent, maluit lunonem vocare. "Quare," 
 inquis, "quaero enim, sororem suam?" stulte, stude: 
 
 3 Athenis dimidium Ucet, Alexandriae totimi. "Quia 
 Romae" inquis "mures molas lingunt." Hie nobis 
 curva conriget? Quid in cubieulo suo faciat, neseit, et 
 iam "eaeU serS!alur plagas." Deus fieri vult: parum 
 est quod templum in Britannia habet, quod hunc barbari 
 colunt et ut deum orant fiatpov eviXuTov rv^^etv?' 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 31 
 
 IX. Tandem lovi venit in mentem, privatis intra i 
 curiam morantibus sententiam dicere non licere nee dis- 
 putare. 'Ego,' inquit, 'P. C. interrogare vobis permi- 
 seram, vos mera mapalia fecistis. Volo ut servetis dis- 
 ciplinam curiae. Hie qualiseumque est, quid de nobis 
 existimabit ? ' Illo dimisso primus interrogatur senten- 2 
 tiam lanus pater. Is designatus erat in kal. lulias 
 postmeridianus consul, homo quantum vis va'fer, qui 
 semper videt dpia irpoa-aa koI hri<7<ro>. Is multa diserte, 
 quod in Foro vivebat, dixit, quae notarius persequi non 
 potuit et ideo non refero, ne aliis verbis ponam, quae 
 ab illo dicta sunt. Multa dixit de magnitudine deorum : 3 
 non debere hune vulgo dari honorem. 'Olim,' inquit, 
 'magna res erat deum fieri: iam famam mi mum fecisti. 
 Itaque ne videar in personam, non in rem dicere senten- 
 tiam, censeo ne quis post hunc diem deus fiat ex his, 
 qui apovp7)<i Kapirov eSova-iv aut ex his, quos alit ^eiScopov 
 apovpa. Qui contra hoe senatus consultum deus fac- 
 tus, dictus pictusve erit, eum dedi Laruis et proximo 
 munere inter novos auetoratos feruhs vapulare placet.' 
 Proximus interrogatur sententiam Diespiter Vicae Potae i 
 filius, et ipse designatus consul, nummulariolus : hoc 
 quaestu se sustinebat, vendere civitatulas solebat. Ad 
 hune belle accessit Hercules et aurieulam illi tetigit. 
 Censet itaque in haec verba : ' cum Divus Claudius et 5 
 Divum Augustum sanguine contingat nee minus Divam 
 Augustam aviam suam, quam ipse deam esse iussit, 
 longeque omnes mortales sapientia antec^'fra't, sitque 
 6 re publica esse aliquem qui cum Romulo possit "fer- 
 ventia rapa vorare," censeo uti Divus Claudius ex hae die 
 deus sit, ita uti ante eum qui optimo iure faetus sit, eam- 
 que rem ad Metamorphosis Ovidi adiciendam.' Variae 6 
 
32 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 erant sententiae, et videbatur Claudius sententiam vincere, 
 Hercules enim, qui videret ferrum suum in igne esse, 
 modo hue modo illuc cursabat et aiebat: 'noli mihi 
 invidere, mea res agitur; deinde tu si quid volueris, in 
 vicem faciam; manus manum lavat.' 
 
 1 X. Tunc Divus Augustus surrexit sententiae suae loco 
 dicendae et summa facundia disseruit: 'Ego,' inquit, 
 'P. C. vos testes habeo, ex quo deus factus sum, nullum 
 me verbum fecisse: semper meum negotium ago. Sed 
 non possum amplius dissimulare et dolorem, quem gravi- 
 
 2 orem pudor facit, continere. In hoc terra marique pacem 
 peperi? Ideo civilia bella compes'cui? Ideo legibus 
 urbem fundavi, operibus ornavi, ut — quid dicam P. C. 
 non invenio: omnia infra indignationem verba sunt. 
 Confugiendum est itaque ad Messalae Corvini, disertissimi 
 
 3 viri, illam sententiam, "pudet imperii." Hie, P. C, qui 
 vobis non posse videtur muscam excitare, tam facilo 
 homines occidebat, quam canis adsidit. Sed quid ego 
 de tot ac talibus viris dicam ? Non vacat deflere publicas 
 clades intuenti domestica mala. Itaque ilia omittam, 
 haec referam; nam etiam si soror mea [Graece] nescit, 
 
 4 ego scio : eyjLov yovv Kvrnxri';. Iste quem videtis, per tot 
 annos sub meo nomine latens, hanc mihi gratiam rettulit, 
 ut duas lulias pJorieptes meas occideret, alteram ferro, 
 alteram fame, unum abnepotem L. Silanum. Videris 
 luppiter an in causa mala, certe in tua, si aecus futu- 
 rus es. Die mihi. Dive Claudi, quare quemquam ex 
 his, quos quasque occidisti, antequam de causa cognos- 
 ceres, antequam audires, damnasti? Hoc ubi fieri solet? 
 In eaelo non fit. 
 
 1 XI. Ecce luppiter, qui tot annos regnat, uni Volcano 
 ' crus f regit, quem 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 33 
 
 plyfre ttoSo? rerayajv airb ^rjXov OecnreaCoio, 
 
 et iratus fuit uxori et suspendit illam : numquid occidit '/ 
 Tu Messalinam, cuius aeque avunculus maior eram quam 
 tuus, occidisti. "Nescio" inquis. Di tibi male faciant: 
 adeo istuc turpius est, quod nescisti, quam quod occidisti. 
 C. Caesarem non desiit mortuum persequi. Occiderat 
 ille socerum : hie et generum. Gaius Crassi filium vetuit ' 
 Magnum vocari: hie nomen illi reddidit, caput tulit. 
 Occidit in una domo Crassum, Magnum, Scriboniam, 
 tris homines assarios, nobiles tamen, Crassum vero tam 
 fatuum, ut etiam regnare posset. Hunc nunc deum facere 
 vultis? Videte corpus eius dis iratis natum. Ad sum- 
 mam, tria verba cito dicat, et servum me ducat. Hunc 
 deum quis colet? Quis credet? Dum tales deos facitis, 
 nemo vos deos esse credet. Summa rei, P. C, si honeste 
 me inter vos gessi, si nulli clarius respondi, vindicate in- 
 iurias meas. Ego pro sententia mea hoc censeo : ' atque 
 ita ex taj)ella recitavit : ' quando quidem Divus Claudius 
 occidit socerum suum Appium Silanum, generos duos 
 Magnum Pompeium et L. Silanum, socerum filiae suae 
 Crassum Frugi, hominem tam similem sibi quam ovo 
 ovum, Scriboniam socriim filiae suae, uxorem suam Mes- 
 salinam et ceteros quorum numerus iniri non potuit, placet 
 mihi in eum severe animadverti nee illi rerumiudicandarum 
 vacationem dari eumque quam primum exportari et caelo 
 intra triginta dies exeedere, Olympo intra diem tertium.' 
 
 Pedibus in hane sententiam itum est. Nee mora, ( 
 Cyllenius ilium collo obtorto trahit ad inferos [a caelo] 
 
 ' unde negant redire quemquam.' 
 
 XII. Dum descendunt per viam Saeram, interrogat ] 
 Mercurius, quid sibi velit ille concursus hominum, num 
 
34 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 Claudii funus esset? Et erat omnium formosissimum 
 et impensa cura, plane ut scires deum efferri : tubicinum, 
 cornicinum, omnis generis aenatorum tanta turba, tantus 
 concentus, ut etiam Claudius audire posset. Omnes 
 laeti, hilares: populus Romanus ambulabat tamquam 
 liber. Agatho et pauci causidici plorabant, sed plane ex 
 animo. lurisconsulti e tenebris procedebant, pallidi, 
 graciles, vix animam habentes, tamquam qui turn maxime 
 reviviscerent. Ex his unus cum vidisset capita confe- 
 rentes et fortunas suas deplorantes causidicos, accedit et 
 ait: 'dicebam vobis: non semper Saturnalia erunt.' 
 Claudius ut vidit funus suum, intellexit se mortuum esse. 
 Ingenti enim /leyaXo) xopiKO) nenia cantabatur anapaestis : 
 
 ' Fundite fletus, edite planctus, 
 
 resonet tristi clamore Forum : 
 
 cecidit pulchre cordatus homo, 
 
 quo non alius fuit in toto 
 
 fortior orbe. 
 10 Ille citato vincere cursu 
 
 poterat celeres, ille rebelles 
 
 fundere Parthos levibusque sequi 
 
 Persida telis, certaque manu 
 
 tendere nervum, qui praecipites 
 20 vulnere parvo figeret hostes, 
 
 pictaque Medi terga fugacis. 
 
 Ille Britannos ultra noti 
 
 litora ponti 
 
 et caeruleos scufe Brigantas 
 80 dare Romuleis coUa catenis 
 
 iussit et ipsum nova Romanae 
 
 iura securis tremere Oceanum. 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 35 
 
 Deflete virum, quo non alius 
 
 potuit citius discere causas, 
 40 una tantum parte audita, 
 
 saepe nee utra. Quis nunc iudex 
 
 toto lites audiet anno ? 
 
 Tibi iam cedet sede relicta, 
 
 qui dat populo iura silenti, 
 60 Cretaea tenens oppida centum. 
 
 Caedite maestis pectora palmis, 
 
 o causidici, venale genus. 
 
 Vosque poetae lugete novi, 
 
 vosque in primis qui concusso 
 60 magna parastis lucra fritillo.' ' ■ . 
 
 XIII. Delectabatur laudibus suis Claudius et cupiebat i 
 diutius spectare. Inicit illi manum Talthybius deorum 
 et trahit capite obvoluto, ne quis eum possit agnoscere, 
 per campum Martium, et inter Tiberim et viam Tectam 
 descendit ad inferos. Antecesserat iam compendiaria 2 
 Narcissus libertus ad patronum excipiendum et venienti 
 nitidus, ut erat a balineo, occurrit et ait: 'quid di ad 
 homines?' 'Celerius,' inquit Mercurius, 'et venire nos 
 nuntia.' Dicto citius Narcissus evolat. Omnia proclivia 'sT' 
 sunt, facile descenditur. Itaque quamvis podagricus <^<r-- 
 esset, momento temporis pervenit ad ianuam Ditis 
 ubi iacebat Cerberus vel, ut ait Horatius, 'belua centiceps.' 
 Pusillum perturbatur — subalbam canem in deliciis 
 habere adsueverat — ut ilium vidit canem nigrum, 
 villosu'm, sane non quem velis tibi in tenebris occurrere. 
 Et magna voce, 'Claudius,' inquit, 'veniet.' Cum plausu i 
 procedunt cantantes : evprjicafiev, a-vyx^aipofnev. Hie erat C. 
 Silius consul designatus, luncus praetorius, Sex. Traulus, 
 
36 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 M. Helvius, Trogus, Cotta, Vettius Valens, Fabius, equitea 
 R. quos Narcissus duci iusserat. Medius erat in hac 
 cantantium turba Mnester pantomimus, quem Claudius 
 
 5 decoris causa minorem fecerat. Ad Messalinam — cito 
 rumor percrebuit Claudium venisse — convolant : primi 
 omnium liberti Polybius, Myron, Harpocras, Amphaeus, 
 Pheronactus, quos Claudius omnes, necubi imparatus 
 esset, praemiserat; deinde praefecti duo Justus Catonius 
 et Rufrius Pollio; deinde amici Saturninus Lusius et 
 Pedo Pompeius et Lupus et Celer Asinius consulares; 
 novissime fratris filia, sororis filia, generi, soceri, socrus, 
 omnes plane consanguinei. Et agmine facto Claudio 
 
 6 occurrunt. Quos cum vidisset Claudius, exclamat : Travra 
 (j)i\(ov irX'^pri, 'quomodo hue venistis vos?' Turn Pedo 
 Pompeius : '' quid dicis, homo crudelissime ? Quaeris quo- 
 modo ? Quis enim nos alius hue misit quam tu, omnium 
 amicorum interfector ? In ius eamus : ego tibi hie sellas 
 ostendam.' 
 
 1 XIV. Ducit ilium ad tribunal Aeaei : is lege Cornelia 
 quae de sicariis lata est, quaerebat. Postulat nomen eius 
 reeipiat; edit subscriptionem: oecisos senatores XXXV, 
 
 2 equites R. CCXXI, eeteros ocra ■yjrdfiaOo'; re ko'w? re. Ad- 
 vocatum non invenit. Tandem procedit P. Petronius, 
 vetus eonvictor eius, homo Claudiana lingua disertus, et 
 postulat advocationem. Non datur. Accusat Pedo Pom- 
 peius magnis clamoribus. Incipit patronus velle respon- 
 dere. Aeacus, homo iustissimus, vetat et ilium altera 
 tantum parte audita condemnat et ait : atVe irdOoi rd t 
 
 3 epe^e, Sikt] k Wela ye'voiro. Ingens silentium factum est. 
 Stupebant omnes novitate rei attoniti ; negabant hoc um- 
 quam factum. Claudio magis iniquum videbatur quam 
 novum. De genera poenae diu disputatum est, quid 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 37 
 
 ilium pati oporteret. Erant qui dicerent, Sisyphum 
 diu laturam fecisse, Tantalum siti periturum nisi illi suc- 
 curreretur, aliquando Ixionis miseri rotam sufHaminan- 
 dam. Non placuit ulli ex veteribus missionem dari, ne 4 
 vel Claudius umquam simile speraret. Placuit novam 
 poenam constitui debere, excogitandum illi laborem inri- j a 
 tum et alicuius cupiditatis spem sine fine et effectu. Tum 
 Aeacus iubet ilium alea ludere pertuso fritillo. Et iam 
 coeperat fugientes semper tesseras quaerere et nihil pro- 
 ficere : 
 
 XV. Nam quotiens missurus erat resonante fritillo, l 
 
 utraque subducto fugiebat tessera fundo. 
 Cumque recollectos auderet mittere talos, 
 lusuro similis semper semperque petenti, 
 decepere fidem : refugit digitosque per ipsos 
 fallax adsiduo dilabitur alea furto. 
 Sic cum iam summi tanguntur culmina mentis, 
 inrita Sisyphio volvuntur pondera collo. 
 
 Apparuit subito C. Caesar et petere ilium in servitutem 2 
 coepit; producit testes, qui ilium viderant ab ipso flagris, 
 ferulis, colaphis vapulantem. Adiudicatur C. Caesari; 
 Caesar ilium Aeaco donat. Is Menandro liberto sue 
 tradidit, ut a cognitionibus esset. 
 
L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 AD NERONEM CAESAREM 
 
 DE CLEMENTIA 
 
 Liber I 
 
 I. Scribere de dementia, Nero Caesar, institui, ut quo< 
 dam modo speculi vice fungerer e.t te tibi ostenderem per- 
 venturum ad voluptatem maximam omnium. Quamvis 
 enim recte factorum verus fructus sit fecisse nee ullum 
 virtutum pretium dignum illis extra ipsas sit, iuvat in- 
 spicere et circumire bonam conscientiam, turn immittere 
 oculos in banc immensam multitudinem discordem, 
 seditiosam, impotentem, in perniciem alienam suamque 
 pariter exsultaturam, si hoc iugum fregerit, et ita loqui 
 secum: 'Egone ex omnibus mortalibus placui electusque 
 sum, qui in terris deorum vice fungerer ? Ego vitae necis- 
 que gentibus arbiter; qualem quisque sortem statumque 
 habeat, in mea manu positum est; quid cuique mortalium 
 Fortuna datum velit, meo ore pronuntiat; ex nostro 
 response laetitiae causas populi urbesque concipiunt; 
 nulla pars usquam nisi volente propitioque me floret; 
 haec tot milia gladiorum, quae pax mea comprimit, ad 
 nutum meum stringentur; quas nationes funditus ex- 
 cidi, quas transportari, quibus libertatem dari, quibus 
 eripi, quos reges mancipia fieri quorumque capiti regium 
 circumdari decus oporteat, quae ruant urbes, quae orian- 
 
 38 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENT I A LIB. I 39 
 
 tur, mea iuris dictio est. In hac tanta facultate rerum 3 
 non ira me ad iniqua supplicia compulit, non iuvenilis 
 impetus, non temeritas hominum et contumacia, quae 
 saepe tranquillissimis quoque pectoribus patientiam 
 extorsit, non ipsa ostentandae per terrores potentiae 
 dira, sed frequens magnis imperils gloria. Conditum, 
 immo constrictum apud me ferrum est, summa parsimonia 
 etiam vilissimi sanguinis; nemo non, cui alia desunt, 
 hominis nomine apud me gratiosus est. Severitatem i 
 abditam, at clementiam in procinctu habeo; sic me 
 custodio, tamquam legibus, quas ex situ ac tenebris in 
 lucem evocavi, rationem redditurus sim. Alterius aetate 
 prima motus sum, alterius ultima ; alium dignitati donavi, 
 alium humilitati; quotiens nullam inveneram miseri- 
 cordiae causam, mihi peperci. Hodie dis immortalibus, 
 si a me rationem repetant, adnumerare genus humanum 
 paratus sum.' Potes hoc, Caesar, audacter praedicare: 5 
 omnia, quae in fidem tutelamque tv/im venerunt, tuta 
 haheri, nihil per te neque vi neque clam adimi rei publicae. 
 Rarissimam laudem et nulli adhuc principum concessam 
 concupisti innocentiam. Non perdit operam nee bonitas 
 ista tua singularis ingratos aut malignos aestimatores 
 nancta est. Refertur tibi gratia; nemo unus homo uni 
 homini tam cams umquam fuit, quam tu populp Romano, 
 magnum longumque eius bonum. Sed ingens tibi onus 6 
 imposuisti; nemo iam divum Augustum nee Ti. Caesaris 
 prima tempora loquitur nee, quod te imitari velit, exemplar 
 extra te quaerit; principatus tuus ad gustum exigitur. 
 Difficile hoe fuisset, si non naturalis tibi ista bonitas esset, 
 sed ad tempus sumpta. Nemo enim potest personam 
 diu ferre, ficta eito in naturam suam recidunt; quibus 
 Veritas subest quaeque, ut ita dieam, ex solido enascun- 
 
40 L. ANNAEI SENECAE. 
 
 7 tur, tempore ipso in maius meliusque procedunt. Mag- 
 nam adibat aleam populus Romanus, cum incertum esset, 
 quo se ista tua nobilis ih^oles^daret ; iam vota publica 
 in tuto sunt; nee enim periculum est, ne te subita tui 
 capiat oblivio. Facit quidem avidos nimia felicitas, nee 
 tam temperatae cupiditates sunt umquam, ut in eo, quod 
 contigit, desinant; gradus a magnis ad maiora fit, et 
 spes improbissimas conplectuntur insperata adsecuti; 
 omnibus tamen nunc civibus tuis et haec confessio ex- 
 primitur esse felices et ilia nihil iam his aceedere bonis 
 
 8 posse, nisi ut perpetua sint. Multa illos cogunt ad hane 
 confessionem, qua nulla in homine tardior est: securitas 
 alta, adfluens, ius supra omnem iniuriam positum; ob- 
 versatur oculis laetissima forma rei publieae, cui ad sum- 
 
 9 mam libertatem nihil deest nisi pereundi licentia. Prae- 
 cipue tamen aequalis ad maximos imosque pervenit cle- 
 mentiae tuae admiratio; cetera enim bona pro portione 
 fortunae suae quisque sentit aut exspectat maiora minora- 
 que, ex dementia omnes idem sperant ; nee est quisquam, 
 cui tam valde innocentia sua placeat, ut non stare in eon- 
 spectu clementiam paratam humanis erroribus gaudeat. 
 
 1 II. Esse autem aliquos scio, qui dementia pessimum 
 quemque putent sustineri, quoniam nisi post crimen 
 supervacua est et sola haee virtus inter innocentes cessat. 
 Sed primum omnium, sicut medicinae apud aegros usus, 
 etiam apud sanos honor est, ita clementiam, quamvis 
 poena digni invocent, etiam innocentes colunt. Deinde 
 habet haec in persona quoque innocentium locum, quia 
 interim fortuna pro culpa est; nee innocentiae tantum 
 dementia succurrit, sed saepe virtuti, quoniam quidem 
 condicione temporum ineidunt quaedam, quae possint 
 
 2 laudata puniri. Adice, quod magna pars hominum est, 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 41 
 
 quae reverti ad innocentiam possit. Sed non tamen 
 volgo ignoscere decet; nam ubi discrimen inter malos 
 bonosque sublatum est, confusio sequitur et vitiorum 
 eruptio; itaque adhibenda moderatio est, quae sanabilia 
 ingenia distinguere a deploratis sciat. Nee promiscuam 
 habere ac volgarem clementiam oportet nee abscisam; 
 nam tam omnibus ignoscere crudelitas quam nulli. 
 Modum tenere debemus; sed quia difficile est tempera- 
 mentum, quidquid aequo plus futurum est, in partem 
 humaniorem praeponderet. 
 
 III. Sed haec suo melius loco dicentur. Nunc in tres i 
 partes omnem banc materiam dividam. Prima erit 
 mansuetudinis vel poenae remissionis ; secunda, quae 
 naturam clementiae habitumque demonstret: nam cum 
 sint vitia quaedam virtutes imitantia, non possunt 
 secerni, nisi signa, quibus dinoscantur, impresseris ; tertio 
 loco quaeremus, quomodo ad banc virtutem perducatur 
 animus, quomodo confirmet eam et usu suam faciat. 
 
 Nullam ex omnibus virtutibus homini magis convenire, 2 
 cum sit nulla humanior, constet necesse est non solum 
 inter nos, qui hominem sociale animal communi bono 
 genitum videri volumus, sed etiam inter illos, qui homi- 
 nem voluptati donant, quorum omnia dicta factaque ad 
 utilitates suas spectant; nam si quietem petit et otium, 
 banc virtutem naturae suae nanctus est, quae pacem 
 amat et manus retinet. Nullum tamen dementia ex 3 
 omnibus magis quam regem aut principem decet. Ita 
 enim magnae vires decori gloriaeque sunt, si illis salutaris 
 potentia est; nam pestifera vis est valere ad nocendum. 
 lUius demum magnitudo stabilis fundataque est, quem 
 omnes tam supra se esse quam pro se sciunt, cuius curam 
 excubare pro salute singulorum atque universorum 
 
42 L. ANNAEI SENEGAB. 
 
 cottidie experiuntur, quo procedente non, tamquam 
 malum aliquod aut noxium animal e cubili prosilierit, 
 diffugiunt, sed tamquam ad clarum ac beneficum sidus 
 certatim advolant. Obicere se pro illo mucronibus 
 insidiantium paratissimi et substernere corpora sua, si 
 per stragem illi humanam iter ad salutem struendum sit, 
 somnum eius nocturnis excubiis muniunt, latera obiecti 
 circumfusique defendunt, incurrentibus periculis se op- 
 
 i ponunt. Non est hie sine ratione populis urbibusque 
 consensus sic protegendi amandique reges et se suaque 
 iactandi, quocumque desideravit imperantis salus; nee 
 haec vilitas sui est aut dementia pro uno capite tot milia 
 excipere ferrum ac multis mortibus unam animam redi- 
 
 5 mere nonnumquam senis et invalidi. Quemadmodum 
 totum corpus animo deservit et, cum hoc tanto maius 
 tantoque speciosius sit, ille in occulto maneat tenuis et 
 in qua sede latitet incertus, tamen manus, pedes, oculi 
 negotium illi gerunt, ilium haec cutis munit, illius iussu 
 iacemus aut inquieti discurrimus, cum ille imperavit, 
 sive avarus dominus est, mare lucri causa scrutamur, 
 sive ambitiosus, iam dudum dextram flammis obiecimus 
 aut voluntarii terram subsiluimus, sic haec immensa 
 multitude unius animae circumdata illius spiritu regitur, 
 illius ratione flectitur pressura se ac fractura viribus suis, 
 nisi consilio sustineretur. 
 
 1 IV. Suam itaque incolumitatem amant, cum pro uno 
 homine denas legiones in aciem deducunt, cum in primam 
 frontem procurrunt et adversa volneribus pectora ferunt, 
 ne imperatoris sui signa vertantur. Ille est enim vincu- 
 lum, per quod res publica cohaeret, ille spiritus vitalis, 
 quem haec tot milia trahunt nihil ipsa per se futura nisi 
 onus et praeda, si mens ilia imperii subtrahatur. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 43 
 
 Rege incolumi mens omnibus una; 
 amisso rupere fidem. 
 
 Hie casus Romanae pacis exitium erit, hie tanti fortunam 2 
 populi in ruinas aget ; tam diu ab isto perieulo aberit hie 
 populus, quam diu sciet ferre frenos, quos si quando 
 abruperit vel ahquo casu diseussos reponi sibi passus 
 non erit, haec unitas et hie maximi imperii eontextus 
 in partes multas dissiliet, idemque huie urbi finis domi- 
 nandi erit, qui parendi fuerit. Ideo principes regesque 3 
 et quocumque aUo nomine sunt tutores status publici 
 non est mirum amari ultra privatas etiam necessitudines ; 
 nam si sanis hominibus pubUca privatis potiora sunt, 
 sequitur, ut is quoque carior sit, in quem se res publica 
 convertit. Olim enim ita se induit rei pubheae Caesar, 
 ut seduci alterum non posset sine utriusque pernicie; 
 nam et illi viribus opus est et huie capite. 
 
 V. Longius videtur reeessisse a proposito oratio mea, 1 
 at mehercules rem ipsam premit. Nam si, quod adhuc 
 colligit, tu animus rei publicae tuae es, ilia corpus tuum, 
 vides, ut puto, quam necessaria sit dementia; tibi enim 
 pareis, cum videris alteri parcere. Parcendum itaque 
 est etiam improbandis civibus non aliter quam membris 
 languentibus, et, si quando misso sanguine opus est, 
 sustinenda est manus, ne ultra, quam neeesse sit, incidat. 
 Est ergo, ut dieebam, dementia omnibus quidem homini- 2 
 bus secundum naturam, maxime tamen decora impera- 
 toribus, quanto plus habet apud illos, quod servet, 
 quantoque in maiore materia apparet. Quantulum enim 
 nocet privata crudelitas ! principum saevitia bellum 
 est. Cum autem virtutibus inter se sit eoncordia nee 3 
 ulla altera melior aut honestior sit, quaedam tamen 
 
44 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 quibusdam personis aptior est. Decet magnanimitas 
 quemlibet mortalem, etiam ilium, infra quem nihil est; 
 quid enim maius aut fortius quam malam fortunam 
 retundere? Haec tamen magnanimitas in bona fortuna 
 laxiorem locum habet meliusque in tribunali quam in 
 
 4 piano conspicitur. dementia, in quamcumque domum 
 pervenerit, eam felicem tranquillamque praestabit, sed in 
 regia, quo rarior, eo mirabilior. Quid enim est memora- 
 bilius quam eum, cuius irae nihil obstat, cuius graviori 
 sententiae ipsi, qui pereunt, adsentiuntur, quem nemo 
 interpellaturus est, immo, si vehementius excanduit, ne 
 deprecaturus est quidem, ipsum sibi manum inicere et 
 potestate sua in melius placidiusque uti hoc ipsum cogi- 
 tantem : ' Occidere contra legem nemo non potest, servare 
 
 5 nemo praeter me ' ? Magnam fortunam magnus animus 
 decet, qui, nisi se ad illam extulit et altior stetit, illam 
 quoque infra ad terram deducit; magni autem animi 
 proprium est placidum esse tranquillumque et iniurias 
 atque offensiones superne despicere. Muliebre est furere 
 in ira, ferarum vero nee generosarum quidem praemordere 
 et urguere proiectos. Elephanti leonesque transeunt, 
 
 6 quae impulerunt ; ignobilis bestiae pertinacia est. Non 
 decet regem saeva nee inexorabilis ira, non multum enim 
 supra eum eminet, cui se irascendo exaequat; at si dat 
 vitam, si dat dignitatem periclitantibus et meritis amittere, 
 f acit, quod nulli nisi rerum potenti licet ; vita enim etiam 
 
 7 superiori eripitur, numquam nisi inferiori datur. Ser- 
 vare proprium est excellentis fortunae, quae numquam 
 magis suspici debet, quam cum illi contigit idem posse 
 quod dis, quorum beneficio in lucem edimur tam boni 
 quam mali. Deorum itaque sibi animum adserens 
 princeps alios ex civibus suis, quia utiles bonique sunt, 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 45 
 
 libens videat, alios in numerum relinquat; quosdam esse 
 gaudeat, quosdam patiatur. 
 
 VI. Cogitato, in hac civitate, in qua turba per latissima i 
 itinera sine intermissione defluens eliditur, quotiens 
 aliquid obstitit, quod cursum eius velut torrentis rapidi 
 moraretur, in qua tribus eodem tempore theatris caveae 
 postiiLintur, in qua consumitur quicquid terris omnibus 
 aratur, quanta solitude ac vastitas futura sit, si nihil 
 relinquat ur, nisi quod iudex severus absolverit. Quotus 2 
 quisque ex quaesitoribus est, qui non ex ipsa ea lege 
 teneatur, qua quaerit ? Quotus quisque accusator vacat 
 culpa? Et nescio, an nemo ad dandam veniam difficilior 
 sit, quam qui illam petere saepius meruit. Peccavimus 3 
 omnes, alii gravia, alii leviora, alii ex destinato, alii forte 
 impulsi aut aliena nequitia ablati; alii in bonis consiliis 
 parum fortiter stetimus et innocentiam inviti ac retinentes 
 perdidimus; nee deliquimus tantum, sed usque ad 
 extremum aevi delinquemus. Etiam si quis tam bene i 
 iam purgavit animum, ut nihil obturbare eum amplius 
 possit ac fallere, ad innocentiam tamen peccandopervenit. 
 
 VII. Quoniam deorum feci mentionem, optime hoc 1 
 exemplum principi constituam, ad quod formetur, ut 
 se talem esse civibus, quales sibi decs velit. Expedit 
 ergo habere inexorabilia peccatis atque erroribus nu- 
 mina, expedit usque ad ultimam infesta perniciem ? Et 
 quis regum erit tutus, cuius non membra haruspices colli- 
 gant ? Quod si di placabiles et aequi delicta potentium non 2 
 statim fulminibus persequuntur, quanto aequius est homi- 
 nem hominibus praepositum miti animo exercere imperium 
 et cogitare, uter mundi status gratior oculis pulchriorque 
 sit, sereno et puro die, an cum fragoribus crebris omnia 
 quatiuntur et ignes hinc atque illinc micant ! Atqui noa 
 
4(5 ti. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 alia facies est quieti moratique imperii quam sereni caeli 
 
 3 et nitentis. Crudele regnum turbidum tenebrisque ob- 
 scurum est, inter trementes et ad repentinum sonitum 
 expavescentes ne eo quidem, qui omnia perturbat, in- 
 concusso. Facilius privatis ignoscitur pertinaciter se 
 vindicantibus ; possunt enim laedi, dolorque eorum ab 
 iniuria venit; timent praeterea contemptum, et non 
 rettulisse laedentibus gratiam infirmitas videtur, non 
 dementia; at cui ultio in facili est, is omissa ea certam 
 
 4 laudem mansuetudinis consequitur. Humili loco positis 
 exercere manum, litigare, in rixam procurrere ac morem 
 irae suae gerere liberius est; leves inter paria ictus sunt; 
 regi vociferatio quoque verborumque intemperantia non 
 ex maiestate est. 
 
 1 VIII. Grave putas eripi loquendi arbitrium regibus, 
 quod humillimi habent. ' Ista ' inquis ' servitus est, 
 non imperium.' Quid? Tu non experiris istud nobis 
 esse, tibi servitutem? Alia condicio est eorum, qui in 
 turba, quam non excedunt, latent, quorum et virtutes, 
 ut appareant, diu luctantur et vitia tenebras habent; 
 vestra facta dictaque rumor excipit, et ideo nullis magis 
 curandum est, qualem famam habeant, quam qui, qua- 
 
 2 lemcumque meruerint, magnam habituri sunt. Quam 
 multa tibi non licent, quae nobis beneficio tuo licent ! 
 Possum in qualibet parte urbis solus incedere sine timore, 
 quamvis nullus sequatur comes, nullus sit domi, nullus 
 ad latus gladius; tibi in tua pace armato vivendum est. 
 Aberrare a fortuna tua non potes; obsidet te et, quo- 
 
 3 cumque descendis, magno apparatu sequitur. Est haec 
 summae magnitudinis servitus non posse fieri minorem; 
 sed cum dis tibi communis ipsa necessitas est. Nam illos 
 quoque caelum adligatos tenet, nee magis illis descendere 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 47 
 
 datum est quam tibi tutum; fastigio tuo adfixus es. 
 Nostras motus pauci sentiunt, prodire nobis ac recedere et i 
 mutare habitum sine sensu publico licet; tibi non magis 
 quam soli latere contingit. Multa circa te lux est, om- 
 nium in istam conversi oculi sunt; prodire te putas? 
 Oriris. Loqui non potes, nisi ut vocem tuam, quae ubique s 
 sunt gentes, excipiant; irasci non potes, nisi ut omnia 
 tremant, quia neminem adfligere, nisi ut, quidquid 
 circa fuerit, quatiatur. Ut fulmina paucorum periculo 
 cadunt, omnium metu, sic animadversiones magnarum 
 potestatum terrent latius quam nocent, non sine causa; 
 non enim, quantum fecerit, sed quantum facturus sit, 
 cogitatur in eo, qui omnia potest. Adice nunc, quod 6 
 privatos homines ad accipiendas iniurias opportuniores 
 acceptarum patientia facit, regibus certior est ex man- 
 suetudine securitas, quia frequens vindicta paucorum 
 odium opprimit, omnium inritat. Voluntas oportet 7 
 ante saeviendi quam causa deficiat; alioqui, quemad- 
 modum praecisae arbores plurimis ramis repullulant 
 et multa satorum genera, ut densiora surgant, reciduntur, 
 ita regia crudelitas auget inimicorum numerum tollendo; 
 parentes enim liberique eorum, qui interfecti sunt, et 
 propinqui et amici in locum singulorum succedunt. 
 
 IX. Hoc quam verum sit, admonere te exemplo do- 1 
 mestico volo. Divus Augustus fuit mitis princeps, si 
 quis ilium a principatu suo aestimare incipiat; in com- 
 muni quidem rei publicae gladium movit. Cum hoc 
 aetatis esset, quod tu nunc es, duodevicensimum egressus 
 annum, iam pugiones in sinum amicorum absconderat, 
 iam insidiis M. Antonii consulis latus petierat, iam fuerat 
 collega proscriptionis. Sed cum annum quadragensimum 2 
 transisset et in Gallia moraretur, delatum est ad eum 
 
48 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 indicium L. Cinnam, stolidi ingenii virum, insidias ei 
 struere; dictum est, et ubi et quando et quemadmodum 
 
 3 adgredi vellet; unus ex consciis deferebat. Constituit 
 se ab eo vindicare et consilium amicorum advocari iussit. 
 Nox illi inquieta erat, cum cogitaret adulescentem 
 nobilem, hoc detracto integrum, Cn. Pompei nepotem, 
 damnandum; iam unum hominem occidere non poterat, 
 cui M. Antonius proscriptionis edictum inter cenam 
 
 i dictarat. Gemens subinde voces varias emittebat et inter 
 se contrarias: 'Quid ergo? Ego percussorem meum 
 securum ambulare patiar me sollicito ? Ergo non dabit 
 poenas, qui tot civilibus bellis frustra petitum caput, 
 tot navalibus, tot pedestribus proeliis incolume, post- 
 quam terra marique pax parata est, non occidere con- 
 stituat, sed immolare?' (Nam sacrificantem placuerat 
 
 5 adoriri.) Rursus silentio interposito maiore multo voce 
 sibi quam Cinnae irascebatur : ' Quid vivis, si perire te 
 tam multorum interest ? Quis finis erit suppliciorum ? 
 Quis sanguinis? Ego sum nobilibus adulescentulis ex- 
 positum caput, in quod mucrones acuant; non est tanti 
 vita, si, ut ego non peream, tarn multa perdenda sunt.' 
 
 6 Interpellavit tandem ilium Livia uxor et: 'Admittis' 
 inquit ' muliebre consilium ? Fac, quod medici solent, 
 qui, ubi usitata remedia non procedunt, temptant con- 
 traria. Severitate nihil adhuc profecisti; Salvidienum 
 Lepidus secutus est, Lepidum Murena, Murenam Caepio, 
 Caepionem Egnatius, ut alios taceam, quos tantum ausos 
 pudet. Nunc tempta, quomodo tibi cedat dementia; 
 ignosce L. Cinnae. Deprensus est; iam nocere tibi non 
 
 T potest, prodesse famae tuae potest.' Gavisus, sibi quod 
 advocatum invenerat, uxori quidem gratias egit, renunti- 
 ari autem extemplo amicis, quos in consilium rogaverat, 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 49 
 
 imperavit et Cinnam unum ad se accersit dimissisque 
 omnibus e cubiculo, cum alteram Cinnae poni cathe- 
 dram iussisset: 'Hoc' inquit 'primum a te peto, ne 
 me loquentem interpelles, ne medio sermone meo pro- 
 clames; dabitur tibi loquendi liberum tempus. Ego 8 
 te, Cinna, cum in hostium castris invenissem, non factum 
 tantum mihi inimicum sed natum, servavi, patrimonium 
 tibi omne concessi. Hodie tam felix et tam dives es, ut 
 victo victores invideant. Sacerdotium tibi petenti prae- 
 teritis compluribus, quorum parentes mecum militave- 
 rant, dedi ; cum sic de te meruerim, occidere me constitu- 
 isti.' Cum ad banc vocem exclamasset procul banc ab se 9 
 abesse dementiam: 'Non praestas' inquit 'fidem, Cinna; 
 convenerat, ne interloquereris. Occidere, inquam, me 
 paras'; adiecit locum, socios, diem, ordinem insidiarum, 
 cui commissum esset ferrum. Et cum defixum videret lo 
 nee ex conventione iam, sed ex conscientia tacentem: 
 'Quo' inquit 'hoc animo facis? ut ipse sis princeps? 
 male mehercules cum populo Romano agitur, si tibi ad 
 imperandum nihil praeter me obstat. Domum tueri 
 tuam non potes, nuper libertini hominis gratia in privato 
 iudicio superatus es; adeo nihil facilius potes quam 
 contra Caesarem advocare. Cedo, si spes tuas solus 
 impedio, Paulusne te et Fabius Maximus et Cossi et 
 Servilii ferent tantumque agmen nobilium non inania 
 nomina praeferentium, sed eorum, qui imaginibus suis 
 decori sint?' Ne totam eius orationem repetendo mag- n 
 nam partem voluminis occupem (diutius enim quam 
 duabus horis locutum esse constat, cum hanc poenam, 
 qua sola erat contentus futurus, extenderet) : ' Vitam ' 
 inquit 'tibi, Cinna, iterum do, prius hosti, nunc insidia- 
 tori ac parricidae. Ex hodiemo die inter nos amieitia 
 
50 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 ineipiat ; contendamus, utrum ego meliore fide tibi vitam 
 12 dederim an tu debeas.' Post hoc detulit ultro consula- 
 tum questus quod non auderet petere. Amicissimum 
 fidelissimumque habuit, heres solus illi fuit. NuUis 
 amplius insidiis ab ullo petitus est. 
 
 1 X. Ignovit abavus tuus victis; nam si non ignovisset, 
 quibus imperasset? Sallustium et Cocceios et Deillios 
 et totam cohortem primae admissionis ex adversario- 
 rum castris conscripsit; iam Domitios, Messalas, Asinios, 
 Cicerones, quidquid floris erat in civitate, clementiae 
 suae debebat. Ipsum Lepidum quam diu mori passus 
 est ! Per multos annos tulit ornamenta principis reti- 
 nentem et pontificatum maximum non nisi mortuo illo 
 transferri in se passus est; maluit enim ilium honorem 
 
 2 vocari quam spolium. Haec eum dementia ad salutem 
 securitatemque perduxit; haec gratum ac favorabilem 
 reddidit, quamvis nondum subactis populi Romani cer- 
 vicibus manum imposuisset; haec hodieque praestat illi 
 
 3 famam, quae vix vivis principibus servit. Deum esse 
 non tamquam iussi credimus; bonum fuisse principem 
 Augustum, bene illi parentis nomen convenisse fatemur 
 ob nullam aliam causam, quam quod contumelias quo- 
 que suas, quae acerbiores principibus solent esse quam 
 iniuriae, nulla crudelitate exsequebatur, quod probrosis 
 in se dictis adrisit, quod dare ilium poenas apparebat, 
 cum exigeret, quod, quoscumque ob adulterium filiae 
 suae damnaverat, adeo non occidit, ut dimissis, quo 
 
 4 tutiores assent, diplomata daret. Hoc est ignoscere, 
 cum scias multos futuros, qui pro te irascantur et tibi 
 sanguine alieno gratificentur, non dare tantum salutem, 
 sed praestare. 
 
 1 XI. Haec Augustus senex aut iam in senectutem annis 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 51 
 
 vergentibus ; in adulescentia caluit, arsit ira, multa 
 fecit, ad quae invitus oculos retorquebat. Comparare 
 nemo mansuetudini tuae audebit divum Augustum, 
 etiam si in certamen iuvenilium annorum deduxerit 
 senectutem plus quam maturam; fuerit moderatus et 
 clemens, nempe post mare Actiacum Romano cruore 
 infectum, nempe post fractas in Sicilia classes et suas 
 et alienas, nempe post Perusinas aras et proscriptiones. 
 Ego vero clementiam non voco lassam crudelitatem ; 2 
 haec est, Caesar, dementia vera, quam tu praestas, 
 quae non saevitiae paenitentia coepit, nullam habere 
 maculam, numquam civilem sanguinem fudisse; haec 
 est in maxima potestate verissima animi temperantia 
 et humani generis comprendens ut sui amor non cupi- 
 ditate aliqua, non temeritate ingenii, non priorum prin- 
 cipum exemplis corruptum, quantum sibi in cives suos 
 liceat, experiendo temptare, sed hebetare aciem imperii 
 sui. Praestitisti, Caesar, civitatem incruentam, et hoc, 3 
 quod magno animo gloriatus es nullam te toto orbe 
 stillam cruoris humani misisse, eo mains est mirabiliusque, 
 quod nulli umquam citius gladius commissus est. 
 
 dementia ergo non tantum honestiores sed tutiores 4 
 praestat omamentumque imperiorum est simul et cer- 
 tissima salus. Quid enim est, cur reges consenuerint 
 liberisque ac nepotibus tradiderint regna, tyrannorum 
 exsecrabilis ac brevis potestas sit ? Quid interest inter 
 tyrannum ac regem (species enim ipsa fortunae ac licentia 
 par est), nisi quod tyranni in voluptatem saeviunt, reges 
 non nisi ex causa ac necessitate ? 
 
 XII. ' Quid ergo ? Non reges quoque occidere solent ? ' 1 
 Sed quotiens id fieri publica utilitas persuadet; tyrannis 
 saevitia cordi est. Tyrannus autem a rege factis distat, 
 
52 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 non nomine; nam et Dionysius maior iure meritoque 
 praeferri multis regibus potest, et L. Sullam tyrannum 
 appellari quid prohibet, cui occidendi finem fecit inopia 
 
 2 hostium? Descenderit licet e dictatura sua et se togae 
 reddiderit, quis tamen umquam tyrannus tam avide 
 humanum sanguinem bibit quam ille, qui septem milia 
 civium Romanorum contrucidari iussit et, cum in vicino 
 ad aedem Bellonae sedans exaudisset conclamationem 
 tot milium sub gladio gementium, exterrito senatu: 
 'Hoc agamus' inquit, 'P. C; seditiosi pauculi meo 
 iussu occiduntur ' ? Hoc non est raentitus ; pauci Sullae 
 
 3 videbantur. Sed mox de Sulla, cum quaeremus, quo- 
 modo hostibus irascendum sit, utique si in hostile nomen 
 cives et ex eodem corpore abrupti transierint ; interim, 
 hoc quod dicebam, dementia efficit, ut magnum inter 
 regem tyrannumque discrimen sit, uterque licet non 
 minus armis valletur; sed alter arma habet, quibus 
 in munimentum pacis utitur, alter, ut magno timore 
 magna odia compescat, nee illas ipsas manus, quibus 
 
 4 se commisit, securus adspicit. Contrariis in contraria 
 agitur; nam cum invisus sit, quia timetur, timeri vult, 
 quia invisus est, et illo exsecrabili versu, qui multos 
 praecipites dedit, utitur: 
 
 Oderint, dum metuant, 
 
 ignarus, quanta rabies oriatur, ubi supra modum odia 
 creverunt. Temperatus enim timor cohibet animos, 
 adsiduus vero et acer et extrema admovens in audaciam 
 
 5 iacentes excitat et omnia experiri suadet. Sic feras 
 linea et pinnae clusas contineant, easdem a tergo eques 
 telis incessat: temptabunt fugam per ipsa, quae fuge- 
 rant, proculcabuntque formidirem. Acerrima virtus est, 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 53 
 
 quam ultima necessitas extundit. Relinquat oportet 
 securi aliquid metus multoque plus spei quam pericu- 
 lorum ostentet; alioqui, ubi quiescent! paria metuuntur, 
 incurrere in pericula iuvat et ut aliena aninaa abuti. 
 
 XIII. Placido tranquilloque regi fida sunt auxilia sua, i 
 ut quibus ad communem salutem utatur, gloriosusque 
 miles (publicae enim securitati se dare operam videt) 
 omnem laborem libens patitur ut parentis custos; at 
 ilium acerbum et sanguinarium necesse est graventur 
 stipatores sui. Non potest habere quisquam bonae ac 2 
 fidae voluntatis ministros, quibus in tormentis ut eculeo 
 et ferramentis ad mortem paratis utitur, quibus non 
 aliter quam bestiis homines obiectat, omnibus reis aerum- 
 nosior ac sollicitior, ut qui homines deosque testes faci- 
 norum ac vindices timeat, eo perductus, ut non liceat illi 
 mutare mores. Hoc enim inter cetera vel pessimum 
 habet crudelitas : perseverandum est nee ad meliora patet 
 regressus; scelera enim sceleribus tuenda sunt. Quid 
 autem eo infelicius, cui iam esse malo necesse est? O 3 
 miserabilem ilium, sibi certe ! nam ceteris misereri eius 
 nefas sit, qui caedibus ac rapinis potentiam exercuit, qui 
 suspecta sibi cuncta reddidit tam externa quam domes- 
 tica, cum arma metuat, ad arma confugiens, non ami- 
 corum fidei credens, non pietati liberorum; qui, ubi 
 circumspexit, quaeque fecit quaeque facturus est, et 
 conscientiam suam plenam sceleribus ac tormentis ada- 
 peruit, saepe mortem timet, saepius optat, invisior sibi 
 quam servientibus. E contrario is, cui curae sunt 4 
 universa, qui alia magis, alia minus tuetur, nullam non 
 rei publicae partem tamquam sui nutrit, inclinatus ad 
 mitiora, etiam, si ex usu est animadvertere, ostendens, 
 quam invitus aspero remedio manus admoveat, in cuius 
 
54 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 animo nihil hostile, nihil efferum est, qui potentiam suam 
 placide ac salutariter exercet adprobare imperia sua 
 civibus cupiens, felix abunde sibi visus, si fortunam suam 
 publicarit, sermone adfabilis, aditu accessuque facilis, 
 voltu, qui maxime populos demeretur, amabilis, aequis 
 desideriis propensus, etiam iniquis non acerbus, a tota 
 5 civitate amatur, defenditur, colitur. Eadem de illo 
 homines secreto loquuntur quae palam; tollere filios 
 cupiunt et publicis malis sterilitas indicta recluditur; bene 
 se meriturum de liberis suis quisque non dubitat, quibus 
 tale saeculum ostenderit. Hie princeps suo beneficio 
 tutus nihil praesidiis eget, arma ornamenti causa habet. 
 
 1 XIV. Quod ergo officium eius est? Quod bonorum 
 parentium, qui obiurgare liberos non numquam blande, 
 non numquam minaciter solent, aliquando admonere 
 etiam verberibus. Numquid aliquis sanus filium a 
 prima offensa exheredat? nisi magnae et multae in- 
 iuriae patientiam evicerunt, nisi plus est, quod timet, 
 quam quod damnat, non accedit ad decretorium stilum; 
 multa ante temptat, quibus dubiam indolem et peiore 
 iam loco positam revocet; simul deploratum est, ultima 
 experitur. Nemo ad supplicia exigenda pervenit, nisi 
 
 2 qui remedia consumpsit. Hoc, quod parenti, etiam 
 principi faciendum est, quem appellavimus Patrem Pa- 
 triae non adulatione vana adducti. Cetera enim cogno- 
 mina honori data sunt; Magnos et Felices et Augustos 
 diximus et ambitiosae maiestati quicquid potuimus 
 titulorum congessimus illis hoc tribuentes; Patrem 
 quidem Patriae appellavimus, ut sciret datam sibi potes- 
 tatem patriam, quae est temperantissima liberis consulens 
 
 3 suaque post illos reponens. Tarde sibi pater membra sua 
 abscidat, etiam, cum absciderit, reponere cupiat et in 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 55 
 
 abscidendo gemat cunctatus multum diuque; prope est 
 enim, ut libenter damnet, qui cito; prope est, ut inique 
 puniat, qui nimis. 
 
 XV. Trichonem equitem Romanum memoria nostra, i 
 quia filium suum flagellis occiderat, populus graphiis 
 in foro confodit; vix ilium August! Caesaris auctoritas 
 infestis tam patrum quam filiorum manibus eripuit. 
 Tarium, qui filium deprensum in parricidii consilio 2 
 damnavit causa cognita, nemo non suspexit, quod con- 
 tentus exsilio et exsilio delicato Massiliae parricidam 
 continuit et annua illi praestitit, quanta praestare in- 
 tegro solebat; haec liberalitas effecit, ut, in qua civitate 
 numquam deest patronus peioribus, nemo dubitaret, 
 quin reus merito damnatus esset, quern is pater dam- 
 nare potuisset, qui odisse non poterat. Hoc ipso 3 
 exemplo dabo, quem compares bono patri, bonum prin- 
 cipem. Cogniturus de filio Tarius advocavit in con- 
 silium Caesarem Augustum; venit in privates penates, 
 adsedit, pars alieni consilii fuit, non dixit: 'Immo in 
 meam domum veniat'; quod si factum esset, Caesaris 
 futura erat cognitio, non patris. Audita causa ex- 4 
 cussisque omnibus, et his, quae adulescens pro se dix- 
 erat, et his, quibus arguebatur, petit, ut sententiam 
 suam quisque scriberet, ne ea omnium fieret, quae Cae- 
 saris fuisset; deinde, priusquam aperirentur codicilli, 
 iuravit se Tarii, hominis locupletis, hereditatem non 
 aditurum. Dicet aliquis: 'Pusillo animo timuit, ne 5 
 videretur locum spei suae aperire velle filii damnatione.' 
 Ego contra sentio; quilibet nostrum debuisset adversus 
 opiniones malignas satis fiduciae habere in bona con- 
 scientia, principes multa debent etiam famae dare. 
 Iuravit se non aditurum hereditatem. Tarius quidem 6 
 
56 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 eodem die et alterum heredem perdidit, sed Caesar 
 libertatem sententiae suae redemit; et postquam ad- 
 probavit gratuitam esse severitatem suam, quod prin- 
 cipi semper curandum est, dixit relegandum, quo patri 
 7 videretur. Non culleum, non serpentes, non carcerem 
 decrevit memor non de quo censeret, sed cui in con- 
 silio esset; mollissimo genere poenae contentum esse 
 debere patrem dixit in filio adulescentulo impulse in 
 id scelus, in quo se, quod proximum erat ab innocentia, 
 timide gessisset; debere ilium ab urbe et a parentis 
 oculis submoveri. 
 
 1 XVI. O dignum, quern in consilium patres advocarent! 
 O dignum, quern coheredem innocentibus liberis scri- 
 berent ! Haec dementia principem decet ; quocumque 
 venerit, mansuetiora omnia faciat. Nemo regi tam 
 vilis sit, ut ilium perire non sentiat; qualiscumque 
 
 2 pars imperii est. In magna imperia ex minoribus pe- 
 tamus exemplum. Non unum est imperandi genus; 
 imperat princeps civibus suis, pater liberis, praeceptor 
 
 3 discentibus, tribunus vel centurio militibus. Nonne 
 pessimus pater videbitur, qui adsiduis plagis liberos 
 etiam ex levissimis causis compescet? Uter autem 
 praeceptor liberalibus studiis dignior, qui excarnificabit 
 discipulos, si memoria illis non constiterit aut si parum 
 agilis in legendo oculus haeserit, an qui monitionibus 
 et verecundia emendare ac docere malit? Tribunum 
 centurionemque da saevum: desertores faciet, quibus 
 
 4 tamen ignoscitur. Numquidnam aequum est gravius 
 homini et durius imperari, quam imperatur animalibus 
 mutis? Atqui equum non crebris verberibus exterret 
 domandi peritus magister; fiet enim formidolosus et 
 
 5 contumax, nisi eum blandiente tactu permulseris. Idem 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 57 
 
 facit ille venator, quique instituit catulos vestigia sequi 
 quique iam exercitatis utitur ad excitandas vel perse- 
 quendas feras: nee crebro illis minatur (contundet enim 
 animos et, quicquid est indolis, comminuetur trepidatione 
 degeneri) nee licentiam vagandi errandique passim 
 eoncedit. Adicias his lieet tardiora agentes iumenta, 
 quae, cum ad eontumeliam et miserias nata sint, nimia 
 saevitia eogantur iugum detractare. 
 
 XVII. Nullum animal morosius est, nullum maiore arte 
 traetandum quam homo, nulli magis pareendum. Quid 
 enim est stultius quam in iumentis quidem et eanibus 
 erubescere iras exereere, pessima autem condicione sub 
 homine hominem esse? Morbis medemur nee iraseimur; 
 atqui et hie morbus est animi; moUem medicinam de- 
 siderat ipsumque medentem minime infestum aegro. 
 Mah medici est desperare, ne curet: idem in iis, quo- 
 rum animus adfeetus est, faeere debebit is, cui tradita 
 salus omnium est, non cito spem proicere nee mortifera 
 signa pronuntiare ; luetetur cum vitiis, resistat, aliis 
 morbum suum exprobret, quosdam molli curatione 
 decipiat eitius meliusque sanaturus remediis fallentibus; 
 agat prineeps curam non tantum salutis, sed etiam 
 honestae eieatrieis. Nulla regi gloria est ex saeva ani- 
 madversione (quis enim dubitat posse?), at contra 
 maxima, si vim suam eontinet, si multos irae alienae 
 eripuit, neminem suae impendit. 
 
 XVIII. Servis imperare moderate laus est. Et in man- 
 cipio eogitandum est, non quantum illud impune possit 
 pati, sed quantum tibi permittat aequi bonique natura, 
 quae pareere etiam cap ti vis et pretio paratis iubet. 
 Quanto iustius iubet hominibus liberis, ingenuis, ho- 
 nestis non ut maneipiis abuti sed ut his, quos gradu 
 
58 L. ANNABI SENECAE 
 
 antecedas quorumque tibi non servitus tradita sit, sed 
 
 2 tutela. Servis ad statuam licet confugere; cum in ser- 
 vum omnia liceant, est aliquid, quod in hominem licere 
 commune ius animantium vetet. Quis non Vedium 
 Pollionem peius oderat quam servi sui, quod muraenas 
 sanguine humano saginabat et eos, qui se aliquid offen- 
 derant, in vivarium, quid aliud quam serpentium, abici 
 iubebat? hominem mille mortibus dignum, sive 
 devorandos servos obiciebat muraenis, quas esurus erat, 
 
 3 sive in hoc tantum illas alebat, ut sic aleret. Quemad- 
 modum domini crudeles tota civitate commonstrantur 
 invisique et detestabiles sunt, ita regum et iniuria latius 
 patet et infamia atque odium saeculis traditur; quanto 
 autem non nasci melius fuit, quam numerari inter publico 
 malo natos ! 
 
 1 XIX. Excogitare nemo quicquam poterit, quod magis 
 decorum regenti sit quam dementia, quocumque mode 
 is et quocumque iure praepositus ceteris erit. Eo scilicet 
 formosius id esse magnificentiusque fatebimur, quo in 
 maiore praestabitur potestate, quam non oportet noxiam 
 
 2 esse, si ad naturae legem componitur. Natura enim 
 commenta est regem, quod et ex aliis animalibus licet 
 cognoscere et ex apibus; quarum regi amplissimum 
 cubile est medioque ac tutissimo loco; praeterea opere 
 vacat exactor alienorum operum, et amisso rege totum 
 dilabitur, nee umquam plus unum patiuntur meliorem- 
 que pugna quaerunt; praeterea insignis regi forma est 
 
 3 dissimilisque ceteris cum magnitudine tum nitore. Hoc 
 tamen maxime distinguitur : iracundissimae ac pro cor- 
 poris captu pugnacissimae sunt apes et aculeos in volnere 
 relinquunt, rex ipse sine aculeo est; noluit ilium natura 
 nee saevum esse nee ultionem magno constaturam petere 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 59 
 
 telumque detraxit et iram eius inermem reliquit. Exem- 
 plar hoc magnis regibus ingessit; est enim illi mos ex- 
 ercere se in parvis et ingentium rerum documenta in 
 minima arguere. Pudeat ab exiguis animalibus non 4 
 trahere mores, cum tanto hominum moderatior esse 
 animus debeat, quanto vehementius nocet. Utinam 
 quidem eadem homini lex esset et ira cum telo suo fran- 
 geretur nee saepius liceret nocere quam semel nee alienis 
 viribus exercere odia ! Facile enim lassaretur furor, si 
 per se sibi satis faceret et si mortis periculo vim suam 
 effunderet. Sed ne nunc quidem illi cursus tutus est; 5 
 tantum enim necesse est timeat, quantum timeri voluit, 
 et manus omnium observet et eo quoque tempore, quo 
 non captatur, peti se iudicet nullumque momentum im- 
 mune a metu habeat. Hanc aliquis agere vitam sustinet, 
 cum liceat innoxium aliis, ob hoc securum, salutare 
 potentiae ius laetis omnibus tractare? Errat enim, si 
 quis existimat tutum esse ibi regem, ubi nihil a rege 
 tutum est; securitas securitate mutua paciscenda est. 
 Non opus est instruere in altum editas arces nee in ad- 6 
 scensum arduos colles emunire nee latera montium abs- 
 cidere, multiplieibus se muris turribusque saepire: 
 salvum regem dementia in aperto praestabit. Unum 
 est inexpugnabile munimentum amor civium. Quid 7 
 pulchrius est quam vivere optantibus cunctis et vota non 
 sub custode nuncupantibus ? Si paulum valetudo titu- 
 bavit, non spem hominum excitari, sed metum? Nihil 
 esse cuiquam tarn pretiosum, quod non pro salute prae- 
 sidis sui commutatum velit? Nonne ille, cui contingit, 8 
 sibi quoque vivere debeat? In hoc adsiduis bonitatis 
 argumentis probavit non rem publicam suam esse, sed se 
 rei publicae. Quis huie audeat struere aliquod pericu- 
 
60 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 lum ? Quis ab hoc non, si possit, fortunam quoque avertere 
 velit, sub quo iustitia, pax, pudicitia, securitas, dignitas 
 fiorent, sub quo opulenta civitas copia bonorum omnium 
 abundat ? Nee alio animo rectorem suum intuetur, quam, 
 si di immortales potestatem visendi sui faciant, intueamur 
 9 venerantes colentesque. Quid autem? Non proximum 
 illis locum tenet is, qui se ex deorum natura gerit, bene- 
 ficus ac largus et in melius potens? Hoc adfectare, hoc 
 imitari decet, maximum ita haberi, ut optimus simul 
 habeare. 
 
 1 XX. A duabus causis punire princeps solet, si aut se 
 vindicat aut alium. Prius de ea parte disseram, quae 
 ipsum contingit; difhcilius est enim moderari, ubi dolori 
 
 2 debetur ultio, quam ubi exemplo. Supervacuum est hoc 
 loco admonere, ne facile credat, ut verum excutiat, ut 
 innocentiae faveat et, ut appareat, non minorem agi 
 rem periclitantis quam iudicis sciat; hoc enim ad iusti- 
 tiam, non ad clementiam pertinet; nunc ilium hortamur, 
 ut manifesto laesus animum in potestate habeat et 
 poenam, si tuto poterit, donet, si minus, temperet longe- 
 
 3 que sit in suis quam in alienis iniuriis exorabilior. Nam 
 quemadmodum non est magni animi, qui de alieno liberalia 
 est, sed ille, qui, quod alteri donat, sibi detrahit, ita cle- 
 mentem vocabo non in alieno dolore facilem, sed eum, qui, 
 ciun suis stimulis exagitetur, non prosilit, qui intellegit 
 magni animi esse iniurias in summa potentia pati nee 
 quicquam esse gloriosius principe impune laeso. 
 
 1 XXI. Ultio duas praestare res solet: aut solacium 
 adfert ei, qui accepit iniuriam, aut in reliquum seeurita- 
 tem. Principis maior est fortuna, quam ut solacio egeat, 
 manifestiorque vis, quam ut alieno malo opinionem 
 sibi virium quaerat. Hoc dico, cum ab inferioribus 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 61 
 
 petitus violatusque est; nam si, quos pares aliquando 
 habuit, infra se videt, satis vindicatus est. Regem et 
 servus occidit et serpens et sagitta; servavit quidem 
 nemo nisi maior eo, quem servabat. Uti itaque animose 
 debet tanto munere deorum dandi auferendique vitam 
 potens. In iis praesertim, quos scit aliquando sibi par 
 fastigium obtinuisse, hoc arbitrium adeptus ultionem 
 implevit perfecitque, quantum verae poenae satis erat; 
 perdidit enim vitam, qui debet, et, quisquis ex alto ad 
 inimici pedes abiectus alienam de capite regnoque sen- 
 tentiam exspectavit, in servatoris sui gloriam vivit plusque 
 eius nomini confert incolumis, quam si ex oculis ablatus 
 esset. Adsiduum enim spectaculum alienae virtutis est; 
 in triumpho cito transisset. Si vero regnum quoque 
 suum tuto relinqui apud eum potuit reponique eo, unde 
 deciderat, ingenti incremento surgit laus eius, qui con- 
 tentus fuit ex rege victo nihil praeter gloriam sumere. 
 Hoe est etiam ex victoria sua triumphare testarique nihil 
 se, quod dignum esset victore, apud victos invenisse. 
 Cum civibus et ignotis atque humilibus eo moderatius 
 agendum est, quo minoris est adflixisse eos. Quibusdam 
 libenter parcas, a quibusdam te vindicare fastidias et non 
 aliter quam ab animalibus parvis sed obterentem inqui- 
 nantibus reducenda manus est; at in iis, qui in ore civi- 
 tatis servati punitique erunt, occasione notae clementiae 
 utendum est. 
 
 XXII. Transeamus ad alienas iniurias, in quibus vindi- 
 candis haec tria lex secuta est, quae princeps quoque 
 sequi debet: aut ut eum, quem punit, emendet, aut ut 
 poena eius ceteros meliores reddat, aut ut sublatis 
 mails securiores ceteri vivant. Ipsos facilius emendabis 
 minore poena; diligentius enim vivit, cui aliquid integri 
 
62 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 superest. Nemo dignitati perditae parcit; impunitatis 
 genus est iam non habere poenae locum. Civitatis 
 autem mores magis corrigit parcitas animadversionum ; 
 facit enim consuetudinem peccandi multitudo peccan- 
 tium, et minus gravis nota est, quam turba damnationum 
 levat, et severitas, quod maximum remedium habet, 
 adsiduitate amittit auctoritatem. Constituit bonos mores 
 civitati princeps et vitia eluit, si patiens eorum est, non 
 tamquam probet, sed tamquam invitus et cum magno 
 tormento ad castigandum veniat. Verecundiam peccandi 
 facit ipsa dementia regentis ; gravior multo poena videtur, 
 quae a miti viro constituitur. 
 
 XXIII. Praeterea videbis ea saepe committi, quae saepe 
 vindicantur. Pater tuus plures intra quinquennium culieo 
 insuit, quam omnibus saeculis insutos accepimus. Multo 
 minus audebant liberi nefas ultimum admittere, quam diu 
 sine lege crimen fuit. Summa enim prudentia altissimi 
 viri et rerum naturae peritissimi maluerunt velut incredi- 
 bile scelus et ultra audaciam positum praeterire quam, 
 dum vindicant, ostendere posse fieri; itaque parricidae 
 cum lege coeperunt, et illis f acinus poena monstravit; 
 pessimo vero loco pietas fuit, postquam saepius culleos 
 vidimus quam cruces. In qua civitate raro homines 
 puniuntur, in ea consensus fit innocentiae et indulgetur 
 velut publico bono. Putet se innocentem esse ci vitas, 
 erit; magis irascetur a communi frugalitate desciscenti- 
 bus, si paucos esse eos viderit. Periculosum est, mihi 
 crede, ostendere civitati, quanto plures mali sint. 
 
 XXIV. Dicta est aliquando in senatu sententia, ut 
 servos a liberis cultus distingueret ; deinde apparuit, 
 quantum periculum immineret, si servi nostri numerare 
 nos coepissent. Idem scito metuendum esse, si nulli igno- 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 63 
 
 scitur; cito apparebit, pars civitatis deterior quanto 
 praegravet. Non minus principi turpia sunt multa 
 supplicia quam medico multa funera; remissius impe- 
 ranti melius paretur. Natura contumax est humanus 2 
 animus et in contrarium atque arduum nitens sequi- 
 turque facilius quam ducitur; et ut generosi ac nobiles 
 equi melius facili freno reguntur, ita clementiam volun- 
 taria innocentia impetu suo sequitur, et dignam putat 
 civitas, quam servet sibi. Plus itaque hac via proficitur. 
 
 XXV. Crudelitas minims humanum malum est in- i 
 dignumque tam miti animo; ferina ista rabies est san- 
 guine gaudere ac volneribus et abiecto homine in silvestre 
 animal transire. Quid enim interest, oro te, Alexander, 
 leoni Lysimachum obicias an ipse laceres dentibus tuis? 
 Tuum illud os est, tua ilia feritas. O quam cuperes tibi 
 potius ungues esse, tibi rictum ilium edendorum hominum 
 capacem! Non exigimus a te, ut manus ista, exitium 
 familiarium certissimum, ulli salutaris sit, ut iste animus 
 ferox, insatiabile gentium malum, citra sariguinem caedem- 
 que satietur; dementia iam vocatur, ad occidendum 
 amicum cum carnifex inter homines eligitur. Hoc est, 2 
 quare vel maxime abominanda sit saevitia, quod excedit 
 fines primum solitos, deinde humanos, nova supplicia 
 conquirit, ingenium advocat, ut instrumenta excogitet, 
 per quae varietur atque extendatur dolor, delectatur 
 malis hominum ; tunc illi dirus animi morbus ad insaniam 
 pervenit ultimam, cum crudelitas versa est in voluptatem 
 et iam occidere hominem iuvat. Matura talem virum 3 
 a tergo sequitur aversio, odia, venena, gladii; tam multis 
 periculis petitur, quam multorum ipse periculum est, 
 privatisque non numquam consiliis, alias vero conster- 
 natione publica circumvenitur. Levis enim et privata 
 
64 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 pernicies non totas urbes movet; quod late furere coepit 
 4 et omnes adpetit, undique configitur. Serpentes par- 
 volae fallunt nee publice conquiruntur; ubi aliqua solitam 
 mensuram transit et in monstrum excrevit, ubi fontes 
 sputu inficit et, si adflavit, deurit obteritque, quacumque 
 incessit, ballistis petitur. Possunt verba dare et evadere 
 6 pusilla mala, ingentibus obviam itur. Sic unus aeger 
 ne domum quidem perturbat; at ubi crebris mortibus 
 pestilentiam esse apparuit, conclamatio civitatis ac 
 fuga est, et dis ipsis manus intentantur. Sub uno aliquo 
 tecto flamma apparuit: familia vicinique aquam inge- 
 runt; at incendium vastum et multas iam domos de- 
 pastum parte urbis obruitur. 
 
 1 XXVI. Crudelitatem privatorum quoque serviles 
 manus sub certo crucis periculo ultae sunt; tyrannorum 
 gentes populique et, quorum erat malum, et ei, quibus 
 imminebat, exscindere adgressi sunt. Aliquando sua 
 praesidia in ipsos consurrexerunt perfidiamque et im- 
 pietatem et feritatem et, quidquid ab illis didicerant, in 
 ipsos exercuerunt. Quid enim potest quisquam ab eo 
 sperare, quem malum esse docuit? Non diu nequitia 
 
 2 apparet nee, quantum iubetur, peeeat. Sed puta esse 
 tutam crudelitatem, quale eius regnum est? Non aliud 
 quam captarum urbium forma et terribiles fades publici 
 metus. Omnia maesta, trepida, confusa; voluptates ip- 
 sae timentur; non convivia securi ineunt, in quibus lin- 
 gua sollicite etiam ebriis custodienda est, non spectacula, 
 ex quibus materia eriminis ac periculi quaeritur. Ap- 
 parentur licet magna impensa et regiis opibus et artificum 
 exquisitis nominibus, quem tamen ludi in carcere iuvent? 
 
 3 Quod istud, di boni, malum est occidere, saevire, delectari 
 sono catenarum et civium capita decidere, quocumque 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. I 65 
 
 ventum est, multum sanguinis fundere, adspectu suo 
 terrere ac fugare ! Quae alia vita esset, si leones ursique 
 regnarent, si serpentibus in nos ac noxiosissimo cuique 
 animali daretur potestas? Ilia rationis expertia et a 4 
 nobis immanitatis crimine damnata abstinent suis, et 
 tuta est etiam inter feras similitudo: horum ne a neces- 
 sariis quidem sibi rabies temperat, sed externa suaque 
 in aequo habet, quo plus se exercitat, eo incitador. A 
 singulorum deinde caedibus in exitia gentium serpit et 
 inicere tectis ignem, aratrum vetustis urbibus inducere 
 potentiam putat; et unum occidi iubere aut alterum 
 parum imperatorium credit; nisi eodem tempore grex 
 miserorum sub ictu stetit, crudelitatem suam in ordinem 
 coactam putat. Felicitas ilia multis salutem dare et ad 5 
 vitam ab ipsa morte revocare et mereri dementia civicam. 
 Nullum ornamentum principis fastigio dignius pulchrius- 
 que est quam ilia corona ob cives servatos, non hostilia 
 arma detracta victis, non currus barbarorum sanguine 
 cruenti, non parta bello spolia. Haec divina potentia 
 est gregatim ac publice servare; multos quidem occidere 
 et indiscretos incendi ac ruinae potentia est. 
 
L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 AD NERONEM CAESAREM 
 
 DE CLEMENTIA 
 
 Liber II 
 
 1 I. Ut de dementia scriberem, Nero Caesar, una me 
 vox tua maxime compulit, quam ego non sine admiratione 
 et, cum diceretur, audisse memini et deinde aliis narrasse, 
 vocem generosam, magni animi, magnae lenitatis, quae 
 non composita nee alienis auribus data subito erupit et 
 bonitatem tuam cum fortuna tua litigantem in medium 
 
 2 adduxit. Animadversurus in latrones duos Burrus prae- 
 fectus tuus, vir egregius et tibi principi natus, exigebat 
 a te, scriberes, in quos et ex qua causa animadverti velles; 
 hoc saepe dilatum ut aliqUando fieret, instabat. Invitus 
 invito cum chartam protulisset traderetque, exclamasti: 
 
 3 ' Vellem litteras nescirem ! ' dignam vocem, quam 
 audirent omnes gentes, quae Romanum imperium in- 
 colunt quaeque iuxta iacent dubiae libertatis quaeque 
 se contra viribus aut animis attollunt ! O vocem in 
 contionem omnium mortalium mittendam, in cuius verba 
 principes regesque iurarent ! vocem publica generis 
 humani innocentia dignam, cui redderetur antiquum 
 
 4 illud saeculum ! Nunc profecto consentire decebat ad 
 aequum bonumque expulsa alieni cupidine, ex qua omne 
 animi malum oritur, pietatem integ"itatemque cum fide 
 
 66 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. II 67 
 
 ac modestia resurgere et vitia diuturno abusa regno dare 
 tandem felici ac puro saeculo locum. 
 
 II. Futurum hoc, Caesar, ex magna parte sperare et i 
 confidere libet. Tradetur ista animi tui mansuetudo 
 diffundeturque paulatim per omne imperii corpus, et 
 cuncta in similitudinem tuam formabuntur. A capite 
 bona valetudo in omnes corporis partes exit; omnia 
 vegeta sunt atque erecta aut languore demissa, prout 
 animus eorum vivit aut marcet. Erunt cives, erunt 
 socii digni hac bonitate, et in totum orbem recti mores 
 revertentur; parcetur ubique manibus tuis. Diutius 2 
 me morari hie patere, non ut blandum auribus tuis (nee 
 enim hie mihi mos est; maluerim veris offendere quam 
 placere adulando) ; quid ergo est ? Praeter id, quod bene 
 factis dictisque tuis quam famiharissimum esse te cupio, 
 ut, quod nunc natura et impetus est, fiat iudicium, illud 
 mecum considero multas voces magnas, sed detestabiles, 
 in vitam humanam pervenisse celebresque volgo ferri, ut 
 illam : ' oderint, dum metuant,' cui Graecus versus simiHs 
 est, qui se mortuo terram misceri ignibus iubet, et aUa 
 huius notae. Ac nescio quomodo ingenia in immani et 3 
 invisa materia secundiore ore expresserunt sensus vehe- 
 mentes et concitatos; nullam adhuc vocem audii ex 
 bono lenique animosam. Quid ergo est ? Ut raro, invitus 
 et cum magna cunctatione, ita ahquando scribas necesse 
 est istud, quod tibi in odium litteras adduxit, sed, sicut 
 facis, cum magna cunctatione, cum multis dilationibus. 
 
 III. Et ne forte decipiat nos speciosum clementiae 1 
 nomen aliquando et in contrarium abducat, videamus, 
 quid sit dementia quaHsque sit et quos fines habeat. 
 
 Clementia est temperantia animi in potestate ulciscendi 
 vel lenitas superioris adversus inferiorem in constituendis 
 
68 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 poenis. Plura proponere tutius est, ne una finitio parum 
 rem comprehendat et, ut ita dicam, formula excidat; 
 itaque dici potest et inclinatio animi ad lenitatem in 
 2 poena exigenda. Ilia finitio contradictiones inveniet, 
 quamvis maxime ad verum accedat, si dixerimus clemen- 
 tiam esse moderationem aliquid ex merita ac debita poena 
 remittentem: reclamabitur nullam virtutem cuiquam 
 minus debito facere. Atqui hoc omnes intellegunt clemen- 
 tiam esse, quae se flectit citra id, quod merito constitui 
 posset. 
 
 1 IV. Huic contrariam imperiti putant severitatem; sed 
 nulla virtus virtuti contraria est. Quid ergo opponi- 
 tur clementiae? Crudelitas, quae nihil aliud est quam 
 atrocitas animi in exigendis poenis. 'Sed quidam non 
 exigunt poenas, crudeles tamen sunt, tamquam qui 
 ignotos homines et obvios non in compendium, sed oc- 
 cidendi causa occidunt nee interficere contenti saeviunt, 
 ut Busiris ille et Procrustes et piratae, qui captos ver- 
 
 2 berant et in ignem vivos imponunt.' Haec crudelitas 
 quidem; sed quia nee ultionem sequitur (non enim laesa 
 est) nee peccato alicui irascitur (nullum enim antecessit 
 crimen), extra finitionem nostram cadit; finitio enim 
 continebat in poenis exigendis intemperantiam animi. 
 Possumus dicere non esse hanc crudelitatem, sed feritatem, 
 cui voluptati saevitia est; possumus insaniam vocare: 
 nam varia sunt genera eius et nullum certius, quam quod 
 
 3 in caedes hominum et lancinationes pervenit. Illos ergo 
 crudeles vocabo, qui puniendi causam habent, modum 
 non habent, sicut in Phalari, quem aiunt non quidem in 
 homines innocentes, sed super humanum ac probabilem 
 modum saevisse. Possumus effugere cavillationem et 
 ita finire, ut sit crudelitas inclinatio animi ad asperiora. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. II 69 
 
 Hanc dementia repellit longe iussam stare a se; cum 
 severitate illi convenit. 
 
 Ad rem pertinet quaerere hoc loco, quid sit misericordia ; 
 plerique enim ut virtutem earn laudant et bonum homi- 
 nem vocant misericordem. Et haec vitium animi est. 
 Utraque circa severitatem circaque clementiam posita 
 sunt, quae vitare debemus; per speciem enim severitatis 
 in crvdelitatem incidimus, per speciem clementiae in 
 misericordiam. In hoc leviore periculo erratur, sed par 
 error est a vero recedentium. 
 
 V. Ergo quemadmodum religio deos colit, superstitio 
 violat, ita clementiam mansuetudinemque omnes boni 
 viri praestabunt, misericordiam autem vitabunt ; est enim 
 vitium pusilli ahimi ad speciem alienorum malorum succi- 
 dentis. Itaque pessimo cuique familiarissima est; anus 
 et mulierculae sunt, quae lacrimis nocentissimorum moven- 
 tur, quae, si liceret, carcerem effringerent. Misericordia 
 non causam, sed fortunam spectat; dementia rationi ac- 
 cedit. Scio male audire apud imperitos sectam Stoicorum 
 tamquam duram nimis et minime principibus regibusque 
 bonum daturam consilium; obicitur illi, quod sapientem 
 negat misereri, negat ignoscere. Haec, si per se ponantur, 
 invisa sunt; videntur enim nullam relinquere spem 
 humanis erroribus, sed omnia delicta ad poenam deducere. 
 Quod si est quidnam haec scientia, quae dediscere human- 
 itatem iubet portumque adversus fortunam certissimum 
 mutuo auxilio cludit ? Sed nulla secta benignior leniorque 
 est, nulla amantior hominum et communis boni attentior, 
 ut propositum sit usui esse et auxilio nee sibi tantum, sed 
 universis singulisque consulere. Misericordia est aegri- 
 tudo animi ob alienarum miseriarum speciem aut tristi- 
 tia ex alienis malis contracta, quae accidere immerentibus 
 
70 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 credit; aegritudo autem in sapientem virum non cadit; 
 Serena eius mens est, nee quicquam incidere potest, quod 
 illam obducat. Nihilque aeque hominem quam magnus 
 animus decet; non potest autem magnus esse idem ac 
 5 maestus. Maeror contundit mentes, abicit, contrahit; 
 hoc sapienti ne in suis quidem accidet calamitatibus, sed 
 omnem fortunae iram reverberabit et ante se franget; 
 eandem semper faciem servabit, placidam, inconcussam, 
 quod facere non posset, si tristitiam reciperet. 
 
 1 VI. Adice, quod sapiens et providet et in expedite 
 consilium habet; numquam autem liquidum sincerumque 
 ex turbido venit. Tristitia inhabilis est ad dispiciendas 
 res, utilia excogitanda, periculosa vitanda, aequa aesti- 
 manda; ergo non miseretur, quia id sine miseria animi 
 
 2 non fit. Cetera omnia, quae, qui miserentur, solent 
 facere, libens et altus animo faciet; succurret alienis 
 lacrimis, non accedet; dabit manum naufrago, exsuli 
 hospitium, egenti stipem, non banc contumeliosam, quam 
 pars maior horum, qui misericordes videri volunt, abicit 
 et fastidit, quos adiuvat, contingique ab iis timet, sed ut 
 homo homini ex communi dabit ; donabit lacrimis maternis 
 filium et catenas solyi iubebit et ludo eximet et cadaver 
 etiam noxium sepeliet, sed faciet ista tranquilla mente, 
 
 3 voltu suo. Ergo non miserebitur sapiens, sed succurret, 
 sed proderit, in commune auxilium natus ac bonum pub- 
 licum, ex quo dabit cuique partem. Etiam ad calamitosos 
 pro portione improbandosque et emendandos bonitatem 
 suam permittet ; adflictis vero et forte laborantibus multo 
 libentius subveniet. Quotiens poterit, fortunae inter- 
 cedet; ubi enim opibus potius utetur aut viribus, quam 
 ad restituenda, quae casus impulit? Voltum quidem 
 non deiciet nee animum ob crus alicuius aridum aut pan- 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA LIB. II 71 
 
 nosam maciem et innixam baculo senectutem; ceterum 
 omnibus dignis proderit et deorum more calamitosos 
 propitius respiciet. Misericordia vicina est miseriae; i 
 habet enim aliquid trahitque ex ea. Imbecillos oculos 
 esse scias, qui ad alienam lippitudinem et ipsi subfun- 
 duntur, tam mehercules quam morbum esse, non hilarita- 
 tem, semper adridere ridentibus et ad omnium oscita- 
 tionem ipsum quoque os diducere; misericordia vitium 
 est animorum nimis miseria paventium, quam si quis a 
 sapiente exigit, prope est, ut lamentationem exigat et 
 in alienis funeribus gemitus. 
 
 VII. ' At quare non ignoscet ? ' Agedum constituamus l 
 nunc quoque, quid sit venia, et sciemus dari illam a 
 sapiente non debere. Venia est poenae meritae remissio. 
 Hanc sapiens quare non debeat dare, reddunt rationem 
 diutius, quibus hoc propositum est; ego ut breviter 
 tamquam in alieno iudicio dicam: Ei ignoscitur, qui 
 puniri debuit; sapiens autem nihil facit, quod non debet, 
 nihil praetermittit, quod debet; itaque poenam, quam 
 exigere debet, non donat. Sed illud, quod ex venia con- 2 
 sequi vis, honestiore tibi via tribuet ; parcet enim sapiens, 
 consulet et corriget; idem faciet, quod, si ignosceret, 
 nee ignoscet, quoniam, qui ignoscit, fatetur aliquid se, 
 quod fieri debuit, omisisse. Aliquem verbis tantum 
 admonebit, poena non adficiet aetatem eius emendabilem 
 intuens; aliquem invidia criminis manifeste laborantem 
 iubebit incolumem esse, quia deceptus est, quia per vinum 
 lapsus; hostes dimittet salvos, aliquando etiam laudatos, 
 si honestis causis pro fide, pro foedere, pro libertate in 
 bellum acciti sunt. Haec omnia non veniae, sed cle- 3 
 mentiae opera sunt, dementia liberum arbitrium habet; 
 non sub formula, sed ex aequo et bono iudicat; et ab- 
 
72 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 solvere illi licet et, quanti vult, taxare litem. Nihil ex 
 his facit, tamquam iusto minus fecerit, sed tamquam id, 
 quod constituit, iustissimum sit. Ignoscere autem est, 
 quem iudices puniendum, non punire; venia debitae 
 poenae remissio est. dementia hoc primum praestat, 
 ut, quos dimittit, nihil aliud illos pati debuisse pronuntiet; 
 
 i plenior est quam venia, honestior est. De verbo, ut mea 
 fert opinio, controversia est, de re quidem convenit. 
 Sapiens multa remittet, multos parum sani, sed sanabilis 
 ingenii servabit. Agricolas bonos imitabitur, qui non 
 tantum rectas procerasque arbores colunt; illis quoque, 
 quas aliqua depravavit causa, adminicula, quibus deri- 
 gantur, adplicant; alias circumcidunt, ne proceritatem 
 rami premant, quasdam infirmas vitio loci nutriunt, 
 quibusdam aliena umbra laborantibus caelum aperiunt. 
 
 5 Videbit, quod ingenium qua ratione tractandum sit, quo 
 modo in rectum prava flectantur.*** 
 
L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 AD LUCILIUM 
 EPISTULAE MORALES SELECTAE 
 
 EPISTULA VII 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 Quid tibi vitandum praecipue existimem, quaeris? i 
 Turbam. Nondum illi tuto committeris. Ego certe con- 
 fitebor imbecillitatem meam : numquam mores, quos ex- 
 tuli, refero. Aliquid ex eo, quod composui, turbatur; 
 aliquid ex iis, quae fugavi. redit. Quod aegris evenit, 
 quos longa imbecillitas usque eo adfecit, ut nusquam 
 sine offensa proferantur, hoc accidit nobis, quorum animi 
 ex longo morbo reficiuntur. Inimica est multorum 2 
 conversatio: nemo non aliquod nobis vitium aut com- 
 mendat aut imprimit aut nescientibus adlinit. Utique 
 quo maior est populus, cui miscemur, hoc periculi plus est. 
 Nihil vero tam damnosum bonis moribus quam in aliquo 
 spectaculo desidere. Tunc enim per voluptatem facilius 
 vitia subrepunt. Quid -me existimas dicere? Avarior 3 
 redeo, ambitiosior, luxuriosior, immo vero crudelior et 
 inhumanior, quia inter homines fui. Casu in meridianum 
 spectaculum incidi lusus expectans et sales et aliquid 
 laxamenti, quo hominum oculi ab humano cruore ad- 
 quiescant: contra est. Quicquid ante pugnatum est, 
 misericordia fuit. Nunc omissis nugis mera homicidia 
 sunt. Nihil habent quo tegantur, ad ictum totis corpo- 
 ribus expositi numquam frustra manum mittunt. Hoc 4 
 
 73 
 
74 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 plerique ordinariis paribus et postulaticiis praeferunt. 
 Quidni praeferant ? Non galea, non scuto repellitur ferrum. 
 Quo munimenta ? Quo artes ? Omnia ista mortis morae 
 sunt. Mane leonibus et ursis homines, meridie specta- 
 toribus suis obiciuntur. Interfectores interiecturis iubent 
 obici et victorem in aliam detinent caedem : exitus pug- 
 
 5 nantium mors est. Ferro et igne res geritur. Haec fiunt, 
 dum vacat harena. ' Sed latrocinium fecit aliquis, occidit 
 hominem.' Quid ergo ? Quia occidit ille, meruit ut hoc 
 pateretur : tu quid meruisti miser, ut hoc spectes ? ' Occide, 
 verbera, urel Quare tam timide incurrit in ferrum? 
 Quare parum audacter occidit? Quare parum libenter 
 moritur?' Plagis agitur in vulnera: 'mutubs ictus nudis 
 et obviis pectoribus excipiant.' Intermissum est spec- 
 taculum: 'interim iugulentur homines, ne nihil agatur.' 
 Age, ne hoc quidem intellegitis, mala exempla in eos 
 redundare, qui faciunt? Agite dis immortalibus gratias, 
 quod eum docetis esse crudelem, qui non potest discere. 
 
 6 Subducendus populo est tener animus et parum tenax 
 recti: facile transitur ad plures. Socrati et Catoni et 
 Laelio excutere morem suum dissimilis multitudo potuis- 
 set: adeo nemo nostrum, qui cum maxime concinnamus 
 ingenium, ferre impetum vitiorum tam magno comitatu 
 
 7 venientium potest. Unum exemplum luxuriae aut ava- 
 ritiae multum mali facit: convictor delicatus paulatim 
 enervat et emollit, vicinus dives cupiditatem inritat, 
 malignus comes quamvis candido et simplici rubiginem 
 suam adfricuit: quid tu accidere his moribus credis, in 
 quos publice factus est impetus ? Necesse est aut imiteris 
 
 8 aut oderis. Utrumque autem devitandum est: neve 
 similis malis fias, quia multi sunt, neve inimicus multis, 
 quia dissimiles sunt. Recede in te ipsum, quantum potes. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA VIII 75 
 
 Cum his versare, qui te meliorem facturi sunt. Illos 
 admitte, quos tu potes facere meliores. Mutuo ista fiunt, 
 et homines, dum decent, discunt. Non.est quod te gloria 9 
 publicandi ingenii producat in medium, ut recitare istis 
 veUs aut disputare, quod facere te vellem, si haberes 
 isti populo idoneam mercem: nemo est, qui intellegere 
 te possit. Ahquis fortasse, unus aut alter incidet, et 
 hie ipse formandus tibi erit instituendusque ad intel- 
 lectum tui. 'Cui ergo ista didici?' Non est quod timeas, 
 ne operam perdideris, si tibi didicisti. 
 
 Sed ne soli mihi hodie didicerim, communicabo tecum, lo 
 quae occurrerunt mihi egregie dicta circa eundem fere 
 sensum tria; ex quibus unum haec epistula in debitum 
 solvet, duo in antecessum accipe. Democritus ait : ' unus 
 mihi pro populo est, et populus pro uno.' Bene et ille, ii 
 quisquis fuit, ambigitur enim de auctore, cum quaereretur 
 ab illo, quo tanta diligentia artis spectaret ad paucissimos 
 perventurae, ' satis sunt ' inquit ' mihi pauci, satis est unus. 
 satis est nullus.' Egregie hoc tertium Epicurus, cum 
 uni ex consortibus studiorum suorum scriberet: 'haec' 
 inquit ' ego non multis, sed tibi : satis enim magnum alter 
 alteri theatrum sumus.' Ista, mi Lucili, condenda in 12 
 animum sunt, ut contemnas voluptatem ex plurium 
 adsensione venientem. Multi te laudant. Et quid 
 habes, cur placeas tibi, si is es, quem intellegant multi? 
 Introrsus bona tua spectent. Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA VIII 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 'Tu me' inquis 'vitare turbam iubes, secedere et con- 1 
 scientia esse contentum ? Ubi ilia praecepta vestra, quae 
 
76 I'. ANNAEI SENECAi!; 
 
 imperant in actu mori?' Quod ego tibi videor interim 
 suadere, in hoc me recondidi et fores clusi, ut prodesse 
 pluribus possem. Nullus mihi per otium dies exit. 
 Partem noctium studiis vindico. Non vaco somno, sed 
 succumbo et oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque in opera 
 
 2 detineo. Secessi non tantum ab hominibus, sed a rebus, 
 et imprimis a meis rebus: posterorum negotium ago. 
 Illis aliqua, quae possint prodesse, conscribo. Salutares 
 admonitiones, velut medicamentorum utilium composi- 
 tiones, litteris mando, esse illas efficaces in meis ulceribus 
 expertus, quae etiam si persanata non sunt, serpere 
 
 3 desierunt. Rectum iter, quod sero cognovi et lassus 
 errando, aliis monstro. Clamo: 'vitate quaecumque 
 vulgo placent, quae casus attribuit. Ad omne fortuitum 
 bonum suspiciosi pavidique subsistite: et fera et piscis 
 spe aliqua oblectante decipitur. Munera ista fortunae 
 putatis? Insidiae sunt. Quisquis vestrum tutam agere 
 vitam volet, quantum plurimum potest, ista viscata bene- 
 ficia devitet, in quibus hoc quoque miserrimi fallimur: 
 
 4 habere nos putamus, haeremus. In praecipitia cursus 
 iste deducit. Huius eminentis vitae exitus cadere est. 
 Deinde ne resistere quidem licet, cum coepit transversos 
 agere felicitas; aut saltim rectis aut semel ruere: non 
 
 6 vertit Fortuna, sed cemulat et allidit. Hanc ergo sanam 
 ac salubi-em formam vitae tenete, ut corpori tantum in- 
 dulgeatis, quantum bonae valitudini satis est. Durius 
 tractandum est, ne aniino male pareat : cibus famem sedet, 
 potio sitim extinguat, vestis arceat frigus, domus mu- 
 nimentum sit adversus infesta corporis. Hanc utrum 
 caespes erexerit an varius lapis gentis alienae, nihil 
 interest: scitote tam bene hominem culmo quam auro 
 tegi. Contemnite omnia, quae supervacuus labor velut 
 
AD LUCILIUM KPISTULA VIII 77 
 
 ornamentum ac decus ponit. Cogitate nihil praeter 
 animum esse mirabile, cui magno nihil magnum est.' 
 Si haec mecum, si haec cum posteris loquor, non videor 6 
 tibi plus prodesse, quam cum ad vadimonium advocatus 
 descenderem, aut tabulis testament! anulum imprimerem, 
 aut in senatu candidato vocem et manum commodarem? 
 Mihi crede, qui nihil agere videntur, maiora agunt: 
 humana divinaque simul tractant. 
 
 Sed iam finis faciendus est et aliquid, ut institui, pro T 
 hae epistula dependendum. Id non de meo fiet: adhuc 
 Epicurum complicamus, cuius banc vocem hodierno die 
 legi : ' philosophiae servias oportet, ut tibi contingat vera 
 libertas.' Non differtur in diem, qui se illi subiecit et 
 tradidit: statim circumagitur. Hoc enim ipsum phi- 
 losophiae servire libertas est. Potest fieri, ut me inter- s 
 roges, quare ab Epicuro tam multa bene dicta referam 
 potius quam nostrorum. Quid est tamen, quare tu istas 
 Epicuri voces putes esse, non publicas? Quam multi 
 poetae dicunt, quae philosophis aut dicta sunt aut dicenda ! 
 Non attingam tragicos nee togatas nostras. Habent enim 
 hae quoque aliquid severitatis et sunt inter comoedias 
 ac tragoedias mediae. Quantum disertissimorum ver- 
 suum inter mimos iacet ! Quam multa Publilii non ex- 
 calceatis, sed cothurnatis dicenda sunt ! Unum versum 9 
 eius, qui ad philosophiam pertinet et ad hanc partem, 
 quae modo fuit in manibus, referam, quo negat fortuita 
 in nostro habenda : 
 
 ' Alienum est omne, quiequid optando evenit.' 
 
 Hunc versum a te did non paulo melius et adstrictius lo 
 memini : 
 
 ' Non est tuum, fortuna quod fecit tuum.' 
 
78 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 Illud etiamnunc melius dictum a te non praeteribo: 
 
 ' Dari bonum quod potuit, auferri potest.' 
 Hoc non imputo in solutum: dedi de tuo tibi. Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA XVII 
 
 Seneca Lucilio sxjo salutem 
 
 Proice omnia ista, si sapis, immo ut sapias, et ad 
 bonam mentem magno cursu ac totis viribus tende. 
 Si quid est, quo teneris, aut expedi aut incide. 'Mo- 
 ratur' inquis 'me res familiaris: sic illam disponere volo, 
 ut sufficere nihil agenti possit, ne aut paupertas mihi oneri 
 sit aut ego alicui.' Cum hoc dicis, non videris vim ac 
 potentiam eius, de quo cogitas, boni nosse. Et sum- 
 mam quidem rei pervides, quantum philosophia prosit, 
 partes autem nondum satis subtiliter dispicis, necdum 
 scis, quantum ubique nos adiuvet, quemadmodum et in 
 maximis, ut Ciceronis utar verbo, opituletur (et) in mi- 
 nima descendat. Mihi crede, advoca illam in consilium: 
 suadebit tibi, ne ad calculos sedeas. Nempe hoc quaeris 
 et hoc ista dilatione vis consequi, ne tibi paupertas ti- 
 menda sit: quid v adpetenda est? Multis ad philoso- 
 phandum obstitere divitiae; paupertas expedita est, 
 secura est. Cum classicum cecinit, scit non se peti; cum 
 ' aqua ' conclamata est, quomodo exeat, non quid efferat, 
 quaerit; [ut] si navigandum est, non strepitat portus nee 
 unius comitatu inquieta sunt litora. Non circumstat 
 ilium turba servorum, ad quos pascendos transmarinarum 
 regionum est optanda fertilitas. Facile est pascere paucos 
 ventres et bene institutos et nihil aliud desiderantes quam 
 impleri. Parvo fames constat, magno fastidium. Pau- 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA XVII 79 
 
 pertas contenta est desideriis instantibus satisfacere. 
 Quid est ergo, quare hanc recuses contubernalem, cuius 
 mores sanus dives imitatur? Si vis vacare animo, aut 5 
 pauper sis oportet aut pauperi similis. Non potest 
 studium salutare fieri sine frugal! tatis cura; frugalitas 
 autem paupertas voluntaria est. Telle itaque istas 
 excusationes : 'nondum habeo, quantum satis est; si ad 
 illam summam pervenero, tunc me totum philosophiae 
 dabo.' Atqui nihil prius quam hoc parandum est, quod 
 tu differs et post cetera paras; ab hoc incipiendum est. 
 'Parare' inquis 'unde vivam volo.' Simul et parare 
 disce: si quid te vetat bene vivere, bene mori non vetat. 
 Non est quod nos paupertas a philosophia revocet, ne « 
 egestas quidem. Toleranda est enim ad hoc properanti- 
 bus vel fames. Quam toleravere quidam in obsidionibus, 
 et quod aliud erat illis patientiae praemium quam in ar- 
 bitrium non cadere victoris ? Quanto hie maius est quod 
 promittitur: perpetua libertas, nullius nee hominis 
 nee dei timor. Et quidem vel esurienti ad ista venien- 
 dum est. Perpessi sunt exercitus inopiam omnium rerum, 7 
 vixerunt herbarum radicibus et dictu foedis, tulerunt 
 famem. Haec omnia passi sunt pro regno, quo magis 
 mireris, alieno: dubitabit aliquis ferre paupertatem, 
 ut animum furoribus liberet? Non est ergo prius ad- 
 quirendum: licet ad philosophiam etiam sine viatico 
 pervenire. Ita est? Cum omnia habueris, tunc habere 8 
 et sapientiam voles? Haec erit ultimum vitae instru- 
 mentum et, ut ita dicam, additamentum ? Tu vero sive ali- 
 quid habes : iam philosophare. Unde enim scis, an iam 
 nimis habeas? Sive nihil: hoc prius quaere quam 
 quicquam. 'At necessaria deerunt.' Primum deesse 9 
 non poterunt, quia natura minimum petit, naturae autem 
 
80 L- ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 se sapiens accommodat. Sed si necessitates ultimae 
 inciderint, iamdudum exsiliet e vita et molestus sibi esse 
 desinet. Si vero exiguum erit et angustum, quo possit 
 vita produci, id boni consulet nee ultra necessaria soUicitus 
 aut anxius ventri et scapulis suum reddet et occupationes 
 divitum eoncursationesque ad divitias euntium securus 
 
 10 laetusque ridebit ac dicet : ' Quid in longum ipse te differs ? 
 Exspectabisne fenoris quaestum aut ex merce compendium 
 aut tabulas beati senis, cum fieri possis statim dives? 
 Repraesentat opes sapientia, quas, cuicumque fecit super- 
 vacuas, dedit.' Haec ad alios pertinent: tu locupletibus 
 propior es. Saeculum muta, nimis habes. Idem est 
 autem omni saeculo, quod sat est. 
 
 11 Poteram hoc loco epistulam claudere, nisi te male 
 instituissem. Reges Parthorum non potest quisquam 
 salutare sine munere: tibi valedicere non licet gratis. 
 Quid istic? Ab Epicuro mutuum sumam: 'multis 
 parasse divitias non finis miseriarum fuit, sed mutatio.' 
 
 12 Nee hoc miror. Non est enim in rebus vitium, sed in ipso 
 animo. lUud, quod paupertatem nobis gravem fecerat, 
 et divitias graves fecit. Quemadmodum nihil refert, 
 utrum aegrum in ligneo lecto an in aureo colloces: quo- 
 cumque ilium transtuleris, morbum secum suum trans- 
 feret: sic nihil refert, utrum aeger animus in divitiis an 
 in paupertate ponatur. Malum ilium suum sequitur. 
 Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA XVIII 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 1 December est mensis: cum maxime civitas sudat. 
 lus luxuriae publicae datum est. Ingenti apparatu so- 
 nant omnia, tamquam quicquam inter Saturnalia inter- 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA XVIII 81 
 
 sit et dies rerum agendarum: adeo nihil interest, ut 
 (non) videatur mihi errasse, qui dixit olim mensem 
 Decembrem fuisse, nunc annum. Si te hie haberem, 
 Ubenter tecum conferrem, quid existimares esse facien- 
 dum: utrum nihil ex cotidiana consuetudine movendum 
 an, ne dissidere videremur cum publicis moribus, et 
 hilarius cenandum et exuendam togam. Nam quod fieri 
 nisi in tumultu et tristi tempore civitatis non solebat, 
 voluptatis causa ac festorum dierum vestem mutavimus. 
 Si te bene novi, arbitri partibus functus nee per om- 
 nia nos similes esse pilleatae turbae voluisses nee per 
 omnia dissimiles: nisi forte his maxime diebus animo 
 imperandum est, ut tunc voluptatibus solus abstineat, 
 cum in illas omnis turba proeubuit; eertissimum enim 
 argumentum firmitatis suae capit, si ad blanda et in 
 luxuriam trahentia nee it nee abdueitur. Hoe multo 
 fortius est, ebrio ac vomitante populo siccum ac sobrium 
 esse, illud temperatius, non excerpere se, nee insigniri 
 nee misceri omnibus et eadem, sed non eodem modo 
 facere. Licet enim sine luxuria agere festum diem. 
 Ceterum adeo mihi placet temptare animi tui firmitatem, 
 ut ex praecepto magnorum virorum tibi quoque prae- 
 cipiam: interponas aliquot dies, quibus contentus mi- 
 nimo ac vilissimo cibo, dura atque horrida veste, dicas 
 tibi : ' hoc est quod timebatur ? ' In ipsa securitate ani- 
 mus ad difiicilia se praeparet et contra iniurias Fortunae 
 inter beneficia firmetur. Miles in media pace decurrit, 
 sine ullo hoste vallum iacit et supervaeuo labore lassatur, 
 ut suffieere neeessario possit. Quem in ipsa re trepidare 
 nolueris, ante rem exereeas. Hoc secuti sunt, qui om- 
 nibus mensibus paupertatem imitati prope ad inopiam 
 accesserunt, ne umquam expavescerent quod saepe di- 
 
82 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 7 dicissent. Non est nunc quod existimes me dicere Ti- 
 moneas cenas et pauperuna cellas, et quicquid aliud est, 
 per quod luxuria divitiarum taedio ludit: grabatus ills 
 verus sit et sagum et panis durus ac sordidus. Hoc 
 triduo et quatriduo fer, interdum pluribus diebus, ut 
 non lusus sit, sed experimentum : tunc, mihi crede, 
 Lucili, exsultabis dipondio satur et intelleges ad securita- 
 tem non opus esse Fortuna; hoc enim, quod necessitati 
 
 8 sat est, dat et irata. Non est tamen quare tu naultum 
 tibi facere videaris. Facies enim, quod multa milia ser- 
 vorum, multa milia pauperum faciunt; illo nomine te 
 suspice, quod facies non coactus, quod tam facile erit tibi 
 illud pati semper quam aliquando experiri. Exercea- 
 mur ad palum. Et ne imparatos Fortuna deprehendat, 
 fiat nobis paupertas familiaris. Securius divites erimus, 
 
 9 si scierimus, quam non sit grave pauperes esse. Certos 
 habebat dies ille magister voluptatis Epicurus, quibus 
 maligne famem exstingueret, visurus, an aliquid deesset 
 ex plena et consummata voluptate, vel quantum deesset 
 et an dignum quod quis magno labors pensaret. Hoc 
 certe in his epistulis ait, quas scripsit Charino magistratu 
 ad Polyaenum. Et quidem gloriatur non toto asse se 
 pasci, Metrodorum, qui nondum tantum profecerit, toto. 
 
 10 In hoc tu victu saturitatem putas esse? Et voluptas 
 est. Voluptas autem non ilia levis et fugax et subinde 
 reficienda, sed stabilis et certa. Non enim iucunda res 
 est aqua et polenta aut frustum hordeacei panis, sed 
 summa voluptas est posse capere etiam ex his volupta- 
 tem et ad id se deduxisse, quod eripere nulla Fortunae 
 
 11 iniquitas possit. Liberaliora alimenta sunt carceris, 
 sepositos ad capitale supplicium non tam anguste, qui 
 occisurus est, pascit: quanta est animi magnitude ad 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA XVIII 83 
 
 id sua sponte descendere, quod ne ad extrema quidem 
 decretis timendum sit. Hoc est praeoccupare tela For- 
 tunae. Incipe ergo, mi Lucili, sequi horum consuetu- la 
 dinem at aliquos dies destina, quibus secedas a tuis 
 rebus minimoque te facias familiarem; incipe cum pau- 
 pertate habere commercium: 
 
 'Aude, hospes, contemnere opes et te quoque dignum 
 Finge dec' 
 
 Nemo alius est deo dignus quam qui opes contempsit. 13 
 Quarum possessionem tibi non interdico, sed efficere volo, 
 ut illas intrepide possideas: quod uno consequeris modo, 
 si te etiam sine illis beate victurum persuaseris tibi, si 
 illas tamquam exituras semper adspexeris. 
 
 Sed iam incipiamus epistulam complicare. 'Prius' 14 
 inquis 'redde quod debes.' Delegabo te ad Epicurum. 
 Ab illo fiet numeratio: 'immodica ira gignit insaniam.' 
 Hoc quam verum sit, necesse est scias, cum habueris 
 et servum et inimicum. In omnes personas hie exar- la 
 descit adfectus. Tam ex amore nascitur quam ex odio, 
 non minus inter seria quam inter lusus et iocos. Nee 
 interest, ex quam magna causa nascatur, sed in qualem 
 perveniat animum. Sic ignis non refert quam magnus, 
 sed quo incidat. Nam etiam maximum solida non re- 
 ceperunt; rursus arida et conripi facilia scintillam quo- 
 que fovent usque in incendium. Ita est, mi Lucili, 
 ingentis irae exitus furor est, et ideo ira vitanda est non 
 moderationis causa, sed sanitatis. Vale. 
 
84 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 EPISTULA LVI 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 1 Peream, si est tarn necessarium quam videtur silentium 
 in studia seposito. Ecce undique me varius clamor cir- 
 cumsonat. Supra ipsum balneum habito. Propone nunc 
 tibi omnia genera vocum, quae in odium possunt aures 
 adducere: cum fortiores exercentur et manus plumbo 
 graves iactant, cum aut laborant aut laborantem imitantur, 
 gemitus audio, quotiens retentum spiritum remiserunt, 
 sibilos et acerbissimas respirationes ; cum in aliquem 
 inertem et hac plebeia unctione contentum incidi, audio 
 crepitum inlisae manus umeris, quae prout plana pervenit 
 aut concava, ita sonum mutat. Si vero pilicrepus super- 
 
 2 venit et numerare coepit pilas, actum est. Adice nunc 
 scordalum et furem deprensum et ilium, cui vox sua in 
 balineo placet. Adice nunc eos, qui in piscinam cum 
 ingenti impulsae aquae sono saliunt. Praeter istos, 
 quorum, si nihil aliud, rectae voces sunt, alipilum cogita 
 tenuem et stridulam vocem, quo sit notabilior, subinde 
 exprimentem nee umquam tacentem, nisi dum vellit alas 
 et alium pro se clamare cogit. lam libarii varias exclama- 
 tiones et botularium et crustularium et omnes popinarum 
 institores mercem sua quadam et insignita modulatione 
 
 ? vendentis. 'O te' inquis 'ferreum aut surdum, cui mens 
 inter tot clamores tam varios, tarn dissonos constat, cum 
 Chrysippum nostrum adsidua salutatio perducat ad 
 mortem.' At mehercules ego istum fremitum non magis 
 euro quam fluctum aut deiectum aquae, quam vis audiam 
 cuidam genti banc unam fuisse causam urbem suam trans- 
 ferendi, quod fragorem Nili cadentis ferre non potuit. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA LVI 85 
 
 Magis mihi videtur vox avocare quam crepitus. Ilia 4 
 enim animum adducit, hie tantum aures implet ac verberat. 
 In his, quae me sine avocatione circumstrepunt, essedas 
 transcurrentes pono et fabrum inquilinum et serrarium 
 vicinum, aut hunc, qui ad Metam Sudantem tubulas ex- 
 peritur et tibias, nee cantat, sed exclamat. Etiamnunc 
 molestior est mihi sonus, qui intermittitur subinde quam 
 qui eontinuatur. Sed iam me sic ad omnia ista duravi, 5 
 ut audire vel pausarium possim voce acerbissima remigi- 
 bus modos dantem. Animum enim cogo sibi intentum 
 esse nee avocari ad externa: omnia licet foris resonent, 
 dum intus nihil tumultus sit, dum inter se non rixentur 
 cupiditas et timor, dum avaritia luxuriaque non dis- 
 sideant nee altera alteram vexet. Nam quid prodest 
 totius regionis silentium, si adfeetus fremunt ? 
 
 'Omnia noctis erant placida eomposta quiete.' 6 
 
 Falsum est. Nulla placida est quies, nisi qua ratio com- 
 posuit : nox exhibet molestiam, non toUit, et sollicitudines 
 mutat. Nam dormientium quoque insomnia tam tur- 
 bulenta sunt quam dies. Ilia tranquillitas vera est, in 
 quam bona mens explicatur. Adspice ilium, eui somnus 7 
 laxae domus silentio quaeritur, cuius aures ne quis agitet 
 sonus, omnis servorum turba conticuit et suspensum 
 aecedentium propius vestigium ponitur: hue nempe 
 versatur atque illue, somnum inter aegritudines levem 
 captans. Quae non audit, audisse se queritur. Quid 8 
 in causa putas esse? Animus illi obstrepit. Hie pla- 
 candus est, huius compescenda seditio est, quem non 
 est quod existimes plaeidum, si iacet corpus. Interdum 
 quies inquieta est. Et ideo ad rerum actus exeitandi 
 ac tractatione bonarum artium oceupandi sumus, quo- 
 
86 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 9 tiens nos male habet inertia sui impatiens. Magni im- 
 peratores, cum male parere militem vident, aliquo labore 
 compescunt et expeditionibus detinent : numquam vacat 
 lascivire districtis nihilque tam certum est quam otii 
 vitia negotio discuti. Saepe videmur taedio rerum civi- 
 lium et infelicis atque ingratae stationis paenitentia se- 
 cessisse: tamen in ilia latebra, in quam nos timor ac 
 lassitude coniecit, interdum recrudescit ambitio. Non 
 enim excisa desiit, sed fatigata aut etiam obirata rebus 
 
 10 parum sibi cedentibus. Idem de luxuria dico, quae 
 videtur aliquando cessisse, deinde frugalitatem professes 
 sollicitat atque in media parsimonia voluptates non 
 damnatas, sed relictas petit, et quidem eo vehementius, 
 quo occultius. Omnia enim vitia in aperto leniora sunt: 
 morbi quoque tunc ad sanitatem inclinant, cum ex abdito 
 erumpunt ac vim suam proferunt. Et avaritiam itaque 
 et ambitionem et cetera mala mentis humanae tunc per- 
 niciosissima scias esse, cum simulata sanitate subsidunt. 
 
 11 Otiosi videmur, et non sumus. Nam si bona fide sumus, 
 si receptui cecinimus, si speciosa contemnimus, ut paulo 
 ante dicebam, nulla res nos avocabit, nullus hominum 
 aviumque concentus interrumpet cogitationes bonas, 
 
 12 solidasque iam et certas. Leve illud ingenium est nee 
 sese adhuc reduxit introrsus, quod ad vocem et accidentia 
 erigitur. Habet intus aliquid sollicitudinis et habet 
 aliquid concepti pavoris, quod ilium curiosum facit, ut 
 ait Vergilius noster : 
 
 ' Et me, quem dudum non uUa iniecta movebant 
 tela neque adverso glomerati ex agmine Grai, 
 nunc omnes terrent aurae, sonus excitat omnis 
 suspensum et pariter comitique onerique timentem.' 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA LXI 87 
 
 Prior ille sapiens est, quem non tela vibrantia, non arietata 13 
 inter se arma agminis densi, non urbis impulsae fragor 
 territat : hie alter imperitus est, rebus suis timet ad omnem 
 crepitum expavescens, quem una quaelibet vox pro fremitu 
 accepta deicit, quem motus levissimi exanimant : timidum 
 ilium sarcinae faciunt. Quemcumque ex istis felicibus ele- n 
 geris, multa trahentibus, multa portantibus, videbis ilium 
 'comitique onerique timentem.' Tunc ergo te scito esse 
 compositum, cum ad te nullus clamor pertinebit, cum te 
 nulla vox tibi excutiet, non si blandietur, non si minabitur, 
 non si inani sono vana circumstrepet. 'Quid ergo? non 15 
 aliquando commodius est et carere convicio?' Fateor. 
 Itaque ego ex hoc loco migrabo. Experiri et exercere me 
 volui. Quid necesse est diutius torqueri, cum tam facile 
 remedium Ulixes sociis etiam ad versus Sirenas invenerit? 
 Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA LXI 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 Desinamus, quod voluimus, velle. Ego certe id ago, i 
 senex ne eadem velim, quae puer volui. In hoc unum 
 eunt dies, in hoc noctes, hoc opus meum est, haec 
 cogitatio: imponere veteribus malis finem. Id ago, 
 ut mihi instar totius vitae dies sit. Nee mehercules 
 tamquam ultimum rapio, sed sic ilium adspicio, tam- 
 quam esse vel ultimus possit. Hoe animo tibi hanc 2 
 epistulam scribo, tamquam me cum maxime seribentem 
 mors evocatura sit. Paratus exire sum et ideo fruar 
 vita, quia quam diu futurum hoc sit, non nimis pendeo. 
 Ante senectutem curavi, ut bene viverem, in senectute, 
 ut bene moriar: bene autem mori est libenter mori. 
 
88 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 3 Da operam, ne quid umquam invitus facias. Quicquid 
 necesse futurum est repugnanti, volenti necessitas non 
 est. Ita dico : qui iraperia libens excipit, partem acer- 
 bissimam servitutis effugit, facere quod nolit. Non qui 
 iussus aliquid facit, miser est, sed qui invitus facit. Itaque 
 sic animum componamus, ut quicquid res exiget, id veli- 
 mus et in primis ut finem nostri sine tristitia cogitemus. 
 
 4 Ante ad mortem quam ad vitam praeparandi sumus. 
 Satis instructa vita est, sed nos in instrumenta eius avidi 
 sumus: deesse aliquid nobis videtur et semper videbitur. 
 Ut satis vixerimus, nee anni nee dies faciunt, sed animus. 
 Vixi, Lucili carissime, quantum satis erat: mortem 
 plenus exspecto. Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA LXXIII 
 Seneca Lttcilio suo salutem 
 
 1 Errare mihi videntur, qui existimant philosophiae 
 fideliter deditos contumaces esse ae refractarios, con- 
 temptores magistratuum aut regum eorumve, per quos 
 publica administrantur. Ex contrario enim nulli adver- 
 sus illos gratiores sunt: nee immerito. Nullis enim 
 plus praestant quam quibus frui tranquillo otio licet. 
 
 2 Itaque ii, quibus multum ad propositum bene vivendi 
 confert securitas publica, necesse est auctorem huius 
 boni ut parentem colant, multo quidem magis quam 
 illi inquieti et in medio positi, qui multa principibus 
 debent, sed multa et imputant, quibus numquam iam 
 plene occurrere ulla liberalitas potest, ut cupiditates 
 illorum, quae crescunt, dum implentur, exsatiet. Quis- 
 quis autem de accipiendo cogitat, oblitus accepti est. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA LXXIII 89 
 
 Nec ullum habet malum cupiditas maius, quam quod 
 ingrata est. Adice nunc, quod nemo eorum, qui in re 3 
 publica versantur, quot vincat, sed a quibus vincatur, 
 adspicit. Et illis non tam iucundum est multos post se 
 videre quam grave aliquem ante se. Habet hoc vitium 
 omnis ambitio: non respicit. Nec ambitio tantum in- 
 stabilis est, verum cupiditas omnis, quia incipit semper 
 a fine. At ille vir sincerus ac purus, qui reliquit et i 
 curiam et forum et omnem administrationem rei publi- 
 cae, ut ad ampliora secederet, diligit eos, per quos hoc 
 ei facere tuto licet solusque illis gratuitum testimonium 
 reddit et magnam rem nescientibus debet. Quemad- 
 modum praeceptores suos veneratur ac suspicit, quorum 
 beneficio illis inviis exiit, sic et hos, sub quorum tutela 
 positus exercet artes bonas. 'Verum alios quoque rex 5 
 viribus suis protegit.' Quisnegat? Sed quemadmodum 
 Neptuno plus debere se iudicat ex iis, qui eadem tran- 
 quillitate usi sunt, qui plura et pretiosiora illo mari vexit, 
 animosius a mercatore quam a vectore solvitur votum, 
 et ex ipsis mercatoribus effusius gratus est, qui odores ac 
 purpuras et auro pensanda portabat quam qui vilissima 
 quaeque et saburrae loco futura congesserat : sic huius 
 pads beneficium ad omnes pertinentis altius ad eos perve- 
 nit, qui ilia bene utuntur. Multi enim sunt ex his togatis, 6 
 quibus pax operosior bello est : an idem existimas pro pace 
 debere eos, qui illam ebrietati aut libidini impendunt aut 
 aliis vitiis, quae vel bello rumpenda sunt ? Nisi forte tam 
 iniquum putas esse sapientem, ut nihil viritim se debere 
 pro communibus bonis iudicet. Soli lunaeque plurimum 
 debeo, et non uni mihi oriuntur. Anno temperantique 
 annum deo privatim obligatus sum, quamvis nihil in 
 meum honorem descripta sint. Stulta avaritia mortalium 7 
 
90 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 possessionem proprietatemque discernit nee quicquam 
 suum credit esse, quod publicum est. At ille sapiens nihil 
 iudicat suum magis quam cuius illi cum humane genere 
 consortium est. Nee enim essent ita communia, nisi 
 pars illorum pertineret ad singulos; socium efScit etiam 
 
 8 quod ex minima portione commune est. Adice nunc, 
 quod magna et vera bona non sic dividuntur, ut exiguum 
 in singulos cadat: ad unumquemque tota perveniunt. 
 Ex congiario tantum fenint homines, quantum in capita 
 promissura est. Epulum et visceratio et quicquid aliud 
 manu capitur, discedit in partes : at haec individua bona, 
 pax et libertas, et tam omnium tota quam singulorum 
 
 9 sunt. Cogitat itaque, per quem sibi horum usus fructus- 
 que contingat, per quem non ad arma ilium nee ad ser- 
 vandas vigilias nee ad tuenda moenia et multiplex belli 
 tributum publica necessitas vocet, agitque gubernatori 
 suo gratias. Hoe docet philosophia praecipue, bene debere 
 beneficia, bene solvere: interdum autem solutio est ipsa 
 
 10 confessio. Confitebitur ergo multum se debere ei, cuius 
 administratione ac providentia contingit illi pingue 
 otium et arbitrium sui temporis et imperturbata publicis 
 occupationibus quies. 
 
 'O Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fecit: 
 namque erit ille mihi semper deus.' 
 
 11 Si ilia quoque otia multum auctori suo debent, quomm 
 munus hoc maximum est, 
 
 ' Ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum 
 ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti, ' 
 
 quanti aestimamus hoc otium, quod inter deos agitur, 
 
 12 quod deos facit ? Ita dico, Lucili, et te in caelum com- 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA LXXIII 91 
 
 pendiario voco. Solebat Sextius dicere lovem plus non 
 posse quam bonum virum. Plura luppiter habet, quae 
 praestet hominibus, sed inter duos bonos non est me- 
 lior, qui locupletior, non magis quam inter duos, qui- 
 bus par scientia regendi gubernaculum est, meliorem 
 dixeris, cui maius speciosiusque navigium est. luppiter 13 
 quo antecedit virum bonum? Diutius bonus est: sa- 
 piens nihilo se minoris existimat, quod virtutes eius 
 spatio breviore cluduntur. Quemadmodum ex duobus 
 sapientibus qui senior decessit, non est beatior eo, cuius 
 intra pauciores annos terminata virtus est, sic deus non 
 vincit sapientem felicitate, etiam si vincit aetate. Non 
 est virtus maior, quae longior. luppiter omnia habet, u 
 sed nempe aliis tradidit habenda; ad ipsum hie unus 
 usus pertinet, quod utendi omnibus causa est: sapiens 
 tam aequo animo omnia apud alios videt contemnitque 
 quam luppiter et hoc se magis suspicit, quod luppiter 
 uti illis non potest, sapiens non vult. Credamus itaque 15 
 Sextio monstranti pulcherrimum iter et clamanti: hae 
 ' itur ad astra, ' hac secundum frugalitatem, hac secundum 
 temperantiam, hac secundum fortitudinem. Non sunt di 
 fastidiosi, non invidi : admittunt et adscendentibus manum 
 porrigunt. Miraris hominem ad deos ire? Deus ad 16 
 homines venit, immo quod est propius, in homines venit: 
 nulla sine deo mens bona est. Semina in corporibus 
 humanis divina dispersa sunt, quae si bonus cultor ex- 
 cipit, similia origini prodeunt et paria lis, ex quibus orta 
 sunt, surgunt: si malus, non aliter quam humus sterilis 
 ac palustris necat ac deinde creat purgamenta pro fru- 
 gibus. Vale. 
 
92 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 EPISTULA LXXX 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 Hodierno die non tantum meo beneficio mihi vaco, 
 sed spectaculi, quod omnes molestos ad sphaeromachian 
 avocavit. Nemo inrumpet, nemo cogitationem meam 
 impediet, quae hac ipsa fiducia procedit audacius. Non 
 crepabit subinde ostium, non adlevabitur velum: licebit 
 tuto vadere, quod magis necessarium est per se eunti et 
 suam sequenti viam. Non ergo sequor priores? Facio, 
 sed permitto mihi et invenire aliquid et mutare et relin- 
 quere. Non servio illis, sed adsentior. Magnum tamen 
 verbum dixi, qui mihi silentium promittebam et sine 
 interpellatore secretum: ecce ingens clamor ex stadio 
 perfertur et me non excutit mihi, sed in huius ipsius rei 
 contentionem transfert. Cogito mecum, quam multi 
 corpora exerceant, ingenia quam pauci; quantus ad 
 spectaculum non fidele et lusorium fiat concursus, quanta 
 sit circa artes bonas solitudo; quam imbecilli animo sint, 
 quorum lacertos umerosque miramur. Illud maxime 
 revolvo mecum: si corpus perduci exercitatione ad banc 
 patientiam potest, qua et pugnos pariter et calces non 
 unius hominis ferat, qua solem ardentissimum in fer- 
 ventissimo pulvere sustinens aliquis et sanguine suo 
 madens diem ducat : quanto facilius animus conrobo- 
 rari possit, ut fortunae ictus invictus excipiat, ut pro- 
 iectus, ut conculcatus exsurgat. Corpus enim multis 
 eget rebus, ut valeat: animus ex se crescit, se ipse alit, 
 se exercet. Illis multo cibo, multa potione opus est, 
 multo oleo, longa denique opera: tibi continget virtus 
 sine apparatu, sine impensa. Quicquid facere te potest 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA LXXX 93 
 
 bonum, tecum est. Quid tibi opus est, ut sis bonus? 4 
 Velle. Quid autem melius potes velle quam eripere te 
 huic servituti, quae omnes premit, quam mancipia quo- 
 que condicionis extremae et in his sordibus nata omni 
 mode exuere conantur? Peculium suum, quod compara- 
 verunt ventre fraudato, pro capite numerant: tu non 
 concupisces quanticumque ad libertatem pervenire, qui 
 te in ilia putas natum? Quid ad arcam tuam respicis? 5 
 Emi non potest. Itaque in tabulas vanum coicitur no- 
 men libertatis, quam nee qui emerunt, habent nee qui 
 vendiderunt : tibi des oportet istud bonum, a te petas. 
 Libera te primum metu mortis : ilia nobis iugum imponit ; 
 deinde metu paupertatis. Si vis scire, quam nihil in ilia 6 
 mali sit, compara inter se pauperum et divitum vultus: 
 saepius pauper et fidelius ridet; nulla sollicitudo in alto 
 est; etiam si qua incidit cura, velut nubes levis transit: 
 horum, qui felices vocantur, hilaritas ficta est at gra- 
 vis et suppurata tristitia, eo quidem gravior, quia inter- 
 dum non licet palam esse miseros, sed inter aerumnas 
 cor ipsum exedentes neeesse est agere felicem. Sae- 7 
 pius hoc exemplo mihi utendum est, nee enim ullo efRca- 
 cius exprimitur hie humanae vitae mimus, qui nobis 
 partes, quas male agamus, adsignat: ille, qui in scaena 
 latus incedit et haec resupinus dicit, 
 
 'En impero Argis: regna mihi liquit Pelops, 
 qua ponto ab Helles atque ab lonio mari 
 urgetur Isthmos,' 
 
 servus est, quinque modios accipit et quinque denarios; 
 ille qui superbus atque impotens et fiducia virium tumidus 8 
 ait: 
 
 'Quod nisi quieris, Menelae, hac dextra occides,' 
 
94 L. ANNAEI SENECAU 
 
 diurnum accipit, in centunculo dormit. Idem de istis licet 
 omnibus dicas, quos supra capita hominum supraque tur- 
 bam delicatos lectica suspendit : omnium istorum personata 
 
 9 felicitas est. Contemnes illos, si despoliaveris. Equum 
 empturus solvi iubes stratum, detrahis vestimenta venali- 
 bus, ne qua vitia corporis lateant: hominem involutum 
 aestimas ? Mangones quicquid est, quod displiceat, aliquo 
 lenocinio abscondunt, itaque ementibus ornamenta ipsa 
 suspectasunt : sive cms alligatum sive brachium adspiceres, 
 
 10 nudari iuberes et ipsum tibi corpus ostendi. Vides ilium 
 Scythiae Sarmatiaeve regem insigni capitis decorum ? Si 
 vis ilium aestimare totumque scire, qualis sit, fasciam 
 solve : multum mali sub ilia latet. Quid de aliis loquor ? 
 Si perpendere te voles, sepone pecuniam, domum, digni- 
 tatem, intus te ipse considera: nunc qualis sis, alii? 
 credis. Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA CVI 
 
 Seneca Lucilio suo salutem 
 
 1 Tardius rescribo ad epistulas tuas, non quia districtus 
 occupationibus sum. Hanc excusationem cave audias: 
 vaco et omnes vacant, qui volunt. Neminem res sequun- 
 tur. Ipsi illas amplexantur et argumentum esse felicitatis 
 occupationem putant. Quid ergo fuit, quare non protinus 
 rescriberem? Id, de quo quaerebas, veniebat in con- 
 
 2 textum operis mei. Scis enim me moralem philosophiam 
 velle complecti et omnes ad eam pertinentes quaestiones 
 explicare. Itaque dubitavi utrum differrem te, donee 
 suus isti rei veniret locus, an ius tibi extra ordinem 
 dicerem: humanius visum est tam longe venientem non 
 
 3 detinere. Itaque et hoc ex ilia serie rerum cohaerentium 
 excerpam et, si qua erunt eiusmodi, non quaerenti tibi 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA CVI 95 
 
 ultro mittam. Quae sint haec interrogas? Quae scire 
 magis iuvat quam prodest, sicut hoc, de quo quaeris: 
 bonum an corpus sit? Bonum facit: prodest enim. i 
 Quod facit, corpus est. Bonum agitat animum et quo- 
 dammodo format et continet, quae propria sunt corporis. 
 Quae corporis bona sunt, corpora sunt: ergo et quae 
 animi sunt. Nam et hoc corpus est. Bonum hominis 5 
 necesse est corpus sit, cum ipse sit corporalis. Mentior, 
 nisi et quae alunt ilium et quae valitudinem eius vel 
 custodiunt vel restituunt, corpora sunt: ergo et bonum 
 eius corpus est. Non puto te dubitaturum, an adfectus 
 corpora sint — ut aliud quoque, de quo non quaeris, 
 infulciam — tamquam ira, amor, tristitia, msi dubitas, 
 an vultum nobis mutent, an frontem adstringant, an 
 faciem diffundant, an ruborem evocent, an fugent san- 
 guinem. Quid ergo? Tam manifestas notas corporis 
 credis imprimi nisi a corpore ? Si adfectus corpora sunt, 6 
 et morbi animorum, ut avaritia, crudelitas, indurata vitia 
 et in statum inemendabilem adducta : ergo et malitia et 7 
 species eius omnes, malignitas, invidia, superbia: ergo 
 et bona, primum quia contraria istis sunt, deinde quia 
 eadem tibi indicia praestabunt. An non vides, quantum 
 oculis det vigorem fortitude? Quantam intentionem 
 prudentia? Quantam modestiam et quietem reverentia? 
 Quantam serenitatem laetitia? Quantum rigorem sever- 
 itas ? Quantam remissionem lenitas ? Corpora ergo sunt, 
 quae colorem habitumque corporum mutant, quae in 
 illis regnum suum exercent. Omnes autem, quas rettuli, 
 virtutes bona sunt, et quicquid ex illis- est. Numquid est 8 
 dubium, an id, quo quid tangi potest, corpus sit ? 
 
 'Tangere enim et tangi nisi corpus nulla potest res,' 
 
96 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 ut ait Lucretius. Omnia autem ista, quae dixi, non 
 mutarent corpus, nisi tangerent: ergo corpora sunt. 
 9 Etiam nunc cui tanta vis est, ut impellat et cogat at re- 
 tineat et inhibeat, corpus est. Quid ergo? Non timer 
 retinet? Non audacia impellit? Non fortitude immittit 
 et impetum dat? Non moderatio refrenat ac revocat? 
 
 10 Non gaudium extollit ? Non tristitia adducit ? Denique 
 quicquid facimus, aut malitiae aut virtutis gerimus 
 imperio: quod imperat corpori, corpus est, quod vim 
 corpori adfert, corpus. Bonum corporis corporalest, 
 bonum hominis et corporis bonum est : itaque corporale 
 
 11 est. Quoniam, ut voluisti, morem gessi tibi, nunc ipse 
 dicam mihi, quod dicturum esse te video: latrunculis 
 ludimus. In supervacuis subtilitas teritur: non faciunt 
 
 12 bonos ista, sed doctos. Apertior res est sapere, immo 
 simpliciter satius est ad mentem bonam uti litteris, sed 
 nos ut cetera in supervacuum diffundimus, ita philoso- 
 phiam ipsam. Quemadmodum omnium rerum, sic lit- 
 terarum quoque intemperantia laboramus: non vitae, 
 sed scholae discimus. Vale. 
 
 EPISTULA CXV 
 Seneca Ltjcilio suo salutem 
 
 1 Nimis anxium esse te circa verba et compositionem, mi 
 Lucili, nolo: habeo maiora, quae cures. Quaere, quid 
 scribas, non quemadmodum. Et hoc ipsum non ut 
 scribas, sed ut sentias, ut ilia, quae senseris, magis ad- 
 
 2 plices tibi et velut signes. Cuiuscumque orationem 
 videris sollicitam et politam, scito animum quoque non 
 minus esse pusillis occupatum. Magnus ille remissius 
 loquitur et securius; quaecumque dicit, plus habent 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA CXV 97 
 
 fiduciae quam curae. Nosti comptulos iuvenes, barba 
 et coma nitidos, de capsula totos : nihil ab illis speraveris 
 forte, nihil solidum. Oratio cultus animi est : si circum- 
 tonsa est et fucata et manu facta, ostendit ilium quoque 
 non esse sincerum et habere aliquid fracti. Non est 
 ornamentum virile concinnitas. Si nobis animum boni 3 
 viri liceret inspicere, o quam pulchram faciem, quam 
 sanctam, quam ex magnifico placidoque fulgentem vide- 
 remus, hinc iustitia, illinc fortitudine, hinc temperantia 
 prudentiaque lucentibus ! Praeter has frugalitas et con- 
 tinentia et tolerantia et liberalitas comitasque et — quis 
 credat ? — in homine rarum humanitas bonum, splen- 
 dorem illi suum adfunderent. Tunc providentia cum 
 elegantia et ex istis magnanimitas eminentissima quantum, 
 di boni, decoris illi, quantum ponderis gravitatisque 
 adderent ! Quanta esset cum gratia auctoritas ! Nemo 
 illam amabilem, qui non simul venerabilem diceret. 
 Si quis viderit hanc faciem altiorem fulgentioremque quam 4 
 cerni inter humana consuevit, nonne velut numinis occursu 
 obstupef actus resistat et, ut 'fas sit vidisse,' tacitus 
 precetur? Tum evocante ipsa vultus benignitate pro- 
 ductus adoret ac supplicet, et diu contemplatus multum 
 exstantem superque mensuram solitorum inter nos adspici 
 elatam, oculis mite quiddam sed nihilominus vivido 
 igne flagrantibus, tunc delude illam Vergili nostri vocem 
 verens atque attonitus emittat? 
 
 ' quam te memo rem, virgo ? Namque haut tibi vultus 6 
 mortalis nee vox hominem sonat.' 
 
 'Sis fehx, nostrumque leves quaecumque laborem.' 
 
 Aderit levabitque, si colere earn voluerimus. Colitur 
 autem non taurorum opimis corporibus contrucidatis 
 
98 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 nec auro argentoque suspenso nee in thensauros stipe 
 
 6 infusa, sed pia et recta voluntate. Nemo, inquam, non 
 amore eius arderet, si nobis illam videre contingeret: 
 nunc enim multa obstrigillant et aciem nostram aut splen- 
 dore nimio repercutiunt aut obscure retinent. Sed si, 
 quemadmodum visus oculorum quibusdam medicamentis 
 acui solet et repurgari, sic nos aciem animi liberare im- 
 pedimentis voluerimus, poterimus perspicere virtutem 
 etiam obrutam corpore, etiam paupertate opposita, etiam 
 
 7 humilitate et infamia obiacentibus. Cernemus, inquam, 
 pulchritudinem illam quamvis sordido obtectam. Rursus 
 aeque malitiam et aerumnosi animi vetemum perspicie- 
 mus, quamvis multus circa divitiarum radiantium splendor 
 impediat et intuentem hinc honorum, illinc magnarum 
 
 8 potestatium falsa lux verberet. Tunc intellegere nobis 
 licebit, quam contemnenda miremur, simillimi pueris, 
 quibus omne ludicrum in pretio est : parentibus quippe 
 nec minus fratribus praeferunt parvo aere empta monilia. 
 Quid ergo inter nos et illos interest, ut Ariston ait, nisi 
 quod nos circa tabulas et statuas insanimus carius inepti ? 
 Illos reperti in litore calculi leves et aliquid habentes 
 varietatis delectant, nos ingentium maculae columnarum, 
 sive ex Aegyptiis harenis sive ex Africae solitudinibus 
 advectae porticum aliquam vel capacem populi cenationem 
 
 9 ferunt. Miramur parietes tenui marmore inductos, cum 
 sciamus, quale sit quod absconditur. Oculis nostris 
 imponimus, et cum auro tecta perfudimus, quid aliud 
 quam mendacio gaudemus? Sciemus enim sub illo auro 
 foeda ligna latitare. Nec tantum parietibus aut lacuna- 
 ribus ornamentum tenue praetenditur : omnium istorum, 
 quos incedere altos vides, bracteata felicitas est. Inspice, 
 et scies, sub ista tenui membrana dignitatis quantum 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA CXV 99 
 
 mali iaceat. Haec ipsa res, quae tot magistratus, tot is 
 iudices detinet, quae et magistratus et iudices facit, 
 pecunia, ex quo in honore esse coepit, verus rerum honor 
 cecidit ; mercatoresque et venales in vicem facti quaerimus 
 non quale sit quidque, sed quanti: ad mercedem pii 
 sumus, ad mercedem impii, et honesta, quamdiu aliqua 
 illis spes inest, sequimur, in contrarium transituri, si 
 plus scelera promittent. Admirationem nobis parentes ii 
 auri argentique fecerunt, et teneris infusa cupiditas altius 
 sedit crevitque nobiscum. Deinde totus populus in 
 alia discors in hoc convenit. Hoc suspiciunt, hoc suis 
 optant, hoc dis velut rerum humanarum maximum, 
 cum grati videri volunt, consecrant. Denique eo mores 
 redacti sunt, ut paupertas maledicto probroque sit, con- 
 tempta divitibus, invisa pauperibus. Accedunt deinde 12 
 carmina poetarum, quae adfectibus nostris facem sub- 
 dant, quibus divitiae velut unicum vitae decus orna- 
 mentumque laudantur. Nihil illis melius nee dare vi- 
 dentur di immortales posse nee habere 
 
 'Regia Solis erat sublimibus alta columnis 13 
 
 clara micante auro.' 
 
 Eiusdem currum aspice: 
 
 'Aureus axis erat, temo aureus, aurea summae 
 curvatura rotae radiorum argenteus ordo.' 
 
 Denique quod optimum videri volunt saeculum, Aureum 
 appellant. Nee apud Graecos tragicos desunt, qui lucro 14 
 innocentiam, salutem, opinionem bonam mutent. 
 
 ' Sine me vocari pessimum, ut dives vocer.' 
 ' An dives, omnes quaerimus, nemo, an bonus.' 
 
100 L. ANNAEI SENECAE 
 
 ' Non quare et unde, quid habeas, tantum rogant.' 
 'Ubique tanti quisque, quantum habuit, fuit.' 
 ' Quid habere nobis turps sit quaeris? Nihil.' 
 ' Aut dives opto vivere aut pauper mori.' 
 ' Bene moritur, quisquis moritur dum lucrum facit.' 
 
 ' Pecunia, ingens generis humani bonum, 
 
 cui non voluptas matris aut blandae potest 
 
 par esse prolis, non sacer meritis parens : 
 
 tam dulce si quid Veneris in vultu micat, 
 
 merito ilia amores caelitum atque hominum movet.' 
 
 15 Cum hi novissimi versus in tragoedia Euripidis pronun- 
 tiati essent, totus populus ad eiciendum et actorem et 
 carmen consurrexit uno impetu, donee Euripides in 
 medium ipse prosilivit petens, ut exspectarent viderent- 
 que, quem admirator auri exitum faceret. Dabat in ilia 
 fabula poenas Bellerophontes, quas in sua quisque dat. 
 
 16 Nulla enim avaritia sine poena est, quamvis satis sit ipsa 
 poenarum. O quantum lacrimarum, quantum laborum 
 exigit ! Quam misera desiderat esse, quam misera e par- 
 tis est ! Adice cotidianas sollicitudines, quae pro modo 
 habendi quemque discruciant. Maiore tormento pecunia 
 possidetur quam quaeritur. Quantum damnis ingemes- 
 cunt, quae et magna incidunt et videntur maiora I Deni- 
 que ut illis fortuna nihil detrahat, quidquid non adquiritur, 
 
 17 damnum est. 'At felicem ilium homines et divitem vo- 
 cant et consequi optant, quantum ille possidet.' Fateor. 
 Quid ergo? Tu ullos esse condicionis peioris existimas 
 quam qui habent et miseriam et invidiam? XJtinam 
 qui divitias optaturi essent, cum divitibus deliberarent ; 
 utinam honores petituri cum ambitiosis et summum 
 adeptis dignitatis statum ! Profecto vota mutassent, 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA CXV 101 
 
 cum interim illi nova suscipiunt, cum priora damnaverint. 
 Nemo enim est, cui felicitas sua, etiam si cursu venit, 
 satis faciat. Queruntur et de consiliis et de processibus 
 suis maluntque semper quae reliquerunt. Itaque hoc 18 
 tibi philosophia praestabit, quo equidem nihil maius 
 existimo: numquam te paenitebit tui. Ad hanc tam 
 solidam feHcitatem, quam tempestas nulla concutiat, 
 non perducent te apte verba contexta et oratio fluens 
 leniter: eant, ut volent, dum animo compositio sua con- 
 stet, dum sit magnus et opinionum securus et ob ipsa, 
 quae aliis displicent, sibi placens, qui profectum suum 
 vita aestimet et tantum scire se iudicet, quantum non 
 cupit, quantum non timet. Vale. 
 
A few references are made in the Notes to the Latin grammars 
 indicated; the Gildersleeve-Lodge grammar (G.L.), Bennett's 
 (B.), Allen and Greenough's (A.G.), and Hale and Buck's (H.B.). 
 
 102 
 
NOTES 
 
 AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 
 
 PoLTBiUB, whose brother's death was the occasion of Seneca's 
 proffered consolation, was a freedman of the Emperor Claudius, 
 and occupied the important post of ab studiis,^ — secretary to the 
 Emperor in his literary work. Apparently also from a remark 
 in the present Conaolatio, vi. 5, he performed at least to some 
 extent the duties of secretary a libellis, who received and classified 
 the petitions addressed to the Emperor. That Polybius did hter- 
 ary work on his own account is evident from chapters ii.,viii.,and 
 xi. From the Consolatio, too, we know that he had other brothers 
 besides the one whom he had lost, and also a wife and son.^ Ac- 
 cording to Dio Cassius,' Polybius intrigued with the Empress 
 Messalina, who finally turned against him and caused his death; 
 to this connection Seneca seems to allude in the Apocolocyntosis, 
 xiii. 5. 
 
 The Consolation to Polybius was written from Corsica after 
 Seneca had been in exile there for about two years, when he was 
 losing the fine patience that he had displayed in comforting his 
 mother Helvia upon his misfortune. He offers to Polybius hon- 
 estly enough the common consolations of his philosophic repertory; 
 but the most notable feature of the essay is the flattery of the 
 Emperor, which presently appears to have been its chief motive, 
 in the hope, on Seneca's part, that it would be reported to Claudius 
 and lead to his own pardon and return from exile. For the time, 
 at least, the hope proved vain. 
 
 The question,* by Diderot and others, of the authenticity of this 
 work as Seneca's, was chiefly on the ground of its general un- 
 worthiness of Seneca's character, and particularly of the absurd 
 
 ' Suetonius, Claud. 28 ; cf. Cons, ad Polyb. v. 2. 
 
 2xii. 1. ^LX. 31, 2. *Cf. p. xxi, note. 
 
 103 
 
104 NOTES 
 
 contrast between the references to Claudius in it and in the 
 Apocolocyntosis. The lapse of consistency is of course obvious; 
 the attitude of the Consolatio appears to be an unhappy example 
 of the policy which Seneca justifies in his De Constantia Sapientis,^ 
 the offer of a sop to the watch-dog, the toll paid at the gate in 
 order that one may be allowed to pass; on the other hand, it has 
 been suggested that its flatteries of Claudius are only ironical, 
 and some such thought can hardly have been wholly absent from 
 Seneca's mind. 
 
 Dio, however, says ' that Seneca, sick of his exile, sent to Rome 
 from the island a petition (^i/3Xiov) in which he flattered Messa- 
 lina and the freedmen of Claudius, but which afterward, when he 
 had risen to the highest distinction, he was ashamed of and tried 
 to suppress. It is true that the present work contains no mention 
 of Messalina and speaks of only one freedman. Possibly the 
 petition mentioned by Dio was a wholly different thing. Seneca 
 may perhaps have tried more than once in this way to secure his 
 recall from exile.' But it seems not unlikely that Dio, without 
 
 ' xiv. 2. 2 Lxi. 10. 
 
 ^ There are several extant epigrams of Seneca referring to Corsica 
 and his exile there. One of them, addressed ad Corsicam, ends with 
 the lines, referring to himself as buried in the island : — - 
 
 Parce relegatis, hoc est, iam parce sepultis : 
 Vivorum cineri sit tua terra levis. 
 
 The last line is a parody of the expression familiar in epitaphs. Sit tM 
 terra levis. Another of the epigrams is a description of Corsica. 
 
 Barbara praeruptis inclusa est Corsica saxis, 
 
 Horrida, desertis undique vasta locis. 
 Non poma autumnus, segetes non educat aestas, 
 
 Canaque Palladio munere bruma caret. 
 TJmbrarum nuUo ver est laetabile foetu, 
 
 Nullaque in infausto nascitur herba solo. 
 Non panis, non haustus aquae, non ultimus ignis : 
 
 Hie sola haec duo sunt, exsul et exsilium. 
 
 Another of the epigrams, entitled Querela, contains the suggestive 
 outburst, dolor omnia cogit, which is by no means Seneca's only con- 
 fession that " the flesh is weak." All of the epigrams are sufficiently 
 in contrast with Seneca's courageous independence in the Consolatio ad 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 105 
 
 having read the work, may have referred to it inaccurately from 
 his general impression of what he had heard of it. So, easily, 
 the plural " freedmen " might be accounted for, and Messalina 
 was a natural inference. Possibly the lost beginning of the piece 
 included some references to her and them; and indeed Seneca's 
 effort to suppress the work may have been so far successful as 
 to be the cause of the fact that it has been transmitted to us only 
 in a mutilated form. 
 
 The extent of the loss at the beginning of the dialogue we do 
 not know. The traditional paragraph numbers are no guide; for 
 in many of the manuscripts and in the early editions this Corv- 
 solatio follows without separation after the dialogue Ad PauUnum 
 de Brevitate Vitae, and the numbering is consecutive, the first 
 few sentences of the Consolatio ad Polybium being treated as a 
 remainder of the twentieth chapter of the De Brevitate Vitae. In 
 the present text the old numbers are given in Arabic figures in 
 brackets. 
 
 It is an interesting fact that in the best manuscript of the 
 Twelve Dialogues, the Codex Ambrosianus C 90 (written about 
 the beginning of the eleventh century), of the Ambrosian library 
 in Milan, the Corisolatio ad Polybium is nearly all lacking. It was 
 originally included in this manuscript, as is shown by the index 
 prefixed to the folio which contains the dialogues, and by the fact 
 that about a page and a half of it, from the words magna dis- 
 crimina (chap. xvii. 2) to the end, are still there. The rest of the 
 leaves which contained the work have been torn out, we may 
 guess, by some monkish critic whose disapproval of Seneca's 
 flatteries was so violent that it had to be expressed in this way. 
 The first part of the dialogue was doubtless lost before this manu- 
 script was made. For the greater part of the existing text of it 
 we have to rely upon a group of later manuscripts, of which the 
 best is one at BerUn, of the fourteenth century. 
 
 Helviam Matrem, or the retrospective enthusiasm for the retirement 
 and uninterrupted philosophic speculation of his life in Corsica which 
 is put into his mouth in the Octavia, lines 381 seq. Yet it is by no 
 means inconceivable that the Consolation to Helvia may itself have been 
 published with some view to its effect upon Seneca's fortunes, though 
 it represents a totally different pose from that exhibited to Polybius. 
 
106 NOTES, CAP. I-II 
 
 I. In the general destructibility of all created things, it is absurd 
 and impertinent to complain that what is fated for the whole 
 world is not averted from one's own particular household. 
 
 1. The first sentence is incomplete. A beginning may easily 
 be supplied coniecturally; perhaps something like the following: 
 ^Quereris signa inania perenniora esse quam vitam nostram: si 
 eorum sortem) nostrae compares, firma sunt, e.q.s. Evidently 
 there has been a comparison, perhaps by way of complaint from 
 Polybius, to something which does not perish so quickly as our 
 human lives, and which furnishes Seneca his natural antithesis. 
 The use of the second person, with an occasional supposed in- 
 terruption (occupatio) from the person addressed, is characteristic 
 of Seneca's " dialogue" form. — redigas: the object is the word 
 to be supplied (e.g. signa or eorum sortem, as above) for that 
 with which our transitory human lot is contrasted. — omnia : 
 object of destruentis and revocantis. — Septem ilia miracula: the 
 familiar Seven Wonders of the World. — qua . . . mirabiliora : 
 object of exstruxit, the subject of which is annorum ambitio. At 
 the same time si qua is equivalent to quaecumque, whatever, and 
 with mirocwto, constitutes the subject of visentur. — soloaequata: 
 razed to the ground. — et (before desinil) : also. 
 
 2. Mundo . . . interitum: i.e. predict the final destruction of 
 the world. This was a Stoic doctrine. — et . . . dissipabit et . . . 
 demerget: i.e. so they say; note the shift in construction from 
 the oratio obliqua that would naturally come after minantur. 
 - — confusionem veterem : primeval chaos. — eat . . . et : i.e. let 
 some one, if he has the effrontery; cf. in English the colloquial 
 use of " goes and does it," etc. — Carthaginis . . . cinerem, stock 
 examples of particular disaster. — si quid : equivalent to quicquid, 
 whatever ; cf . si qua, above. — hoc quod non habet, etc. : i.e. the 
 world, which has no place to which it can fall. — tantum . . . 
 nefas ausura: going to commit such a dreadful deed as the destruc- 
 tion of the universe. 
 
 3. omnia: as before, object of revocantis, which agrees with 
 naturae. — ruinae : dative of separation depending upon svb- 
 trahat. — ipsi mundo : depending upon imminenti. 
 
 4. quod gravissimum fecerat: the antecedent is id, understood, 
 object of fecisse. — crudelitatem . . . aequalitas: note the care' 
 fully balanced order of the words. 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 107 
 
 n. Grief is of no practical use; yet so far as my own personal 
 unhappiness allows I will join you in a complaint to Fortune, who 
 has attacked you in your only vulnerable point. 
 
 1. Illud: i.e. si cogitaveris. — nihil prof uturum: a reflection of 
 the Stoic teaching that impulse should be controlled by reason. — 
 quicquid . . . superfuit, etc.: note the gentle hint of Seneca's 
 own situation. — tuae: sc. fortunae. — fletibus domesticis: with 
 tears for myself. Yet Seneca had told his mother {Consol. ad 
 Helv. XX.) to think of him in exile as laetum et alacrem velut 
 optimis rebus. 
 
 2. Quid cessas ? Why do you hesitate ? The word cesso was 
 particularly used of letting a case go by default in court. — om- 
 nium iudicio : in the opinion of every one. — Fortuna : vocative. — 
 eumhominem continuisse: to have preserved this man; i.e. Polybius. 
 
 — eSugeret invidiam : i.e. the jealousy of men ; but Fortune at least 
 was envious ; cf. §7. — salvo Caesare: abl. abs.; by a conventional 
 politeness which assumed that the death of Caesar would have been 
 an even greater sorrow. — bene . . . circuisses: had thoroughly 
 reconnoitred his character. — hac parte: i.e. on the side of his 
 fraternal affection. — patere : sc. ilium. 
 
 3. faceres: deliberative subjunctive; the tense shows that the 
 question was past and no longer offered a possibility. — illi ob- 
 noxius: dependent upon it. 
 
 4. expediat: impersonal. The friendship of the powerful freed- 
 men in Caesar's household was naturally much sought after. 
 
 5. ipsa: with te, i.e. Fortuna. — liberalibus disciplinis: note 
 the Stoic significance given to this expression, — training which 
 frees a man from bodily limitations. 
 
 6. spiritum: life. — meliore sui parte: i.e. in his immortal 
 thoughts. Cf. Martial, X. ii. 8 : Et meliore tui parte superstes eris. 
 
 — eloquentiae . . . operibus: of. chapters vlii. and xi. — quorum 
 se ingeniis vel contulit vel . . . adplicuit: to whose genius he has 
 made himself a rival or . . . has devoted himself; a reference to 
 his translations of Homer and Vergil. Cf. viii. 2 and xi. 5. 
 
 7. excogitasti, still addressing Fortune. The idea of the " envy 
 of the gods " (i (pBivoi Twv Bewy) is further developed in the 
 following, quo melior . . . hoc saepius. — f erre te . . . sine uUo 
 dilectu furentem : i.e. showing your cruelty without any discrimi- 
 
108 NOTES, CAP. II-VI 
 
 nation, ordinarQy. But in ttie present case Fortune had even 
 discriminated against her victim — inter ipsa beneficia metuen- 
 dam: Fortune, like the Greeks, is to be feared even when bring- 
 ing gifts. — Quantulum erat : how easy it would have been ! — 
 rations certa: with a definite plan, and evidently because he de- 
 served it; in contrast with iemere, following. 
 
 III. The loss is the more grievous because the dead brother's 
 character was so especially admirable. A renewed protest to For- 
 tune, who has made Polybius mourn even while he enjoys the 
 favor of Caesar. 
 
 1. Adiciamus: speaking once more directly to Polybius. — qui 
 ne ex indigno . . . fratre: i.e. on your account if not on his, 
 your brother ought to have been spared. 
 
 2. pietas: family affection. — idoneam . . . materiam: a suit- 
 able object. — fratrem ulli minatus : i.e. never threatened any one 
 with what his powerful "big brother" would do. — onus: so be- 
 cause it was hard for them to Uve up to your standard. 
 
 3. Parum . . . indignari: that I do not sufficiently express my 
 sense of the injustice. 
 
 i. turbam imminuere : to break up a family group. — in nullo 
 fratre degenerantem : a family without a "black sheep." — deli- 
 bare : to pick out one of them. 
 
 6. felicitatis . . . abstinentia: self-control in the presence of un^ 
 limited opportunity for self- aggrandizement. — de ipsis . . . solaciis 
 timet: having been reminded by the death of one brother that 
 the others also may be taken. — Luget . . . propitio . . . Caesare ! 
 The whole paragraph leads up to this exclamation. 
 
 IV. Again the futiUty of lamentation; men should at least do 
 sparingly what they have to do so often. 
 
 1. causa: i.e. by making out a good case. — inferis: to the 
 dead, like Polybius's brother.- — nobis: dative of advantage; we 
 might have expected ad with the accusative after reducet. 
 
 2. voto laborat suo: is in trouble with that which he had desired 
 to have. — vestibulum obsidens turba : particularly of the clients 
 who came' to greet their patron. 
 
 3. primum . . . fletum: i.e. the first thing they do. Some 
 texts have omen as an emendation for hominum. 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 109 
 
 V. Your grief, if your dead brother be aware of it, is no pleas- 
 ure to him. You should be an example of fortitude to your other 
 brothers. 
 
 1. lUud: of. ii. 1. 
 
 2. Neminem . . . qui delectetur : a high compliment to Polyb- 
 ius's character. — eum: sc. animum {quern nemo . . . gerit): Do 
 you think this is your brother's disposition? explained by the 
 clause in apposition, wt . . . velit abducere e.q.s. — cultum: respect- 
 ful attention. — desiderio . . . esse: to be " missed." 
 
 3. De alio fratre: an hypothetical one. — sive . . . sive: if 
 ...orif. — utrique . . . inhaerentem : belonging to, i.e. painful to, 
 both of you. — debet, velit : observe the significance of the change 
 of mood. — In hoc: sc. fratre. — conturbat idem et exhaurit: the 
 same thing {casus eius) causes to fill with tears and shed them. 
 
 4. nihil aeque . . . quam si : nothing so much . . . asif. — rebus ad- 
 fectis: when their affairs are at a low ebb. — de industria: carefully. 
 
 VI. Your conspicuous position and high responsibilities must 
 prevent yielding to your private grief. 
 
 1. ilia res: i.e. si renuntiaveris. — subduci: be concealed. — 
 Magnam . . . personam : an important part to play. — utrumne : 
 see G.L. 458, n. 1., and 460, 2, n. 3, on this double interrogative 
 particle ; the usage is almost exclusively post-Ciceronian. — rebus 
 secundis uti dextere : to enact gracefully the rdle of prosperity. 
 
 2. arma . . . steteris: a metaphor from the gladiatorial ring. 
 — Olim : i.e. when you were promoted to your present position. 
 
 3. Non idem . . quod: i.e. not the same free expression of 
 your grief. — Si volebas : a simple past condition. — ne conver- 
 tisses: hortatory subjunctive, past, contrary to fact: you should 
 not have turned. — tantum . . . praestandum est, quantum, etc., 
 i.e. you must "make good." — cum fortuna tua opus non sit, 
 ingenio opus est: a compliment implying that Polybius's personal 
 qualities were more important to his admirers than his position and 
 power. — custodes j^nimi tui : i.e. their admiration set a standard 
 to which Polybius must live up. 
 
 4. adsidua laboriosi officii statione: by constant standing at the 
 post of arduous duty. — licent : the plural of licet is unusual; 
 Seneca uses it in nearly the same way in the De Clem. I. viii. 2, 
 
110 NOTES, CAP. VI-IX 
 
 and elsewhere. — in angulo iacentibus: contrast "A city that is 
 set on a hill cannot be hid." 
 
 5. arbitrio tuo : contrast ex tuo arbitrio, above. — libelli : peti- 
 tions. The officer charged with receiving them was described as 
 o KbelUs. — congestus . . . exigendus est : the accumulation must 
 be examined, weighed, i.e. reduced to order; with exigo in this 
 sense, cf . the colloquial " knock into shape." — periclitantitmi : of 
 those whose interests (or lives) are at stake. — mitissimi Caesaris : 
 evidently a part of Seneca's own appeal. ■ — siccare: sc. possis. 
 
 VII. The thought of Caesar and his example and your duty to 
 him is the greatest stimulus of all. 
 
 1. Haec : the considerations already given. — cum voles . . . 
 oblivisci, Caesarem cogita: his service being so important a reason 
 as to supersede all others in your mind. But there may be a 
 covert gibe at the notorious forgetfulness of Claudius; cf. xiv. 1; 
 also Apoc. xi. 1, and note. — indulgentiae : dative.- — incurvari; 
 to bend (under the burden) ; subject of licere. — illi : explained by 
 the relative, cuius umeris, etc.; evidently Atlas, though Seneca 
 seems to regard the myth as a doubtful one (si quis . . . est). 
 
 2. licent: cf. vi. 4. — illius vigilia, etc.: note Seneca's concep- 
 tion of the imperial responsibility. — Ex quo: sc. tempore; equiva- 
 lent to a temporal conjunction. — sibi : dative of separation; see 
 G.L. 345, REM. 1; B. 188, 2, d; A.G. 381; H.B. 371. — (quic- 
 quam) suum : i.e. sua arbitrio. 
 
 3. tibi . . . iniungitur : is enjoined upon you. — Caesare . . . 
 possidente: equiv. to a temporal clause with dum. 
 
 4. Adice . . . quod . . . non est: on this use of the substan- 
 tive clause with quod, instead of the accus. and infin. construc- 
 tion (of which in vulgar and late Latin it gradually took the 
 place, even after verbs of saying), see G.L. 525. 1, and n. 7; 
 B. 299. 1. 6; A.G. 572; H.B. 552. 1. — cum . . . praedices: 
 causal subjunctive. — salvo Caesare, hoc incolumi, hoc salvo : cf. 
 ii. 2. — Quod . . . abest: relative referring to the clause, parum 
 gratus es. — quicquam : object of flere. 
 
 VIII. Your most convenient antidote for sorrow, when you 
 are not engaged with Caesar, will be in your literary work. 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 111 
 
 1. numen: i.e. Caesar. — ^illa: tristitia. 
 
 2. non est quod: lit. there is no reason why. — patiaris: sub- 
 junctive of characteristic. — antistitem : as Horace called himself 
 "priest of the Muses" {Carm. Ill 1, 3). — vindicent: as in the 
 familiar legal phrase, vindicare in libertatem, to liberate. — Homerus 
 et Vergilius, whom Polybius apparently had translated, the one 
 into Latin, the other into Greek. Cf. xi. 5. — • pluribus notes, etc. : 
 known to more than they had written for. — opera : res gestas. — 
 domestico . . . praeconio: i.e. by a "press bureau" in his own 
 household. — materiam : especially his expeditions to Germany 
 and Britain. — exemplum: Claudius's own literary work; par- 
 ticularly his histories; cf. Apoc. v. 4, and note. 
 
 3. Aesopeos logos: note the Latinized Greek word. Aesop's 
 Fables were adapted into Latin by Phaedrus, who flourished 
 under Tiberius, so that the author's reference to such a work as 
 an intemptatum . . . opiis has given the critics difficulty. Ap- 
 parently Seneca was ignorant of Phaedrus, or ignored him to 
 compliment Polybius, who had shown a taste for this sort of 
 adaptation. — hilariora studia: i.e. of light literature. — habeto: 
 observe the force of the tense. — conroborati eius: sc. animi. — 
 solutiora: more jovial. 
 
 4. In illis: i.e. severiorihus scriptis. — avocabit, etc.: the very 
 sternness of the subjects which it treats will distract the mind {eum) 
 however morbid and reluctant it still is. — haec : object of feret. — 
 sibi . . . constiterit: it has been restored to equanimity. 
 
 IX. Mourning, if on your brother's account, is needless, since 
 he is now either free from all sense of loss or else is actually happier 
 than when on earth. 
 
 1. meo nomine : on my own account. — perit indulgentiae iacta- 
 tio: the display of tender feeling is lost, i.e. is not real. — incipit: 
 with complementary infin. desciscere, modified by cum . . . re- 
 spidt. — hoc uno excusatus, etc. : is a generalization. — a pietate 
 desciscere : i.e. ceases to be a matter of dutiful affection. — nihil, 
 ponere : subjects of convenit. — calculos ponere : to set counters 
 (on a counting board), i.e. to make a calculation of profit and 
 loss in mourning for a brother. 
 
 2. altenitrum . . . iudicem: that I should choose one of these 
 alternative views. Is Seneca's logic satisfactory? 
 
112 NOTES, CAP. IX-XI 
 
 3. ex diutino carcere: death is still often spoken of as a "re- 
 lease." — eius : objective genitive. — beatuin, nullum : equivalent 
 to conditional clauses modifying the object of deflere. 
 
 4. ingentibus . . . caruisse: to have been deprived of great 
 blessings, and at u, time when they were especially available. — 
 
 -alienis processibus: to other men's successes.- — -cite . . . trans- 
 f erentis : who quickly shifts her favors. 
 
 5. gratia: in/fwerece in the palace; abl. — obstupescit: is over- 
 whelmed with admiration. — et premunt : they also overburden. — 
 ut nihil . . . timeatur: concessive. 
 
 6. credere . . . intuentibus: trust to those who look more pro- 
 foundly into the truth. — proiecti : agreeing with the subject of 
 consistimus, pendemus, etc. — mare : the sea of life. — allevans, 
 deferens, and iactans: modify mare. — timemus: sc. naufra- 
 gium. 
 
 7. superstitem . . . habet: it was a common wish not to see 
 the death of one's family or dearest friends, but to have them 
 survive one; e.g. Ter. And. 487: Deos quaeso id sit superstes. — 
 munera plena manu congerentem : and heaping her favors (upon 
 him) with generous hand. Cf. Apoc. iv. 2, and Ep. 33. 6, plena 
 manu. — reliquit: sc. f rater tuus. 
 
 8. ex humili atque depresso: sc. loco; i.e. this world. — ille: 
 locus. — beato . sinu: cf. "Abraham's bosom." — omnia 
 rerum naturae bona . . . perspicit, the Stoic beatitude. 
 
 9. illo . . . iter: the way thither. — Non . . . sed antecessit: 
 "not lost but gone before." 
 
 X. You should be grateful that Nature has given you such a 
 brother rather than resentful that she has taken him away. 
 
 1. lUud: (explained by the relative clause, the fact that you 
 are of such a just character in all things) is the subject of adiuvet. 
 {Ut} illud . . . adiuvet is the subject of necesse est. 
 
 2. danti non relinquit: does not leave to the giver. — quod reddi- 
 dit: what he has had to return. Recall Job's acquiescence, "The 
 Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away: blessed be the name 
 of the Lord" (Job i. 21); cf. Hor. Carm. iii. 29, 54, resigno quae 
 dedit, etc. — non: with both adquiesdt and twdtcot. — in prae- 
 teritis: sc. bonis. 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 113 
 
 3. habuisse . . . pro nihilo ducit: reckons the having had them 
 as of no value. 
 
 4. Quod habuisti: an object clause. — Non est quod cogites: 
 you should not think. Cf. the French, il n'y a pas de quoi, etc., 
 and viii. 2, non est quod . . . patiaris. — mancipio: cf. Ep. 72. 7, 
 nihil dat Fortuna mancipio, Fortune gives nothing as a permanent 
 possession. — commodavit : has lent, as we say, "accommodated." 
 — cum visum est : when it seemed {best) . — repetit : perfect tense. 
 
 5. solvisse se moleste ferat: should be angry that he has had to 
 pay. — quae: i.e. natura. — non ilia . . . sed . . . spes avida 
 ... in culpa est : is at fault. 
 
 6. boni consule: cf. the colloquial expression, count it "all to 
 the good." — quod habuisti: subject of esse. — inter se consen- 
 taneum: consistent. — sibi . . . contigerit: has belonged to him. 
 
 XI. You cannot say that your brother was taken away without 
 warning, when the world is full of warnings that hfe is given only 
 to be taken away. 
 
 1. inopinanti: sc. mihi, inquis. — in eis: in the case of those 
 objects. — mortalitatis : obj. gen. — necessitatis suae gratiam: 
 exemption from her rule. — aliud agimus: i.e. we pay no atten- 
 tion. — rerum omnium: vid. G.L. 374; B. 204, 1; A.G. 349, a; 
 H.B. 347. — precario: adverb; by the favor of another (from 
 precor), and hence, on uncertain terms. 
 
 2. Ego cum genui, etc. : the line is adapted from Ennius's 
 tragedy of Telamon and refers to the dead Ajax, Telamon's son. 
 Cf. Vahlen, Ennius, Poes. Rel., p. 177, Tel. frag. ii. Cicero quotes 
 the line in his Tusculan Disp. III. 13, 28. The story, however, 
 is a common one, the saying with minor variations being ascribed 
 to various persons, a Spartan mother (Clc. Tusc. I. 42, 102), 
 Anaxagoras (ib. III. 24, 58, and Valer. Max. V. 10),Xenophon 
 (Diog. Laert. II. 6, 10). — mireris: potential subjunctive. — qui 
 . . . posset: a clause of characteristic, the antecedent being the 
 understood subject of natum esse; hoc refers to the father. — quid 
 . . . novi : i.e. it is not surprising. 
 
 3. rem: o saying. — et huic rei: i.e. for death; the words are 
 a part of the verse from Ennius. — sustuli, referring to the cus- 
 tom by which a Roman father, in lifting his new-born child 
 
114 NOTES, CAP. XI-XIII 
 
 up in his arms, accepted it as his and assumed the obligation 
 of rearing it. — cum reposcemur : when we are asked (for it) 
 again. 
 
 4. consulatibus, . . . triumphis: causal ablatives with con- 
 spicuos. — defunctos : .sc. esse; the predicate. — alio . . . atque alio 
 tempore: one at one time, another at another. Cf. the familiar 
 passage in Horace, Carm. II. 3, 25: omnes eodem cogimur, etc. 
 
 5. utriuslibet auctoris carmina : i.e. the poems of either Homer 
 or Vergil; cf. viii. 2, and note. 
 
 6. Ne commiseris ut : do not act in such a way that. — exem- 
 plaris modo: as a model. 
 
 XII. Turn from your grief to the consolations that are left to 
 you, especially to the Emperor, the very sight of whom will be a 
 protection against unhappiness. 
 
 1. hac tecum . . . decidit: Fortune has come to terms with you 
 in this particular; i.e. has taken one brother and thereby indi- 
 cated her intention of leaving you the others. — plus . . . valere : 
 to count for more. 
 
 2. istos . . . perculsos: the members of Polybius's family, 
 grief -smitten as well as he. — ■ quanto . . . tanto : the doctrine of 
 noblesse oblige. 
 
 3. Non desinam, etc.: here it begins to be "laid on with a 
 trowel," but with infinite care. — totiens: as often as you renew 
 your grief. — melius beneficiis : a hint, doubtless, that a kindness 
 directed toward Corsica would be well received. — numinis: the 
 imperial consecratio began thus, informally, before the Emperor's 
 death; cf. viii. 1. 
 
 4. Ut . . . fecerit: concessive. 
 
 5. terris diu commodent: long lend him to the world; compare 
 with these sentiments Apoc. iii. — annos vincat, etc.: cf. the 
 modern form, vive I'empereur. — nihil ex dome sua, etc.: essen- 
 tially the same sentiment which appears in superstitem habet, 
 ix. 7. Oddly enough it amounts to the wish that Caesar may be 
 the first of his family to die; but it was a familiar Roman prefer- 
 ence. — flliimi longa fide adprobet: i.e. have a long opportunity 
 to prove his son's fitness to succeed him; at this time Britannicus, 
 of course, is meant. — ante : with quam. — Sera . . . dies . . . 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 115 
 
 qua <sc. die) ilium gens sua caelo adserat: late . . . be the day, 
 on which his kindred (Divus lulius and Divus Augustus) claim 
 him for heaven. The assonance of sera and adserat at the be- 
 ginning and end is perhaps intentional, and with nepotibics nostris 
 balanced against gens sua makes a whimsical sort of chiasmus. 
 Cf. Horace's wish for Augustus {Carm. I. 2, 45), serris in caelum 
 redeas; cf. also me . . . adsere caelo, Ov. Met. I. 761. As to 
 Augustus's reception of Claudius in heaven, cf. Afoc. x.-xi. 
 
 Xm. A prayer for the Emperor, and hopes of his clemency. 
 
 1. nee . . . ostenderis: nee for neve with the prohibitive 
 subjunctive; cf. G.L. 260; H.B. 464. 1, 5. — nisi ea parte qua 
 prodes: except in the way of favoring him. — adfecto: suffering. — 
 quicquid . . . concussit: object of restituere, etc. — prioris prin- 
 cipis furor: i.e. of Gaius (Caligula). — Sidus hoc: i.e. Claudius. — 
 praecipitato . . . orbi: dativus commodi, with refulsit; cf. Apoc. 
 iv. 1, line 27. 
 
 2. Germaniam: the German tribes, the Chatti and the Marsi, 
 were defeated by Claudius's generals in the first year of his reign. — 
 Britanniam: Claudius's conquest of southern Britain was already 
 in progress, but was not yet completed. — patrios triumphos 
 ducat: let him lead captive in triumph the nations over whom his 
 ancestors also triumphed. — me quoque spectatorem f uturum : 
 evidently the vital point of the whole passage. — dementia: 
 it is at least to be noted to Seneca's credit that he laid no less 
 stress on clemency later when he himself was high in imperial 
 favor. — Nee . . . sie . . . deiecit, ut nollet erigere : i.e. he has 
 not necessarily condemned me for life. — impulsum, eadentem, 
 euntem: sc. me, object of sustinuit and deposuit. He "let me 
 down easily." — usus: participle governing moderations. — 
 deprecatus est pro me senatum: apparently Claudius in sending 
 Seneca to Corsica mitigated some severer penalty which the 
 senate had passed upon him. But there is no other authority 
 for the statement. — petit: petiit. 
 
 3. utrumque in aequo . . . beneflcium: either solution will he 
 equally his kindness. — eum : causal. — angulo : corner of the 
 earth, i.e. Corsica. — complures . . . ruina obrutos : many who 
 were long buried in exile. — ego . . . ne . . . erubeseat: i.e. I 
 
116 NOTES, CAP. XIII-XV 
 
 will behave in such a manner that when he comes to the time for 
 pardoning me, he can do so without any compunctions of con- 
 science. 
 
 4. ad . . . conspectum pavent, lest the coming ship might 
 bring news of a new punishment worse than mere exile. — ut . . . 
 ita : correlatives, connecting the objects of habent. — f ulmina . . . 
 iustissima: we cannot take this as a confession of personal guilt 
 on Seneca's part, but it marks about the lowest point in his present 
 self-abasement; vid. p. xii. — percussi: those whom the lightning 
 has struck, i.e. people who are suffering punishments. 
 
 XIV. Caesar will have already consoled you with instances of 
 nobly borne bereavement in Roman history. 
 
 1. aut . . . aut: i.e. if I am not altogether mistaken. — 
 omnia exempla: turning now to history, as in xi. 5 he had referred 
 to the illustrations in Mterature. — animi aequitatem : equanimity. 
 — tenacissima memoria: in allusion to Claudius's historical tastes' 
 doubtless ironically also, since Claudius was ridiculously forgetful; 
 of. vii. 1, and the instance alluded to in Apoc.xi. 1. — adsueta . . . 
 facundia: there is doubtless irony in this too, although Claudius 
 was not without oratorical ability on a, set occasion (Tac. Ann. 
 XIII. 3 and Suet. Claud. 4). Cf . Apoc. v. 2, and note, on Claudius' .« 
 stammering tongue. 
 
 2. aliud . . . pondus verba: words will have an especial weight. 
 ■ — non te solum, etc. . Caesar speaks. — ^adfastos . . . etannales: 
 presumably the Fasti Consulares, of which some existing fragments 
 are known as Fasti Capitolini, inscriptions which recorded the 
 chief magistrates of the successive years, and the Annales Maximi, 
 records of the chief events of each year, posted in early times by 
 the Pontifex Maximus. 
 
 3. imagines: the portrait masks, often of wax, which hung in 
 the atrium of a great house and represented the ancestors of the 
 family. — Nulla non : every one. — in ornamentum saeculorum : 
 after refulgentibus. 
 
 4. Scipionem Africanum cui mors . . . nuntiata est: the 
 accounts of this time, however, are conflicting. According to 
 Livy (XXXVIII. 53-54) the conqueror of Hannibal died in his 
 voluntary exile at Liternum some time before the death of his 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 117 
 
 brother, L. Scipio Asiaticus. — eripuit fratrem carceri : When 
 L. Scipio, by command of one of the tribunes, was being taken to 
 prison until he should pay the fine imposed upon him for the 
 alleged misappropriation of money received from Antiochus, 
 P. Scipio Africanus by force rescued his brother from the hands 
 of the tribune's officer (viatoris manibus) and presently another 
 tribune, Tiberius Gracchus (the elder) intervened to free L. Scipio 
 from the sentence of imprisonment. — carceri . . . fato : datives 
 of separation. — impatiens iuris aequi, etc. : according to one 
 account, when L. Scipio, at the command of two tribunes, the 
 brothers Petilii (187 B.C.), had prepared his accounting of the 
 money he had received in Asia, PubUus Scipio in the presence of 
 the senate seized the document from his brother's hands and tore 
 it in pieces, his fraternal regard (pietas) not enduring that the 
 conqueror of Antiochus should have to stand trial as a criminal. — 
 viatoris : i.e. apparitoris. — tribune . . . intercessit : interfered 
 with the acts of a tribune, i.e. resisted an officer of the law. — 
 Tain magno . . . quam: cf. tanto . . . quanta, below. 
 
 5. Aemilianum Scipionem: son of Aemilius Paulus the con- 
 queror of Macedon, but adopted by a son of Scipio Africanus the 
 elder. His two younger brothers died within a short time of each 
 other, at the time of their father's triumph. — tanto animo . . . 
 quanto : with just as much courage . . . as. — familiae . . . 
 vastitatem : desolation of the household, perishing in the very time 
 of triumph. — in hoc natus : born for this destiny. — Scipio : o 
 Scipio, some representative of the family in time of need. Scipio 
 Aemilianus destroyed Carthage, 146 B.C. 
 
 XV. Further examples, especially in the imperial family, of 
 men who did not yield to the sorrow of bereavement. 
 
 1. duorum Lucullorum . . . concordiam: Lucius Licinius Lu- 
 cullus, the victor over Mithridates, and his brother Marcus, 
 friends of the poet Archias. — Pompeios : the three most famous 
 bearers of the name are meant, Cn. Pompeius Magnus, the trium- 
 vir, and his two sons, Gnaeus and Sextus. — ut . . . conciderent : 
 in apposition with hoc. — sorori superstes cuius morte . . . reso- 
 luta sunt : the death of Sextus Pompey's stepmother, Julia, Caesar's 
 daughter, did help to break up the first Triumvirate. Nothing 
 
118 NOTES, CAP. XV-XVi 
 
 of the kind is recorded of Sextus's sister. His daughter was en- 
 gaged in marriage to Octavius's nephew, Marcellus, while Sextus 
 was negotiating with the members of the second Triumvirate; 
 but the breaking off of the negotiations could scarcely have been 
 caused by her death, for she is said later to have been married to 
 another man, Scribonius Libo. — superstes optimo fratri : Sex- 
 tus's brother Gnaeus was killed at Munda, while they were pro- 
 longing the resistance to Julius Caesar after their father's death. — 
 in hoc: explained by the following clause. — ne minus alte, etc.: 
 another evident reflection of the doctrine of the envy of Fortune; 
 of. ii. 7. — sed etiam bello suff ecit : Sextus Pompey was defeated 
 in a naval battle by Agrippa (36 b.c.) and was killed by some of 
 Antony's lieutenants within the next year. 
 
 2. succurrunt: occur to me. — paria: substantive. — nostrae 
 domus ezemplis : with instances from my own family history. — 
 Fortunam . . . quam sciet . . . concupisse: the Fortune which 
 he knows (fut.) to have desired the tears of the Caesars, again in allu- 
 sion to the divine envy. 
 
 3. Octaviam sororem: Augustus lost his sister 11 b.c. and 
 delivered a funeral oration in her honor. Her own obstinate 
 refusal to be comforted after the death of her son Marcellus, 
 Seneca records in the Consol. ad Marciam, ii. — ei: dative of 
 separation. — rerum natura: in the place of Fortuna. — cui 
 caelum destinaverat : i.e. by way of apotheosis. — sororis filium: 
 Marcellus; cf. Verg. Aen. VI. 860 seq. — generos: Marcellus and 
 afterward M. Agrippa. — liberos : i.e. his stepson, Drusus, and the 
 two grandsons presently mentioned, whom he adopted. Augustus 
 had no children of his own but JuUa, who died after he did. — 
 nepotes: C. and L. Caesar; see below. — dum inter homines 
 erat: i.e. before his deification. 
 
 4. Gaius Caesar : not the Emperor Caligula, but the son of 
 M. Agrippa and Augustus's daughter Julia. Both he and his 
 brother Lucius were adopted by their grandfather Augustus; and 
 among their early honors the title of Princeps luventutis was 
 conferred upon them by the knights. Lucius died a. d. 2; Gaius 
 about a year and a half later. — volnere . . . corporis : the wound 
 was given by treachery in Armenia, and Gaius died soon after. — 
 quod utrumque : both wounds, of mind and of body. 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 119 
 
 5. Ti. Caesar: the Emperor Tiberius. — Drusum Germanicum; 
 Nero Claudius Drusus, the younger brother of Tiberius, and step- 
 son of Augustus, was the father of the emperor Claudius. His 
 death, 9 b.c, at the age of 30, was the result of a fall from his 
 horse. The name " Germanicus " was given him after his death. 
 — intima Germaniae recludentem : Drusus had defeated the Rhae- 
 tians and the Vindelioi. — modum . . . lugendi: according to 
 Suetonius {Tib. 7) Tiberius attended his brother's body aU the 
 way on foot from Germany to Rome. — corpus: object of vin- 
 dicantem. — Drusi sui : the possessive shows the affectionate insist- 
 ence of the soldiers. — ad morem Romani luctus : the restrained 
 and dignified mourning that was according to Roman tradition. 
 
 XVI. Concluding examples of mourning in the Emperor's 
 family. Fortune is obdurate, but let us pray that she will make 
 an exception in Claudius's favor. 
 
 1. M. Antonius: the Triumvir. Antonia, his daughter by 
 Octavia, was the mother of Claudius. — eo : i.e. Octavius. — 
 fratrem interf ectum : C. Antonius, after his capture by Brutus in 
 Macedonia. 
 
 2. impotens: wanton. — quales . . . tibi ipsa ludos f acis : what 
 sport you make for yourself! — lugere: substantive infin. ; this 
 was his mourning, to make a sacrifice to his brothers' ' manes ' with 
 the blood of twenty legions; parentare is in apposition with hoc. 
 
 3. ut . . . taceam: to say nothing about. — bis . . . fraterno 
 luctu: once for Germanicus; the other time for his sister Livilla. — 
 pii : affectionate. 
 
 4. parentem publicum: a suggestion of Seneca's ideal emperor. 
 • — Fortunae: dative. — ex eis penatibus, etc.: from that house- 
 hold which contains men destined to be deified. — ab ilia : i.e. 
 Fortuna. — potest enim . . . pulvinaria : can she whose insatiate 
 cruelty has so often brought mourning to the very seats of the gods 
 have any idea of fairness or kindness toward ordinary households? 
 
 5. Faciamus licet, etc. : although we make our reproaches to her 
 not personally but as a nation. — se . . . exiget ; she will go ahead, 
 i.e. do as she pleases. — Hoc fuit . . . Fortuna : such Fortune has 
 been. — ■ domos ... in quas per templa aditur : even daring to 
 enter those houses into which the entrance is through temples. The 
 
120 NOTES, CAP. XVI-XVIII 
 
 imperial family was descended from men who were already wor- 
 shipped as divine; perhaps Seneca had particularly in mind also 
 the temple of Augustus which flanked the palace of the Caesars on 
 the Palatine, and from beside which a stairway led directly up to 
 it. — atram . . vestem : the sign of mourning. — laureatis, 
 referring to the constant decoration of the palace entrance. 
 
 6. Hoc unum : this one concession, explained by the following, 
 hunc principem . . . velit. Seneca turns aside from the conclu- 
 sion to which the logic of his argument would have led him, and 
 makes an exception. — si nondum illi . . . placuit : if she has not 
 yet resolved. — lapsis hominum rebus datum : who has been granted 
 (for relief) to the fallen estate of mankind. Cf. the prophecy for 
 Nero in the Apoc. iv. l,line 23, felicia lassis saecula praestabit. — 
 sicut omnibus . . . sibi, etc. : i.e. may she regard him as all 
 mankind do. 
 
 XVII. Follow the example of these consecrated great ones of 
 the past, who did not disdain the common lot; Caligula's example 
 in grief is to be avoided. 
 
 1. projdmos: kindred of the deified ones. — -per quos: by 
 whose names. — in quantum mode . . . vestigia : so far as it is 
 permissible for a man to follow in divine footsteps. 
 
 2. in medio posita: i.e. accessible to every one. ^ — Optime . . . 
 imitaberis: i.e. you cannot do better. — cum . . . possent: 
 concessive. — ipsos: instead of se. — exsortes: exempt. — se . . . 
 exaequari: subject of non esse iniuriam sed ius. 
 
 3. hunc : i.e. Caligula. — a quo : depending on aductum and 
 eversum. — adustum : wasted; Mt. burned up. — principis mitis- 
 simi: i.e. of course, Claudius. 
 
 4. C. Caesar . . . Drusilla: Cahgula's unseemly mourning for 
 Drusilla was notorious. Her alleged apotheosis is referred to in 
 Apoc. i. 3. — principaliter : in a manner worthy of a prince. — 
 iusta . . . praestitit: i.e. he did not show her memory proper 
 respect. — inAlbanosuo: sc. f undo. — elevabat mala: he tried to 
 alleviate the sorrows. 
 
 5. furiosa inconstantia: with wild caprice. — mode . . . sum- 
 mittens mode . . pennetiens: sometimes showing his grief by 
 letting his hair and beard grow uncut and sometimes by making 
 
AD POLYBIUM DE CONSOLATIONE 121 
 
 frenzied journeys; both of these manifestations are mentioned by 
 Suetonius {Calig. 24). — lugeri ... an coli: mourned as a 
 human being or worshipped as a deity. — pulvinaria : couches for 
 the divinity; equivalent in general to altars or shrines. — eadem 
 enim intemperie, etc. : for he bore the blows of adversity with the 
 same extravagance of disposition with which when elated by pros- 
 perity he was puffed up beyond all human decency. 
 
 6. exemplum : explained by sevocare, inritare, and oblectare. — 
 luctum : the object of all three infinitives. — alienis malis : other 
 men' s sufferings, i.e. of the men whom he tortured for not looking 
 sorry enough. 
 
 XV 111. Seek comfort in your favorite literary studies and make 
 them an expression of love to your brother's memory. Keep your 
 sorrow within reasonable bounds; make the recollection of your 
 brother a pleasure rather than a pain; and if my consolations are 
 inadequat&i remember the Umitations of my unhappy situation. 
 
 1. studia, quae: a testimony recalling Cicero's famous one in 
 the oration for Archias, haec studia . . . secundas res ornant, 
 adversis perfugium ac soladum praebent, etc. 
 
 2. aliquo scriptorum monimento: presumably this refers to a 
 memoir of his brother; possibly, however, he merely means the 
 dedication of some literary work to his memory. Perhaps also 
 a play may be intended on the resemblance of the words moni- 
 mentum and munimentum just before. — cui nulla . . . vetustas: 
 cf. Horace, Carm. III. 30, 1, monumentum acre perennius, etc. — 
 non propagant longam diem : do not secure a long remembrance. — 
 intereunt: cf. i. 1. — melius . . . consecrabis: it will be better 
 for you to immortalize, etc. 
 
 3. Quod ad ipsam Fortunam pertinet : as to Fortune herself. — 
 etiamsi nunc, etc. : even if her cause cannot now be pleaded with 
 you; i.e. you are in no mood to judge her fairly. — ob hoc ipsum, 
 quod : on account of the very fact that. — erit agenda : sc. causa. — 
 dies : the lapse of time. 
 
 4. noli adesse : in the technical sense of appearing as the patronus 
 or defender in court ; do not encourage your grief. — parva . . . 
 adprobare pro magnis: like the sophists' trick of making the 
 worse appear the better reason, confusing the relative importance 
 
122 NOTES, CAP. XVIII 
 
 of things great and small. — alio : adverb. — servet : sc. eloquentia 
 tua. — hoc . . . ipsum : i.e. the business of consolation. — aliquid : 
 i.e. a certain amount of grief. — vanitate : sentimentalism. In 
 Ep. 63, Seneca begins thus a, consolation to Lucilius upon the 
 death of a friend : Moleste fero discessisse Flaccum amicum tuum, 
 plus tamen aequo dolere te nolo. 
 
 6. ex toto: at all. — quosdam . . . viros: evidently "Hard- 
 shell" or "Middle-of-the-road" Stoics. — sapientem: the Stoic 
 ideal. 
 
 6. Satis praestiterit ratio, etc. : reason will have done enough if 
 only she removes from grief that which, etc. — ut . . . patiatur : 
 that it (reason) should not permit any (grief) to exist at all; a sub- 
 ject clause. — servet: the subject is still ratio. — piae mentis 
 . . . nee motae: of a mind that is affectionate without being un- 
 balanced. 
 
 7. ut frequenter . . . velis, etc. : with this has been compared 
 the strikingly similar sentiment in the last chapter of Tacitus's 
 Agricola: Idflliae quoque uxorique praeceperim, sicpatris, sicmariti 
 memoriam venerari, ut omnia facta dictaque eius secum revolvant, etc. 
 ■ — quod . . . poteris : relative, referring to the preceding clauses, 
 which are the objects of effice. 
 
 8. modestiam eius : i.e. fratris tui. — tuto : with possibly a 
 shade of irony in the adverb; flattering prophecies could at least 
 now never be discredited. 
 
 9. longo iam situ . . . animo : with a mind exhausted and dulled 
 by long rusting (in exile); a parting appeal from the pathos of 
 Seneca's own situation. — parum respondere ingenio, etc.: as 
 Seneca said earlier (ill. 3), nihil est diffidlius quam magno dolori 
 paria verba reperire. — quam non possit is . . . tenant : how he 
 who is kept full of his own troubles cannot be free for the consolation 
 of another. — Latina . . . verba succurrant : Latin words . . . 
 suggest themselves. Ovid under similar conditions complains that 
 he has forgotten the Latin tongue in learning that of the bar- 
 barians among whom he lived (Tristia, V. El. xii. 57). — barbaiis 
 .... gravis : distressing even to barbarians, of a less uncouth sort. 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 
 
 The Menippean satire^ on the apotheosis of Claudius is found 
 in most of its manuscripts and in the early editions under the not 
 very exact title, Ludus de Morte Claudii Caesaris. In the best 
 manuscript, that of Saint Gall {Codex Sangallensis, 569), it is 
 called Divi Claudii Apotheosis Annaei Senecae per saturam. The 
 title by which it is now generally known, we owe to an allusion by 
 the Greek historian, Dio Cassius. 
 
 Dio says (LX. 35): "After Claudius's murder, Agrippina 
 and Nero pretended to mourn, and sent up to heaven him 
 whom they had carried out from dinner. This was the occasion 
 of a very clever witticism by L. Junius Gallio, Seneca's brother. 
 Seneca had composed a piece named ' A.iroKo\oKivTa<ri% after the 
 analogy of 6,ira8avi,Tuni, but his brother expressed a great deal in 
 a very few words. Recalling how the bodies of those who are 
 executed in prison are dragged off by the executioners, with 
 great hooks, to the Forum and thence to the river, he said 
 Claudius had been dragged up to heaven with a hook. Nero's 
 joke,^ too, is worth recording. He said that mushrooms (/uii/cijTes, 
 boleti) must be food for the gods, since by eating them Claudius 
 was made a god." 
 
 The burlesque word Apocolocyntosis, on the analogy of "apothe- 
 osis," may be likened to " pumpkinification " on that of "deifica^ 
 tion." The KoKoKim-r) (Latin, cucurbita) was a species of gourd 
 which seems to have stood for a type and symbol of stupidity 
 among the ancients, as the cabbage head ' is with us. The fact 
 that in the satire as we have it there is no question of turning 
 Claudius into such a vegetable, is an evident difBculty in identify- 
 ing this piece with the one mentioned by Dio; and a few critics 
 
 ' See Introd. p. xxxi. 
 z Cf. Suet. Nero, 33. 
 
 3 Compare the similar French colloquial xise of the word poire, 
 123 
 
124 NOTES 
 
 have chosen to explain the word Apocolocyntosis differently, as a 
 reference to a drug by which Claudius met his death, taking it 
 to suggest the consequences of a dose of colocynth (koXokukWs; 
 Lat. colocynthis; Fr. coloquinte). One or two symptoms which 
 are recorded of Claudius's dying hours tend to support this view,' 
 but the other interpretation of the title is the more generally 
 accepted. It is possible, however, that Dio's tradition is inaccu- 
 rate, and that an allusion to the pumpkin head which he asso- 
 ciates with Seneca's satire really belonged to something else, or 
 was, perhaps, a mere conversational epithet. There is a possi- 
 bility also that the missing reference to the vegetable, which would 
 explain Dio's title, was to be found at the end of the satire, which 
 on account of the abruptness of the present conclusion some 
 critics have thought to be lost, or in the undoubted lacuna before 
 the eighth chapter, though it is by no means evident how the 
 Ko\oKivTii could have been brought plausibly in; or else we may 
 assume that the name, " ImmortaUzation as a Pumpkin Head," 
 was intended simply to have a suggestive apphcation to the whole 
 subject, like the titles of some modern novels. The piece appears 
 to have been hastily written, in view of some minor discrepancies 
 noted later. 
 
 The chief authorities for the hfe of Claudius are Suetonius 
 {Vita Divi Claudii), Tacitus {Annales, Books XI.-XII.), and Dio 
 Cassius (Book LX.). Claudius was the brother of Germanicus 
 and hence the uncle of Gains (Caligula), his predecessor. He had 
 been an unhealthy, awkward boy, kept in the background all his 
 early life by the heads of the family, amusing himself by dabbling 
 in scholarship and other less creditable pastimes, when at the 
 age of fifty, almost by accident, he was brought to the throne 
 left vacant by Caligula's assassination. His reign of thirteen years 
 was not without its merits. He was inclined to be conscientious 
 and painstaking. But in many ways he was inept and eccentric,^ 
 
 ' Suet. Claud. 44: excntcuitumque doloribus tola node; cf. Tac. Ann, 
 XII. 67, and Apoc. iv. 3. 
 
 ^ In two other places besides the Consolatio ad Polybium Seneca makes 
 brief references to Claudius's character, both of them quite consistent 
 with the aspect of which the A-pocolocyntosis shows a caricature. One is 
 in the De Clemenfia (I. xxiii. 1, q.v.), criticising the pedantic legaUsm of 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 125 
 
 and he was notoriously under the domination of his freedmen and 
 his wives, particularly Valeria Messalina, his third wife, whose 
 licentious intrigues were the scandal of Rome, and Agrippina, his 
 niece and fourth wife, the mother of Nero by a former husband. 
 The actual death of Claudius was caused by his eating of poi- 
 soned mushrooms provided for him by Agrippina' s orders, and was 
 hastened, it is said, by her officious physician, who under pre 
 tence of medical treatment really applied more poison. The story 
 officially given out was that Claudius had died of a fever. He was 
 deified, the first emperor since Augustus to receive this honor, by 
 senatorial decree. The customary official eulogiura was pro- 
 nounced by Nero, but it was written by Seneca, who seems to 
 have consoled himself shortly afterward, very likely at the Satur- 
 nalia which came only a few weeks later, by producing the present 
 skit. This waa probably designed for private reading in the 
 imperial circle; Seneca's dislike of Claudius was well known,' and 
 Nero and his mother, however prudently they attended to Clau- 
 dius's deification, were under no illusions as to his divinity. In fact, 
 the emperor who had been spared by his predecessor as a butt 
 for ridicule,^ was also, we are told, deified as a joke ' by his youth- 
 ful successor. To the latter, evidently, the damaging implications 
 of Seneca's satire concerning the whole doctrine of the imperial 
 apotheosis were without offence. 
 
 I. 1. ante diem III. id. Oct.: the date of Claudius's death as 
 given by Suetonius {Claud. 45), Tacitus {Ann. XII. 69), and Dio 
 (LX. 34). Mention of the year is unnecessary, the satire was 
 composed so soon after the event. — anno novo : not in the ordi- 
 nary sense, but like the following initio saeculi, of the happy 
 beginning of Nero's reign. — nee offensae nee gratiae: i.e. the 
 
 Claudius's policy in punishing crime. The other is in the De Beneficiis 
 (I. XV. 5), where Seneca quotes with approval a remark of Crispus 
 Passienus, Malo Divi Augusti iudicium, malo Clavdii beneficium, an evi- 
 dent reflection upon the reliability of Claudius's judgment. 
 
 ' Cf. Tac. Ann. XII. 8; XIII. 5, 14, and 42; Sen. Apoc. i. 1. 
 
 2 Nam Claitdium patruum non nisi in ludibrium reservavit (Caligula), 
 Suet. Calig. 23. 
 
 * Dicavit caelc . . . ClavAium Nero, sed ut inrideret, Pliny, Panegyr. 1 1 . 
 
126 NOTES, CAP. I-III 
 
 account shall be wholly unprejudiced. — libenim: i.e. to speak 
 my mind. The word seems also to have been familiar in colloquial 
 usage for "as good as the next man." — ex quo: sc. tempore, as 
 frequently in Seneca. — verum : predicate. Claudius had made 
 the proverb true, in a sense, by showing that to be born a fool 
 was a qualification for becoming a monarch. — aut regem, etc. 
 apparently a popular saw, of which the remark in chapter xi., 
 Crassum . . . tarn fatuum ut etiam regnare posset, is a reminis- 
 cence. In reference to Claudius's stupidity, recall Nero's historic 
 pun (Suet. Nero, 33) with the word morari, pronounced as if from 
 luapbi (a fool), on Claudius's Ungering in the world. 
 
 2. buccam: colloquial for os. — iuratores: assistants of the 
 censors who received the sworn returns of the citizens. We are 
 to understand that an historian doesn't have to take oath to all 
 he says. — Drusillam: Julia Drusilla, Caligula's sister; on his ex- 
 travagant mourning at her death, cf. Consol. ad Polyb. xvii. She 
 received the honor of consecratio, and there are inscriptions ad- 
 dressed to her as a divinity. According to Dio it was Livius 
 Geminius who testified to his fellow-senators that he had seen 
 Drusilla taken up to heaven. He got 250,000 denarii for it. — non 
 passibus acquis: from Verg. Aen. II. 724, with comic comparison 
 to the "little lulus." Cf. also Apoc. v. 2, and elsewhere, on Clau- 
 dius's unsteady gait. — Velit, nolit : familiar for sive velit sive nolit; 
 cf . our " willy nilly." — et Divum ... ad deos isse : both em- 
 perors died in Campania and their bodies were taken to Rome for 
 the funeral rites by this road. Only for Augustus was it pre- 
 cisely a route ad deos, for Tiberius was not deified; but the writer's 
 courtesy is all-embracing. 
 
 3. soli: sc. tibi. — verbis conceptis: familiar for the precise 
 language of an oath. — carta clara: i.e. "a plain unvarnished 
 tale." — ita ilium . . . habeam : a slight variant from the com- 
 mon colloquial form of asseveration, ita me salvum habeam or ita 
 ilium propitium habeam or the like; as now in children's impreca- 
 tions, "I hope to die if it isn't so." Here the narrator is thinking 
 with ironic sympathy of the dreadful evil which Livius Geminius 
 had invoked upon himself if he did not speak the truth. 
 
 n. 1. lam Phoebus . . . somni, etc: these lines in parody of 
 poetical bombast are by way of indicating the autumn season. 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 127 
 
 The sun god had narrowed the period during which he rose above 
 the horizon. — Cynthia: i.e. Diana of Mt. Cynthus, as moon 
 goddess, was making the nights grow longer. — visoque senescere 
 Baccho : i.e. it was in the latter part of the vintage. 
 
 2. si dizero, mensis erat October : note the colloquial parataxis, 
 instead of the construction, mensem esse Octobrem. — inter philo- 
 sophos: the slur recalls our "when doctors disagree"; observe 
 that Seneca is joking at the expense of his own class. — quam 
 inter horologia: water clocks were notoriously inaccurate. 
 
 3. Nimis rustice ! inquies: you' 11 say that is too crude a manner 
 of telling the time of day; it is the fashion to do it in more poetical 
 language, — which follows, of course, in humorous exaggeration. 
 — lam medium . . . orbem, etc. : indicating the afternoon. — 
 fessas: by metonymy agreeing with habenas instead of with the 
 subject. 
 
 m. 1. animam agere: to give up the ghost; cf. Shakespeare,. 
 Rich. III. i. 4, where Clarence says 
 
 "and often did I strive 
 To yield the ghost ; but still the envious flood 
 Stopt in my soul, and would not let it forth," etc. 
 
 Suetonius (Claud. 44) says that Claudius' .s death was slow and 
 painful. — Mercurius . . . ingenio eius delectatus : perhaps be- 
 cause of Mercury's fondness for chicanery, which Claudius had 
 unintentionally encouraged; cf. xii. 2; perhaps because of Clau- 
 dius's interest in oratory, or gambling, or commerce, which he had 
 taken measures to promote. Besides, Mercury was conductor of 
 the dead. — 'ingiTi e tribus Parcis: Clotho; vid. infra. — tam 
 diu: contr. Consol. ad Polyb. xii. 5. — nee umquam . . . cesset: 
 isn't he ever to get offf deliberative subjunctive. ^ — Annus sexa- 
 gesimus quartus: so say Suet. Claud. 45 and Dio, LX. 34. — Quid 
 huic . . . invides: what grudge have you against (iimf 
 
 2. Patere . . verum dicere: i.e. by ex post facto veracity. 
 Under Claudius a severe law had been passed against soothsayers 
 (Tac. Ann. XII. 52), so that they had reason for wishing to see 
 him dead. — omnibus annis . . . efferunt : i.e. bury. Claudius 
 had been frightened several times in his life by prophecies of his 
 death. — horam . . . putavit : the horoscope determining the 
 
128 NOTES, CAP. III-V 
 
 hour of his death would depend, of course, upon conditions at the 
 time of his birth. The joke depends upon the fact that the lattei 
 clause was a common expression denoting contemptuous treat- 
 ment; regarding a person as a nonentity; cf. e.g. Petron. 58, 
 qui te natum non putat. — dede neci, etc. : from Verg. Georg. IV. 
 90, where it refers to the "king" of the hive, as the ancients 
 called the queen-bee. « 
 
 3. mehercules: this being originally a man's oath (women had 
 the corresponding ecastor or edepol) was perhaps intended to give 
 a raciness to the feminine side of the dialogue, as if a lady were 
 to say "b' gosh'' instead of "goodness gracious." — pusillum, 
 pauculos, capsulam: diminutives for colloquial effect; cf. ix. 4. — 
 civitate donaret: Claudius had been criticised for his lavish be- 
 stowal of citizenship. — togatos: i.e. Roman citizens. — in semen: 
 to keep up the supply. 
 
 4. capsulam: bandbox. — fuses: familiar as an attribute of the 
 Fates. — Augurini : unknown. — • Babae : a notoriously stupid 
 fellow, mentioned in Ep. 15. 9. Observe the initials, A. B. C, 
 "in one-two-three order." 
 
 IV. 1. convolvens, etc. : winding up the thread on (Claudius's) 
 filthy spindle. — abrupit . . . tempora: i.e. the thread correspond- 
 ing to the part of Claudius's life when he had been emperor. 
 Strictly, this should have been done by Atropos. — At Lachesis : 
 the Fate who spun out the events of each human life. These fol- 
 lowing lines are clearly irrelevant to the satire, though cutting 
 the thread of one emperor's life not unnaturally suggests spinning 
 that of his successor; they are evidently intended to gratify the 
 young Nero. — Pieria . . . lauro : in compliment to the Apollo- 
 like Nero. Mt. Pierus in Thessaly was sacred to the Muses. — 
 f elici moderanda manu : to be fashioned with deft hand. — ducta : 
 as they were drawn out. — aurea . . . descendunt saecula : a 
 golden age is reeled off. — modus : limit. — illis : the sisters. — 
 festinat: sc. Lachesis. — Tithonus in mythology and Nestor in 
 legend were types of old age; "as old as Methuselah." — Phoebus 
 adest: in further compliment to Nero. — intentas: sc. sorores. — ■ 
 fallit: beguiles. — laudatum: under the stimulus of praise. — 
 mihi similis: Nero's flatterers said that Apollo was jealous of 
 Nero's voice. — Felicia lassis saecula, etc. : cf . Hor. Carm. Saec. 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 129 
 
 57 seq. — legum silentia rumpet : cf . xii. 2, and De Clem. I. i. 4, 
 for similar intimations. — Lucifer : iuffij>6pos, the morning star, 
 which comes as the other stars grow pale. — Hesperus: the even- 
 ing star. — qualis (1. 27) modifies Sol. — primos . . . axes : the 
 adjective instead of an adverb; cf. fessas habenas, ii. 3; axes for 
 the chariot of the sun. — a carcere : from the stall which was the 
 starting-point in a race course. — talis Caesar : Suetonius ( Nero, 
 53) says that as Nero had rivalled Apollo in singing, he had re- 
 solved to rival Sol as a charioteer. — flagrat : by zeugma, heaTns 
 with vultus and is graced with cervix. — fulgore remisso : with, 
 a gentle effulgence. — adfuso . . . capillo : flowing locks. 
 
 2. plena manu: a common phrase; cf. Consol. ad Polyb. ix. 
 7. — de sue: from her own supply. — xaCpovras, etc.: with joy 
 and congratulation to escort (him) out of doors, a trimeter verse 
 preserved to us elsewhere in a fragment of five lines from Euripi- 
 des's lost tragedy of Cresphontes. Cicero in his Tusculan Dispu- 
 tations (I. 48, 115) gives a Latin version of them. Cf. Nauck. 
 Eurip. Frag. 452. — animam ebulliit: a slang expression compar- 
 able to "went up the flume " ; he sent his soul up like a bubble. — 
 ex eo : sc. tempore. — desiit vivere videri : cf . v. 4, visus est quasi 
 homo. — comoedos : evidently a reference to the actors who were 
 introduced by Agrippina (Suet. Claud. 45) ostensibly to entertain 
 Claudius, after he was in fact dead. — non sine causa illos timere : 
 speaking, for the moment, as if they had bored Claudius to 
 extinction. 
 
 3. vae me : for the more classical vae m/ihi; apparently a sjrmp- 
 tom of plebeian S3mtax. 
 
 V. 1. excidant: i.e. be forgotten. ^ — -fides penes auctorem erit: 
 i.e. it is on the authority of the narrator, — a stock phrase when 
 an historian wishes to say that he follows his sources and disclaims 
 responsibility. Seneca himself (JVot. Quaest. IV. iii. 1) says that 
 historians do this especially when they are telling the greatest 
 lies. 
 
 2. bene: colloquial for very {valde), like the French hien. — 
 minari: a jocose interpretation of the caput . . . tremulum to 
 which Suetonius {Claud. 30) refers. — pedem . . . trahere: 
 Claudius's knees were shaky (Suet. ibid). — Quaesisse se: referring 
 to the messenger (perhaps the door-keeper, ianitor, of Heaven) 
 
130 NOTES, CAP. V-VI 
 
 implied in nuntiatur. — respondisse: i.e. the newcomer, Claudius. 
 — perturbato sono, etc. : in allusion to Claudius's defective ut- 
 terance. Suetonius (Claud. 4 and 30) and Die (LX. 2) speak of 
 his stammering; note other allusions to it in the Apoc. — nee 
 Graecum esse: so. eum. 
 
 3. quorum hominum: i.e. cuius nationis. — ut qui . . . timu- 
 erlt: a clause probably best to be taken as ironically causal; Her- 
 cules, as a man who wasn't afraid of all the (i.e. any) monsters, 
 was promptly frightened by this one. — Ut vidit . . . faciem . . . 
 vocem: zeugma. — tertium decimuin laborem: Hercules' "twelve 
 labors" had had chiefly to do with monsters. 
 
 4. intuenti: se. Herculi. — Graeculo: " Greekling " is the classic 
 diminutive in English. This probably means Hercules, at whom 
 almost as much fun is poked as at Claudius. — tCs it6iiv, etc. : 
 Who and whence art thou and where are thy city and parents f 
 The verse is from Homer, Od. I. 170. — philologos homines: 
 literary people; more precisely the philologus was a species of 
 antiquary who studied literary texts, a person muUiplici variaque 
 doctrina (Suet, de Grammaticis, 10). Cf. Seneca's characteriza- 
 tion of them in Epist. 108, 24. and 30. — historiis suis: Claudius's 
 historical writings, both in Latin and Greek, are enumerated by 
 Suetonius (Claud. 41-42). Several citations from them, chiefly 
 by Pliny in the Natural History, are gathered in Peter's His- 
 toricorum Romanorum Fragmenta, pp. 295-296. — - et ipse Homerico 
 versu: Claudius's fondness for Greek quotations, especially from 
 Homer, was extreme. Cf. Suet, ibid and Dio Cass. LX. 16. — 
 IXi,66€v, etc. : A wind bearing me from Ilium, has cast me among 
 the Cicones; from the Odyssey, IX. 39. The professed descendant 
 of Aeneas might poetically claim to have been brought among the 
 barbarians, as the Romans would be from the Homeric point of 
 view. — Erat autem, etc. : evidently an aside by the narrator. — 
 cv6a S" Iyw, etc. : There their city I wasted ; the people I slaughtered. 
 
 VL 1. imposuerat: he would have succeeded in imposing upon. 
 This sense of the word, now so familiar, was colloquial, as indeed 
 is the whole dialogue between the comic Hercules and the disputa- 
 tious fever goddess. — Herculi minime vafro : the gullibility of 
 Hercules is illustrated also by Ovid ( Her. ix. 113). The hero him- 
 self had been received from earth to heaven; hence, perhaps, his 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 131 
 
 easy sympathy. — Febris : apparently the well-known Roman 
 fever, according to the officially reported cause of Claudius's 
 death. As a goddess she had a sanctuary on the Palatine. — 
 ceteros . . . reliquerat: perhaps in compliment to the new 
 regime. But they presently appear to be in heaven. — Ego tibi 
 dico ; note the vulgar emphasis. — tot annis : apparently the 
 ablative of time instead of the accusative of duration was com- 
 moner in the sermo vulgaris than in literature. It is usual on 
 plebeian tombstones. That Fever's constancy had early under- 
 mined Claudius's health is recorded by Suetonius (Claud. 2 and 31). 
 — Luguduni natus: cf. Suet. Claud. 2 and Dio, LIV. 36. The 
 campaign against the Germans had called Claudius's parents, 
 Drusus and Antonia, to the north, 10 B.C. — Marci municipem; 
 the tex:t here is doubtful. The name Planci, from L. Munatius 
 Plancus, one of the founders in 43 b.c. of the Roman colony at 
 Lugudunum, has been substituted by some editors for Marci. 
 Mark Antony the triumvir has been suggested, coins bearing his 
 name having been struck at Lugudunum while he had the govern- 
 ment of Gaul. Biicheler thinks Marci to be a corruption of a 
 Galhc name. Wachsmiith suggests reading Maricci, from the 
 Gaul, Mariccus, who at a later date made trouble in this same 
 locality (Tac. Hist. II. 61). — ad seztum decimum lapidem: 
 Vienna, sixteen miles from Lugudunum, was a rival town in 
 GaUia Narbonensis. — quod Galium facere oportebat: evidently 
 an allusion to the historic capture by Brennus. — ego tibi recipio : 
 / assure you; Uke the Greek dvaS^x"/""') I take the responsibility 
 for the statement. — Licinus: a native Gaul, a slave and freed- 
 man of Julius Caesar, and by Augustus appointed procurator 
 (cf. regnavit) of Gallia Lugudunensis, where he was notorious for 
 his extortion and tyranny. His name became proverbial for a 
 rich parvenu; cf. Sen. Ep. 119, 9; Persius, ii. 36; Juv. i. 109 
 and xiv. 306; Martial, VIII. 3, 6, etc. — multis annis: cf. tot annis 
 above. — plura loca calcasti : cf. v. 3, Herculem qui . . . perer- 
 raverat. Hercules was a famous knight errant, calcasti : have 
 tramped. Biicheler, however, thinks that tu autem means Claudius, 
 referring to his expedition to Britain. — perpetuarius : wandering. 
 The word is of a formation common in the sermo vulgaris, and 
 seems to mean a muleteer who went all the way with his em- 
 
132 NOTES, CAP. VI-VII 
 
 ployer, — not merely for a stage of his journey. It was natural 
 enough to speak of a mulio . . . Lugudunensis in particular; if 
 Claudius is meant, it would be "muleteer of your native town." 
 
 — Xanthum et Rhodanum : the rivers at Ilium and Lugudunum. 
 2. Excandescit: blazed up. uSuetonius (^Claud. 30) speaks of 
 
 Claudius as ira turpior. — quanto . . . murmure: of. v. 2, per- 
 iurbato sono. — duci iubebat: ducere was the usual word for leading 
 away to prison or execution; cf. Narcissus duci iusserat, xiii. 4. — 
 solutae ("limp") manus: Dio (LX. 2) refers to Claudius's trem- 
 bling hands. — decoUare : to behead; properly to remove (a burden) 
 from the neck. Suetonius ( Claud. 34) discusses Claudius' s taste for 
 this sort of thing. — illi: i.e. Febri. — omnes: yet only Hercules 
 and Fever have been mentioned as present. — illius: i.e. Claudii. 
 
 — adeo . . . curabat : so little attention did any one pay him; 
 Claudius's subservience to his freedmen has been noted. 
 
 VII. 1. fatuari: from fatuus, a fool. — ubi mures ferrum 
 rodunt: apparently a proverbial expression. Herodas (iii. 75-76) 
 in his AiSda-KaXos (Schoolmaster) speaks of a land where mice 
 commonly eat iron, — 
 
 ol fiOs hfjjoitaz rhv iTLS7)pov Tptbyovffiv^ 
 
 as a place of such wretchedness that the mice ate iron for lack of 
 other food. Of the island of Gyaros, to which Roman emperors 
 often sent exiles, Antigonus of Karystos said in earlier times, 
 ivTaSBa ol /lies diarpdyovin rbv alSifpov — there the mice eat iron; 
 and Pliny ( Nat Hist. VIII. 57, 222) alludes to the same thing. 
 Whatever the exact application of the proverb, it evidently means 
 that trouble was ahead for Claudius. — Citius etc.; sc. die. — ne 
 tibi alogias excutiam: or I'll knock the nonsense out of you. 
 The word alogia came from the Greek by way of the vulgar speech 
 rather than literature. — tragicus fit: struck a tragic attitude, 
 and declaimed in iambic trimeter. 
 
 2. sede . . . cluas: of what place you are called a native, 
 cluas is from the Greek K\ia, in Latin more usually of the 
 second conjugation, but not thoroughly classical. — hoc . . . 
 stipite, haec clava: Hercules' s familiar big stick. — profatu vocis 
 incerto : Claudius mumbles an interruption. — mobile : shaky; cf . 
 minari and caput movere in v. 2. — regna . . . longinqua : in 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 133 
 
 Spain. — tergemini . . . regis : Geryon, who, according to the 
 myth, had three bodies. Hercules drove his cattle to Argos, the 
 city of Inaehus, by way of Gaul. -^ duobus . . . iugum : the hill 
 on which Lugudunum was situated at the junction of the Rhone 
 and the Sadne. — Phoebus ortu: the sun at his rising opposite. — 
 Ararque dubitans: recall Caesar, B.G. I. 12, on the sluggishness of 
 the Sa6ne. — spiritus tui: of your life. 
 
 3. Haec satis animose, etc. : Seneca speaks in the De Ira (I. 20) 
 of the inner weakness of angry bravado. — mentis suae : subjective 
 genitive; Hercules' manner was not the true expression of his 
 mind. — (uupov irXn-yifii' : stroke of the crazy man, a parody on 
 the proverbial fleoO ir\iiyli of Greek tragedy, denoting a sudden 
 stroke of irresponsible fate. — virum valentem : the phrase, as 
 if it were "would-be strong man," probably had a somewhat 
 comical sound to a Roman ear. The use of participles in -ns as 
 adjectives marks a plebeian tendency. — oblitus nugarum : for- 
 getting his nonsense; the expression occurs repeatedly in Petronius. 
 — idem gratiae : the same advantage. — gallum in sue sterquilino, 
 etc.: proverbial; cf. our expression, "cock of the walk." The 
 pun on Claudius's Gallic birth is obvious. 
 
 4. te . . . mihi adfuturum: that you would stand by me, com- 
 monly used of a legal advocatus. — notorem: one who vouches 
 for a person's identity; a post-Augustan word. Cf. Sen. Ep. 39, 1 : 
 qui notorem dat ignotus est. — tibi ante templum tuum : perhaps 
 before Hercules' temple at Tibur, where Augustus was said to 
 have been fond of holding court (Suet. Aug. 72). The tauto- 
 logical use of the ethical dative, tibi (besides tuum), is colloquial. — 
 totis diebus mense lulio et Augusto: on Claudius's exaggerated 
 faithfulness to his judicial duties vid. Suet. Claud. 14; Dio, LX. 4, 
 etc. July was the regular month for vacation from court sessions, 
 and August contained many holidays. 
 
 5. quantum . . contulerim: the gathering of woes in the 
 law courts, compared to the filth of the Augean stables. — • cau- 
 sidicos: a contemptuous word, somewhat hke pettifogger, shyster. 
 ■ — cloacas Augeae : the scene of Hercules' cleansing effort is other- 
 wise described as bubile, cow stable, ovilia, sheepfold, etc. — Sed 
 quoniam volo: perhaps here Claudius begins his more successful 
 appeal. All the manuscripts break off abruptly, and there is 
 
134 NOTES, CAP. VII- VIII 
 
 evidently a gap of at least one leaf in the archetype from which 
 they are all derived. 
 
 Vni. 1. Non mirum quod . . . fecisti: the changed situation 
 indicates something of what must have intervened. One of the 
 members of the Olympian assembly, which seems to be organized 
 after the pattern of the Roman senate, is speaking, presumably 
 to Hercules, whom Claudius has induced to be his advocate. 
 The unsophisticated champion has brought his prot6g6 into the 
 curia and stated his desire that he be admitted into the celestial 
 fellowship. He is met with some unparliamentary reproaches, 
 the beginning of which is lost. — clausi : partitive genitive. -^ 
 'EiriKoipcios 9«6s, etc. : he cannot be an Epicurean god ^who) i^either 
 has any bother himself nor occasions any to others. Claudius would 
 be excluded by either specification. The phraseology of the defi- 
 nition may be variously paralleled, e.g. in Cicero, de N.D. I. 
 17, 45; cf. id. de Off. III. 28. — "rotundus" ... ut ait Varro, 
 etc.: very likely in one of his Saturae Menippeae (cf. Bticheler, 
 Varronis Menipp. Reliq. 583). The words would fit the iambic 
 senarius. Cf. Cic. de N.D. I. 15, 39, for a dignified outline of the 
 Stoic conception of God as a universal all-pervading force, in 
 some sense identified with the complete world itself. The 
 word rotundus was an effort to make the idea objective, which 
 sometimes resulted in a joke. The added details in Varro's 
 description, Bticheler suggests, are in playful allusion to the 
 roadside Hermae, simple columns except for the members 
 named. In Ep. 113, 22-25, by way of reducing to an ab- 
 surdity the mooted proposition that the virtues are living beings 
 (animalia) , Seneca raises the question what shape they have — 
 "round, like that of a god?" — and soon jocosely demonstrates 
 that a good verse is likewise an " animal " : ita ' arma virumque 
 cano ' animal est, quod non possunt rotundum dicere, cum sex pedes 
 habeat. — Stoici dei: with aliquid. — nee cor nee caput habet: 
 this much of simplification at least. The words were more or less 
 proverbial; cf. Liv. epit. L, nee caput nee pedes nee cor habere, and 
 instances in Petron. 59 and 63, and Mart. VII. 78, 4. 
 
 2. mehercules: the oath, "by Hercules," to his face. — hoc 
 beneficium : i.e. admission to heaven. — cuius mensem . . . 
 Saturnalicius princeps : t.e. Claudius; as we might say, this " Lord 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 135 
 
 of Misrule." Claudius's love of feasting was notorious (Suet. 
 Claud. 32-33). Perhaps, also, since in the Saturnalia slaves were 
 temporarily on an equality with their masters, here is an allusion 
 to the influential position of Claudius's freedmen. When Nar- 
 cissus went to make a speech to the mutinous soldiers of A. Plau- 
 tius (Dio. LX. 19), they shouted, lo Saturnalia. Cf. xii. 2; 
 also Petron. 44, semper Saturnalia agunt; vid. Sen. Ep. 18, 1, for 
 a striking parallel. — non tulisset illud: he wouldn't have got it. — 
 quantum ... in illo fuit : so far as in him lay. — damnavit in- 
 cesti: by implication, for Jove was guilty of what Silanus was 
 charged with; cf. Verg. Aen. I. 46, lovis et soror et coniunx. — 
 generum suum: L. Junius Silanus Torquatus was betrothed (not 
 married) to Claudius's daughter Octavia. When Agrippina 
 wished Nero to marry Octavia, Silanus was accused of incest by 
 Vitellius, and he committed suicide on the day of the marriage 
 of Claudius and Agrippina, 49 a. d. — sororem suam : Junia Cal- 
 vina. She seems to have been imprudent; as Tacitus says {Ann. 
 XII. 4), sp.ne decora et procax. — Venerem vocarent: because she 
 was so lovely. — lunonem: his Juno. — "Quare," inquls, etc.; 
 Hercules apparently interposes with a question in justification 
 of Claudius's strictness. — -"quaero": of. the frequent insertion 
 of rogo in Petronius's dialogue; and the English ejaculation 
 "I say!" Athenis: Cimon's marriage with Elpinice is the fa- 
 miliar example of marriages with a half-sister. — Alexandriae: as 
 in the marriages of the Ptolemies. 
 
 3. "Quia Romae," inquis: another interruption by the objector 
 in Claudius's favor. — mures molas lingunt: the mice eat conse- 
 crated meal; apparently proverbial, but as to its meaning the 
 critics are far from agreement. It is evidently a defence of Clau- 
 dius, and perhaps means that at Rome both mice and men are so 
 finically careful that Claudius had to apply a strict standard. — 
 Hie nobis curva conriget: an ironical allusion to Claudius's censor- 
 ship; cf. De Clem. II. vii. 5, on a prince's duty to seek quo modo 
 in rectum prava flectantur. — Quid in cubiculo . . . nescit: he 
 doesn't know what he has going on in his own home; perhaps refer- 
 ring to the debaucheries as to which Messalina had kept him hood- 
 winked. It would be easier to apply it to the fact that Claudius's 
 own marriage to Agrippina, his niece, was contra fas; but since 
 
136 NOTES, CAP. VIII-IX 
 
 this would reflect upon her as well, Seneca can hardly have in- 
 tended it in that way. — caeli, etc. : from a familiarly quoted line 
 of Ennius's lost tragedy of Iphigenia, Quod est ante pedes nemo 
 spectat, caeli scrutantur plagas; Vahlen ed. Enn. Poes. Reliq. p. 
 160. — templum in Britannia: one at Camulodunum is mentioned 
 by Tacitus {Ann. XIV. 31). — (iwpoO cviXdrov rvxtiv: to find him 
 a placable crazy man, a parody on wishes that a god might be 
 propitious; of. niapoS rXriyfiv vii. 3. 
 
 IX. 1. privatis . . . morantibus, etc.: apparently an allusion 
 to a rule of the Roman senate; licere is the subject of venit. — Ego 
 contrasted with vobis and vos. ■ — P. C. : in jocose comparison to 
 the patres conscripti of Rome. — mera mapalia : simply rubbish, 
 stuif and nonsense, mapalia, according to Festus, originally 
 designated a kind of African (Punic) huts, but it had become 
 proverbial in the derived sense. — Hie : Claudius. 
 
 2. Illo dimisso: apparently Claudius was sent out in conform- 
 ance with the rule. But at the end of the next chapter Augustus 
 addresses him directly as if he were still present. — interrogatur 
 sententiam: the retained object is particularly common in this 
 expression. — lanus pater : partly perhaps in view of his char- 
 acter as god of openings, but conventionally because the consul 
 designatus was regularly thus called upon first; cf. e.g. Sail. Cat. 50. 
 
 — postmeridianus consul: perhaps a mere joke upon the ludi- 
 crously short honorary consulships that were becoming common. 
 But July 1 was a usual date for the entering of consules suffecti 
 upon their office, and postmeridianus may indicate the second half- 
 year, as we say " the afternoon of life " ; Seneca alluded to his own 
 old age as postmeridianas horas, Nat. Quaest. III. praef. 3. — 
 &)ta trp6(riru Kal oirto-o-u : at once both before and behind, referring 
 to the two-faced Janus; quoted, however, from the Iliad, III. 109, 
 where the aged Priam is described as looking both to the past and 
 the future. — diserte quod in Foro vivebat: the Arcus lanus was 
 on the north side of the Forum, a good place for acquiring fluency. 
 
 — notarius: the stenographer. Shorthand writing {Notae Tiro- 
 nianae) was common enough so that the business of the notarius 
 was a well-defined one, and the term occurs in sepulchral in- 
 scriptions as well as in literature. 
 
 3. hunc . . . honorem : i.e. deification. — iam famam mimum 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 137 
 
 f ecisti : you (apparently addressing Hercules) have made the dis- 
 tinction a farce, a "by-word." Suetonius (Cal. 45) alludes to 
 Caligula's sham victory over the Germans as a mime, and Terence 
 {Eun. 300) speaks of somebody as a "joke" {ludum iocumque). 
 It has been very ingeniously maintained that the text should read 
 faham mimum f ecisti, in view of Cic. ad Attic. I. 16: Videsne 
 consulatum ilium nostrum,, qvem Curio antea diroff^wan' vocahat, si 
 hie /actus erit,fabam mimum futurum ? On this theory the " Bean 
 Mime" is a title. Birt cites the ^a.KTj {Lentil-pottage) of Sopater, 
 and thinks that the dpoipris Kapirit means faha; hence that 
 Janus wished to avert all the boan-eaters from divinity, meaning 
 by these the persons in the farce. — censec : as in the Roman 
 senate it was customary to end a speech with a formal resolu- 
 tion. — dpovpT|$ Kapirov cSovcriv : eai the product of the cornland ; 
 Iliad, VI. 142. Cf. Hor. Carm. II. 14, 10, quicumque terrae 
 munere vescimur. — quos alit ^ECSupos apovpa : whom the fertile 
 cornland feeds ; i.e. all mankind. The combination l^eiSupo! ipovpa 
 appears repeatedly in Homer. — Qui contra hoc s.c. : another 
 conventional feature, the sanctio of the proposed senatus con- 
 sultum. — Laruis : evil spirits, supposed to be the souls of the 
 wicked dead not permitted to rest in the other world and return- 
 ing to torment evil-doers in this. In popular speech they served 
 as do our "hobgoblins" and "bogie man." — proximo munere: 
 at the next games. — auctoratos: hired gladiators. — vapulare: 
 in the sermo vulgaris, to get a licking, a common feature in the 
 training of raw recruits for the gladiatorial ring. 
 
 4. Diespiter Vicae Potae filius: the identity of this god is by no 
 means clear; certainly he was not the Jupiter who has just figured as 
 the presiding officer, the cosmopolitan Zeus to whom poets gave the 
 name Diespiter as god of the sky; presumably he is the old Italian 
 Jupiter, god of the daylight, traces of whose worship appear in 
 the rites of the Fetiales which Claudius had recently revived. 
 But Seneca perhaps had in mind the popular confusion of Diespiter 
 with Pluto (Dis or Dispiter) and of Pluto with Plutus, the god of 
 wealth (which comes from the ground; cf. Cic. de N.D. II. 26, 66), 
 in view of his description of Diespiter as a money-changer. Vica 
 Pota, a little-known goddess whose temple stood infra Veliam, 
 was commonly identified with Victory (deriv. vincendi atque 
 
138 NOTES, CAP. IX-X 
 
 potiundi, Cic. de Leg. II. 11, 28). It has been suggested that she 
 was Fortiina (the mother of Plutus, according to Phaedrus IV. 12, 5) ; 
 and also, by a quite different explanation, she has been identified 
 with Cybele, the "Great Mother" (vid. Hoeing in Am. Jour. 
 Pkilol. xxiv. pp. 323-326). Old-fashioned gods hke Diespiter 
 doubtless seemed quaint enough to Romans of Seneca's time 
 to suggest themselves for caricature. And in the practices as- 
 cribed to Diespiter it is probable that some freedman of Claudius 
 is satirized. — nummulariolus : a comic diminutive from num- 
 mularius, a word of a common plebeian type. — hoc quaestu: 
 i.e. nummularii. — vendere civitatulas : another diminutive for 
 comic effect. The gibe is plainly at the venality of public prefer- 
 ments in Claudius's day; recall also (iii. 3) dum . . . civitate 
 donaret. — auriculam illi tetigit: as we should say, "gave him 
 the wink." But touching the ear was a regular sign of summons 
 as a witness; cf. Hor. Sat. I. 9, 77. Diespiter is thus admonished 
 to stand by his fellow-trader in citizenships. The diminutive 
 auricula is quite classical, but the effect of three such forms in 
 quick succession is noticeable. 
 
 5. Divus Claudius : the Roman senate had already decreed the 
 title. — Augustum . . . nee minus Divam Augustam: the latter 
 even more, in fact; Claudius's father Nero Claudius Drusus, 
 was the son of Diva Augusta (Livia) by her first marriage; Clau- 
 dius's mother, Antonia Minor, was a daughter of Octavia, Augus- 
 tus's sister. — quam ipse . . iussit: as stated in Suet. Claud. 11 
 and Dio, LX. 5. — erepublica: to the public interest, in regular 
 senatorial phraseology. — • ferventia rapa vorare : devour boiling-hot 
 turnips (instead of ambrosia), a hint at Claudius's voracity; the 
 words form the end of a hexameter verse, the source of which is 
 unknown. But an epigram of Martial (XIII. 16) alludes to the 
 fact that Romulus in heaven eats turnips, the rustic fare of his 
 time on earth. — censeo uti, etc. : note the change of structure 
 from uti . . . sit to rem . . . adidendam (esse) . — ad Meta- 
 morphosis Ovidi, where Romulus' s and Julius Caesar's apotheoses 
 were already included. Met. XIV. 815; XV. 745. 
 
 6. sententiam vincere : on the analogy of causam vincere. — 
 femmi suum in igne esse: i.e. he was striking while the iron was 
 hot. — modo . . . illuc : i.e. to different members of the assembly. 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 139 
 
 — mea res agitur : I^Mmr-pSfsonally interested in this affair. — 
 manus manum lavftt: one hand washes the other. This eame 
 proverb occurs in Petronius (45) and in varied forms in, Greek. 
 
 X. I. sententiae suae toco dicendae: i.e. when his turn came. 
 Some of Augustus's early opinions upon Claudius are quoted by- 
 Suetonius (Claud. 4); they are not flattering. Cf. Consol. ad Polyb. 
 xii. 5, ilium gens sua caelo adserat. — pudor : it was a question of 
 family pride. 
 
 2. In hoc -.for this ? Then follows the familiar form of summary 
 of Augustus's achievements, from the Res Gestae Divi Augusti. — 
 terra marique pacem : cf . De Clem. I. ix. 4. — legibus urbem 
 fundavi: practically a quotation from Verg. Aen. VI. 810, where, 
 however, the statement, in the future, refers to Numa. — ut — : 
 aposiopesis. — Messalae Corvini . . . sententiam : the words here 
 quoted seem to refer to an occasion in 25 b.c. when the distinguished 
 senator, M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, was appointed by Augustus 
 as the first prefect of the city, but soon resigned (Tac. Ann. VI. 11), 
 apparently in disgust at his new duties. A fragment from Sue- 
 tonius quotes him as intimating that the office was unconstitutional. 
 It is a sardonic humor which puts a recollection that must have 
 been so unpleasant to Augustus into his own speech. — pudet: 
 sc. me. 
 
 3. tarn facile . . . quam: among other proverbs for things 
 easy to do, like our "as easy as falhng off a log," cf. Plant. Most. 
 559, Tarn facile vinces quam pirum volpes contest, — -"as easily 
 as a fox swallows a pear." — Non vacat . . . intuentl: sc. mihi. 
 
 — domestica mala: i.e. the people he has killed in my own family. 
 
 — ilia: i.e. publicas clades. — etiamsi soror mea nescit, ego scio: 
 S-y^iov y6w Kvi\^i\i: I know, even if my sister doesn't know (as 
 they say in Greek), my knee is nearer than my shin. The prov- 
 erb, which is Bucheler's correction here for an unintelligible string 
 of Greek letters in the Mss., appears several times in ancient Greek 
 proverbial collections. Cf. Plautus's tunica propior palliost 
 (Trinum. 1154), "my shirt is nearer than my coat." The sense 
 of the quotation is plain, after Augustus's reference to his domestica 
 mala: he cared most for the troubles that were nearest him. The 
 point of the statement, soror mea nescit, seems to depend upon 
 some fact unknown to us. Octavia had shown an almost per- 
 
140 NOTES, CAP. X-XI 
 
 verse sensitiveness to her personal grief when Marcellus died (cf. 
 Consol. ad Marc, ii.); there may have been something in that 
 incident to which her brother alludes. Or possibly Octavia, who 
 was Claudius's maternal grandmother, had been less pessimistic 
 as to his youthful capabilities than had Augustus and Livia (of. 
 Suet. Claud. 3-4). 
 
 4. sub meo nomine latens : as all the emperors took the name of 
 Augustus; Claudius in particular used commonly to take oath per 
 Augustum (Suet. Claud. 11). — duas lulias: both were the victims 
 of Messalina's machinations. It was Julia Livilla (daughter of 
 Germanicus, the adopted son of Tiberius), with whom Seneca was ■ 
 involved in the charge which caused his banishment as well as her 
 own, in which she perished {fame occisa). The other Julia was 
 the daughter of Tiberius' s son Drusus. — abnepotem L. Silanum: 
 already mentioned in viii. 2, q. v. His mother was Aemilia Lepida, 
 a granddaughter of Augustus's daughter Julia. — Videris luppiter 
 an ... si aecus futurus es : You must see, Jupiter, whether (he 
 did it) in a bad cause, — certainly in your own, if you are going 
 to be fair; i.e. determine whether Claudius was justified in kill- 
 ing Silanus, whose case was substantially like your own, as you 
 will admit, if you are impartial. With an in causa rruda, 
 supply occiderit, from the preceding sentence. Cf. viii. 2, ab 
 love, quern . . damnavit incesti, and note. The jocose allusion 
 to Jupiter's case may have been intended to divert attention 
 from what appears to have been the indiscretion of such a reference 
 to Silanus's death, in view of Agrippina's concern in it. Cf. also Tac. 
 Ann. XII. 8. — Dive Claudi: cf. ix. 2, iUo dimisso. — antequam . . . 
 cognosceres: Claudius was said to have been capriciously hasty 
 and unfair in his condemnations; cf. xii. 3, una tantum parte 
 audita, and xiv. 2-3, similarly; also Suet. Claud. 15 and 29, and 
 Dio, LX. 14-16. 
 
 XI. 1. quern pii|/«, etc.: whom, snatching him by the foot, he 
 hurled from the heavenly threshold; quoted from the Iliad, I. 591, 
 where Vulcan tells how he fell all day and landed on Lemnos. Cf . 
 id. XV. 23. — iratus . . . suspendit illam : Iliad, XV. 18, where 
 Zeus recalls the incident unpleasantly to Hera's memory. — num- 
 quid occidit: he. didn't kill her, did he? — Messalinam, cuius aeque, 
 etc. : Valeria Messalina, Claudius's third wife, was the j^reat-grand- 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 141 
 
 daughter of Octavia, the sister of Augustus, who was thus her 
 avunculus maior. Claudius was Octavia's grandson, so that Au- 
 gustus was properly his avunculus magnus; of. Consol. ad Polyh. 
 XV. 4. Avunculus maior, however, he is called in Suet. Claud. 3. 
 MessaUna's death in consequence of her outrageous misdeeds is 
 described in Tac. Ann. XI. 37-38. The freedman Narcissus 
 brought it about. — "Nescio," inquis: Suetonius (Claud. 39) 
 tells the absurd example of Claudius's absent-mindedness {oblivio 
 et inconsiderantia) , when after having sanctioned MessaUna's 
 death he innocently inquired why she didn't come to dinner, cur 
 domina non veniret. Cf. Tac. Ann. XI. 38. — male faciant: a 
 famiUar expression of ill-will. 
 
 2. C. Caesarem . . . persequi: apparently a play upon two 
 meanings of the verb, to persecute and to imitate. Claudius had 
 promptly undertaken to undo the acts of Caligula so far as was 
 possible, and to obliterate his memory. — Occiderat ille socerum: 
 M. Junius Silanus was the father of Junia Claudilla, who was 
 married to Caligula a.d. 33. He fell a. d. 38. — et generum : i.e. 
 his son-in-law as well as his father-in-law; in fact two sons-in-law. 
 See the enumeration below, xi. 5. — Gaius . . . Magnum vocari: 
 the fact is stated by Suetonius {Calig. 35). Dio (LX. 5) also 
 says that Gaius was on the point of killing the young Magnus be- 
 cause of the name. — hie . . . reddidit : cf . Dio, ibid. — caput 
 tulit: i.e. abstulit; see below. — dome: family. — Crassum, 
 Magnum, Scriboniam: M. Licinius Crassus Frugi was consul 
 ordinarius A. D. 27. His son, Cn. Pompeius Magnus, was betrothed 
 to Claudius's elder daughter Antonia a.d. 41 and married her, 
 but was put to death in the year 47 on account of Messalina's 
 jealousy. Caligula' s treatment of him has been already mentioned. 
 Scribonia, the wife of Crassus and mother of Magnus, is supposed 
 to have been a descendant of the original Pompey the Great. — 
 tris homines assarios: an emendation suggested by Bucheler; 
 assarius (worth an as apiece) is on the analogy of homo sester- 
 tiarius (Petron. 45) and homo dipundiarus (ibid. 74; cf. ibid. 58), 
 and indicates that they were a cheap sort of people, the stigma 
 being comparable to that more recently attaching to the aspect 
 of thirty cents. — nobiles tamen : Tacitus ( Hist. I. 14) expressly 
 mentions that Crassus Frugi and Scribonia were of noble birth. — 
 
142 NOTES, CAP. XI-XII 
 
 Crassum . . . tam fatuum, etc.; of his character we have no 
 other knowledge; he had at least been consul. Recall aiU regem 
 aut fatuum, etc. (i. 1). Seneca, in Ep. 70, 10, uses the phrase 
 tam stolidi quam nobilis. 
 
 3. corpus eius dis iratis natum : a proverbial expression, as we 
 might say, "bom under an evil star"; e.g. Phaedr. IV. 20, 15, dis 
 est iratis natus qui est similis tibi. — Ad summam : in short ; a 
 phrase particularly common in the colloquial part of Petronius. 
 
 — tria verba cito dicat: a challenge to Claudius's stammering 
 tongue. The expression "three words" was proverbial; of. Sen. 
 Ep. 40, 9, tria verba non potest iungere; Mart. VI. 54, 2, iunget vix 
 tria verba miser. — et servum me ducat: and "he can have me." 
 
 4. Dum tales deos . . . credet? A curious passage in 
 Lucan's Pharsalia (VII. 455 seq.) hints at the discredit brought 
 upon the gods by the adding of dead men to their number, and 
 calls it a species of vengeance upon Heaven for permitting the 
 Civil Wars that had made these new divinities. — si nulli clarius 
 respond! : if I haven't answered anybody too plainly; an indica^ 
 tion, apparently, of Augustus's forbearance; perhaps a jest at 
 his extreme reserve. — ex tabella recitavit: Augustus was noted 
 for trusting himself little to extemporary speech in important 
 matters; hence the comic orderUness of his present procedure, 
 as he summarizes. 
 
 6. socerum suum Appium Silanum: cf. et generum above. C. 
 Appius Junius Silanus was consul a. d. 28. Claudius married him 
 to the mother of Messalina; but in 42 Messalina and Narcissus 
 plotted against him, and frightened Claudius into consenting to 
 Appius's death. — generos duos: already mentioned, viii. 2; x. 
 4; xi. 2. — Crassum Frugi: i.e. the father of Magnus. — tam 
 similem sibi quam ovo ovum : i.e. equally fatuus. The proverb 
 was familiar; cf. Cic. Acad. II. 18, 57, videsne ut in proverbio sit 
 ovorum inter se similitudo. We say, " as like as two peas in a pod." 
 
 — severe animadverti ; explained by the following clauses. — nee 
 . . . vacationem dari: Claudius in his hfetime had persisted in 
 conducting trials very badly; now for all eternity he is to be con- 
 demned to weary himself unceasingly with the same employment. 
 Cf. vii. 5. — caelo intra . . . tertium : Olympus corresponded to 
 the city, caelum to Italy, in the case of a Roman banishment. 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 143 
 
 6. Pedibus . . . itum est: the senatorial phrase for going over 
 to the side of a previous speaker, as in a "division," discessio, 
 instead of voting in individual speeches. — nee mora : like the 
 more common haud mora; sc. erat. — Cyllenius: so called from 
 his birthplace on Mt. Cyllene, Mercury, the conductor of souls. 
 
 — cello obtorto: a familiar phrase; as we might say, "seized 
 him by the collar." — unde negant redire quemquam: from 
 Catullus, iii. 12. Cf. Hamlet (iii. 1) : 
 
 "The undiscovered country from whose bourn 
 No traveler returns.'' 
 
 Vergil (Aen. VI. 128-129) is a little less positive. Sed revocare 
 gradum, ... he says, Hoc opus, hie labor est. A caelo is, as a 
 gloss, bracketed. If, however, it is to be left in the text, Seneca 
 may have been joking at the rarity of any one's returning from 
 heaven; on the opposite theory, critics generally have prefixed 
 illuc to complete the verse from its source in Catullus. 
 
 Xll. 1. per viam Sacram: naturally, the route a caelo ad 
 inferos led by way of earth; cf. xiii. 1. The via Appia (cf. i. 2) 
 was a continuation of the same street, which was distinctively the 
 street of processions. — quid sibi velit . . . num . . . esset: 
 note the colloquial confusion of tenses, after the historical present. 
 
 — impensa cura: the elaborateness of Claudius's funeral is at- 
 tested by Suetonius (Nero, 9) and Tacitus (Ann. XII. 69). — 
 deum efferri : that a god was being carried out to burial. — omnis 
 generis aenatorum : players upon every kind of brass instruments; 
 there was a "union" of these musicians at Rome, the collegium 
 aeneatorum (or aenatorum). 
 
 2. Agatho: apparently one of the coMsi(iici; otherwise unknown. 
 
 — causidici plorabant : Claudius had been excessively patient 
 with them (Suet. Claud. 15); but his especial title to their regard 
 was his partial abrogation of the Lex Cincia, under which the 
 acceptance of fees by them had been illegal. • — sed: the adversa^ 
 tive is to the pauci ; they made up in sincerity what they lacked 
 in numbers. — lurisconsulti : legal advisers (distinguished from 
 advocati as definitely as attorneys from barristers), who had been 
 of small account under the caprices of Claudius's administration. 
 
 — capita conferentes: getting their heads together. — non semper 
 
144 NOTES, CAP. XII-XIII 
 
 Saturnalia enmt : observe the familiar effect of the direct quota- 
 tion; recall Saturnalicius (vlii. 2), and note. Otto quotes a Ger- 
 man parallel, "Es ist nicht immer Kirmes." 
 
 3. Ingenti . . . x<>pi'K$: in a mighty great chorus (i.e. choral 
 song). The vulgar tautology may be justified by the spirit of the 
 situation. — nenia : a dirge, a species of primitive funeral litany 
 that seems to have fallen somewhat into disrepute since Plautus's 
 day. One was proposed for Augustus's funeral, but apparently 
 it was only one of the extravagant proposals which were rejected 
 (Suet. Claud. 100). — anapaestis: the marching measure. — resonet 
 . . . Forum: there began the march toward the place in the 
 Campus Martius where the pyre was burned. — cecidit pulchre : 
 of Fever, or poisoned mushrooms? — cordatus: an old-fashioned 
 word. — quo : after the comparative, fortior. — f ortior : Claudius's 
 timidity was notorious; cf. Suet. Claud. 35. — citato . . ctu'su: 
 his halting gait has been already exhibited. — • rebelles . . . Par- 
 thos: the Parthians were not properly rebels, never having been 
 subjected; and in the last fight with them recorded of Claudius's 
 reign they were victorious over the allies of Rome (Tac. Ann. XII. 
 44-51). — Persida: Persia for the Persians, by metonymy. — certa 
 manu: cf. solutae manus, vi. 2. — tendere nervum, qui: stretch the 
 bowstring which (by means of the arrow) . — picta . . . terga : 
 another object of figeret. The picturesque costumes of the Medes 
 and Persians always interested the Romans. — Britannos : like 
 Brigantas, subject of dare, after iussit. Claudius's expedition to 
 Britain (a. d. 43) "beyond the ocean" was a favorite subject of 
 epigram. — scuta : accusative of specification. — Brigantas : a 
 tribe in the north of England, actually subjected not in Claudius's 
 time, but by Vespasian. — dare . . . catenis : to bend their necks 
 beneath Romulus' s yoke. — et ipsum . . . Oceanum: and Ocean 
 himself to tremble beneath the new exercise of the Roman power. 
 Secures, here meaning the axes in the fasces, was the symbol of the 
 imperium; tremere is transitive. — quo non alius . . . saepe nee 
 utra: than whom no other could more quickly reach a decision in a 
 lawsuit, after having heard only one side in a case, often neither; 
 cf. x. 4. — Quis . . . toto . . . anno: cf. vii. 4. — Tibi, etc.: an 
 apostrophe to Claudius. — cedet : sc. Minos, once lord of the 
 hundred cities of Crete, now one of the judges of the silent people in 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 145 
 
 Hades. Cf. Verg. A ere. VI. 264, umbrae silentes. Minos ac- 
 knowledges himself outdone and will yield you his place. — 
 causidici, venale genus: a reference not merely to their venality 
 in general but to the special fact that Claudius had allowed them 
 to receive fees; cf. xii. 2. — poetae . . . novi: Claudius's willing- 
 ness to listen to an "author's reading" is recalled even by the 
 younger Pliny (Ep. I. 13. 3); contrast our author's attitude in 
 ii. 3. — concusso . . . fritillo: gambling was illegal; cf. Hor. 
 Carm. III. 24, 58, vetita legibus alea. But Claudius was fond of 
 it and even wrote a book about the aleatory art. Note his penalty 
 in Apoc. xiv.-xv. 
 
 XIII. 1. Talthybius: Agamemnon's herald in the Trojan War, 
 and proverbial for a swift and zealous messenger. The Talthybius 
 of the gods was evidently Mercury. — inter Tiberim et viam Tectam: 
 at the northern end of the Campus Martius, not far from the 
 mausoleum of Augustus, where Claudius's ashes were actually 
 laid away, the via Tecta (cf. Martial, VIII. 75, 2; III. 5, 5.), 
 which was perhaps the via Fornicata of Livy (XXII. 36), seems 
 to have been a sort of arcade with shops. Claudius's descent to 
 Hades here is apparently due to the popular superstitions that 
 centred about this campus ignifer, as about Avernus (of. Verg. 
 Aen. VI. 240); in primitive times a pool fed by hot springs and 
 other signs of volcanic action had marked the spot, the Terentum 
 of the Ludi Terentini or Ludi Saeculares, for which Horace wrote 
 the Carmen Saeculare in Augustus's time (b.c. 17). Claudius 
 himself had celebrated the games here in 47 a. d., by a different 
 computation of the century date from Augustus's (800 a.u.c), 
 and incurred some ridicule for the traditional announcement of a 
 celebration such as no man then living had seen or would see again, 
 when Augustus's games had taken place only sixty- three years 
 before and one of the actors appeared in both (Pliny, A''. H. VII. 
 159). The altar of Dis and Proserpina and other inscriptional 
 evidence on the saecular games was discovered here in 1886 and 
 subsequently (see Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations, p. 446). 
 
 2. compendiaria : sc. via; i.e. by a short cut. Cf. Ep. 73, 12; 
 te in caelum compendiario voco. — Narcissus libertus: one of the 
 most wealthy and powerful of Claudius's freedmen, and his secre- 
 tary ab epistulis, i.e. in charge of his correspondence. He was 
 
146 NOTES, CAP. XIII-XIV 
 
 perhaps the Narcissus named by St. Paul (Ep. ad Rom. xvi. !!>. 
 Since he was an opponent of Agrippina, Claudius's assassination 
 was accomplished while he was away at the watering place of 
 Sinuessa in Campania for his gout. After Claudius's death, 
 Narcissus was summarily disposed of, and got to Hades, since 
 he did not go by way of Olympus, ahead of his patron. — 
 venienti : sc. Claudia, patrono. — erat (i.e. veniehat) a balineo : 
 the baths of Sinuessa. — quid di : sc. veniunt ? In the mime of 
 Herodas entitled The Matchmaker occurs the line (9) tI <ri 0ebs vpis 
 iv$p<iirovs, where it evidently, from the context, means. It is a long 
 time since I have seen you; your visits are as rare as those of a 
 god among men. Perhaps Seneca was adapting the quotation. — 
 Celerius: hurry up! for the use of the comparative, cf. citius, 
 vii. 1. — Dicto citius: a phrase familiar enough for burlesque; 
 cf. Verg. Aen. I. 142. 
 
 3. procUvia . . . facile descenditur: a reminiscence of the 
 familiar /aciKs descensus Averno (Aen. VI. 126); but the senti- 
 ment is common. — ad ianuam Ditis: cf. Verg. Aen. VI. 127, on 
 the entrance to Pluto's palace. — ut ait Horatius: Carm. II. 13, 34. 
 — belua centiceps: Vergil's account {Aen. VI. 417-423), which 
 gives Cerberus three heads instead of a hundred, is more familiar. 
 Hesiod, however, gives him fifty (Theog. 312). — subalbam canem 
 in deliciis: a white dog as a pet; subalbus is strictly "whitish." — 
 sane non quern, etc. : really not one that you would like to meet in 
 the dark. There is evidently a play also on the two meanings of 
 tenehris. 
 
 4. procedunt cantantes: i.e. the crowd in Hades. — e4p^Ka|jitv, 
 <rvYX<'^'P°l''(*' • f fi have found him and we rejoice; the ritualistic ac- 
 clamation of Osiris in the annual Egyptian festival of his return; 
 the cry to which Juvenal refers in Sat. viii. 29, "what the people 
 shout when Osiris is found." It is also said to have been the 
 formula of rejoicing when a new Apis, the bull incarnation of 
 Osiris, was found after the old one had died. Its present applica- 
 tion indicates that the souls of Claudius's victims had been wait- 
 ing for him. — C. Silius: called by Tacitus {Ann. XI. 12) iuven- 
 tutis Romanae pulcherrimus, and chiefly noted as the paramour of 
 Messalina, whose mock marriage with him was the occasion of 
 her condemnation. — luncus Vergilianus, Traulus Montanus, and 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 147 
 
 Saufeius Trogus are mentioned by Tacitus {Ann. XI. 35-36). — 
 M. Helvius, Cotta, and Fabius are unknown. — Vettius Valens: 
 physician as well as eques; one of Messalina's lovers. — duci: 
 i.e. ad mortem; of. vi. 2. — Mnester pantomimus : probably a 
 freedman of the Emperor Tiberius; a favorite of Caligula and also 
 of Messalina, to whose fondness for him Claudius had been scanda- 
 lously blind. — decoris causa : for the sake of appearances. — • 
 minorem : i.e. shorter by a head. 
 
 5. AdMessalinam: the natural centre for the foregoing group. — 
 Polybius: Claudius's o studiis, to whom Seneca had addressed the 
 Consolatio from Corsica; of. p. 103. Messalina caused his down- 
 fall; of the four other liberti here mentioned, Harpocras is the 
 only one to whom we have any other reference, and the occasion 
 of his death is unknown. — necubi imparatus : lest he should be 
 anywhere unprepared, i.e. unprovided with attendants; cf. nee 
 incomitatum, ui. 4. — Justus Catonius : praefectus praetorio, a.d. 43; 
 one of Messalina's victims. She had feared he would tell what he 
 knew of her vices. — Rufrius Pollio : appointed prefect a. d. 41. — 
 amici : sc. imperatoris. — Lusius Saturninus and Cornelius Lupus 
 are mentioned by Tacitus (Ann. XIII. 43) among the alleged 
 victims of P. Suillius under the Claudian regime. — Pedo Pom- 
 peius: cf.. xiv. 2. — Sextus Asinius Celer, as a brother of Asinius 
 Gallus, may have been ruined by participation in his conspiracy. — 
 novissime: lastly. — fratris filia: Julia, daughter of Germanicus; 
 cf. X. 4. — sororis filia: Julia, daughter of Livia by Drusus Julius; 
 cf. X. 4. — generi: L. Silanus and Pompeius Magnus; cf. viii. 2; 
 X. 4; xi. 2-5. — soceri : Appius Silanus and Crassus Frugi, the latter 
 of whom was strictly consocer of Claudius; cf. xi. 2-5. — socrus: 
 Domitia Lepida, mother of Messalina, and Scribonia, who was 
 strictly Claudius's consocrus, being the mother of his son-in-law 
 Magnus; cf. xi. 2-5. ' 
 
 6. irdvTa <|>(\<i>v irX^prj : every place is full of (my) friends. — 
 quomodo hue venistis: on Claudius's forgetfulness, recall nescio 
 inquis, xi. 1, and note. — In ius: to trial. ■ — sellas: curule chairs 
 of the magistrates; here, the judgment seat. 
 
 XTV. 1. ad tribunal Aeaci: according to Plato {Gorgias, 524 A) 
 Aeacus was judge of the Europeans who came to Hades, while 
 Rhadamanthus attended to the Asiatics. The comic interest of 
 
148 NOTES, CAP. XIV-XV 
 
 the situation is evidently the close parody in Hades upon the 
 usual Roman legal procedure before a praetor. — lege Cornelia: 
 a law of the Dictator Sulla, de sicariis et veneficis. — Postulat 
 nomen eius recipiat: the request by the accuser that the magis- 
 trate take up the case, (ut) nomen recipiat. — subscriptionem : the 
 formal written accusation, so called from the signature (sub- 
 scriptio) which the accuser was required to append to it. — 
 occisos senatores xxxv : ten of this number have been mentioned 
 in the Apocolocyntosis. About as many more are named in other 
 extant documents. — equites Romanos ccxzi: Tacitus, Ann. 
 XIII. 43, speaks of the equitum Romanorum agmina damnata under 
 Claudius. — ia-a i|>d|iaS6$ t€ Kivis « : as many as the sands on 
 the shore (lit. sand and dust); the words form the end of II. IX. 
 385. 
 
 2. non invenit: sc. Claudius; a demonstrative pronoun would 
 have been in order; cf. Introd. p. xxxi. — P. Petronius vetus con- 
 victor: he had flourished some thirty years before, being consul 
 A. D. 19; hence the vetus. Recall conOTctoriftus, iii. 4. — Claudiana 
 linqua disertus: cf. v. 2, non intellegere . . . linguam eius, etc. — 
 advocationem : technically a postponement or stay of the pro- 
 ceedings, asked for in order that the accused might consult his 
 advocatvs and prepare his case for the court. Seneca sometimes 
 uses the word in nearly the general sense of dilatio. — Incipit . . . 
 velle: this particular expression with an infinitive is familiar in 
 vulgar phraseology; cf. Petron. Cen. Trim. 9, 70, and 98. — ilium- 
 i.e. Claudius. — altera . . . audita : cf . x. 4 and the Nenia, 1. 40 
 
 ■ — a(Kc irdOoi,, etc.: if he should be treated as he treated others 
 true justice would be done, a proverbial expression of "eye for an 
 eye" justice to which Aristotle (Eth. Nic. V. 5, 3) refers as a 
 judgment of Rhadamanthus. Elsewhere it is ascribed variously 
 to Hesiod and to the Delphic oracle. 
 
 3. magis iniquum . . . quam novum: i.e. that he should be 
 convicted without having his defence heard; he had often con- 
 victed others so. — Sisjrphum, etc. : the suggestion is implied, of 
 course, that some one of these three notorious sufferers should be 
 relieved and Claudius put in his place. — laturam : like many 
 words of plebeian formation in -ura. In late Latin it became a 
 common commercial term for the work of a porter; appropriately 
 
APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 149 
 
 used of Sisjrphus's punishment in Hades — rolling a huge stone 
 up a hill only to see it roll down again. — Taatalum : who was con- 
 stantly tantalized by a rich banquet spread before him and snatched 
 away just as he was about to satisfy his hunger. — succurreretur : 
 impersonal. — Izionis . . . rotam suifiaminandam : that the wheel 
 of Ixion — who was bound to it — ought to be stopped, sometime. 
 Sufflamino, from sufjlamen, a drag chain, was presumably a 
 carter's word. 
 
 4. lion placuit : hut it was decided not, etc. ; note the disconnected 
 brevity of the passage. — vel Claudius: i.e. Claudius quoque. — 
 Placuit . . . debere : it was decided that a new punishment ought, 
 etc.; observe the tautology in these two words. — alicuius cupidi- 
 tatis spem: the hope of satisfying some desire. — pertuso fritillo: 
 with a dicebox that had a hole in the bottom. Cf. the "vain 
 labor" of the Danaids with their leaky water-jars, pertusa dolia. 
 
 XV. 1. missurus: about to throw the dice. — subducto . . . 
 fundo : i.e. the hole in the bottom of the box. — auderet : ventured; 
 by this time he is somewhat intimidated. — talcs : tali and tesserae 
 were different in form, but here the terms are undiscriminated. — 
 decepere : sc. tali; they tricked his confidence. — adsiduo . . . 
 furto: with constant deception. — tanguntiu: culmina: the summit 
 is reached (by Sisyphus, pushing his burden up the hill). — inrita: 
 vainly; adj. for adv. — volvuntur . . . coUo: roll back from his 
 neck. 
 
 2. Apparuit . . . C. Caesar : cf . statement (Suet. Cal. 23) that 
 Caligula had spared his uncle Claudius only as a butt for con- 
 temptuous treatment. — flagris . . . vapulantem : evidence that 
 Gaius had habitually treated Claudius as his slave. Cf vapulare 
 in ix. 3; the word colaphus (cuffing) heightens the disgrace. — 
 Menandro liberto suo : Menander was a not uncommon freedman's 
 name. But very likely this means the great Athenian comic poet, 
 who, having spent his life in exposing the foibles of men, now 
 figures as the assistant of the judge of the dead. — a cognitionibus : 
 an office of which this is the earliest extant mention. It was that 
 of a secretary for the investigation of certain kinds of legal cases; 
 cf. a libellis, a studiis, ab epistulis, etc. The later officials a cog- 
 nitionibus were of higher rank, but under the early emperors they 
 were imperial freedmen. 
 
150 NOTES, CAP. XV 
 
 Claudius is thus not only left as the slave of a freedman, but is 
 condemned to a life of legal drudgery (and a laborem inritum) quite 
 in accordance with his habit. He is abruptly saved from even the 
 parody of an heroic punishment, and relegated, with conscious 
 anticlimax and contemptuous haste, to something like his appro- 
 priate destiny. 
 
AD NERONEM CAESAREM DE CLEMENTIA LIBRI II 
 
 The De Clementia was written for Nero after he had been in 
 power a little more than a year. Its date is approximately de- 
 termined by the allusion to his age, in I. ix. 1, indicating that he 
 had just finished his eighteenth year; Nero's eighteenth birthday 
 was December 15, 55 a. d. The dedication of the essay seems really 
 to have represented the main purpose in writing it; not, as in the 
 case of most similar addresses, to be a merely complimentary 
 appendage to a piece of Uterature intended chiefly for the general 
 public; and it represents ts^pically Seneca's policy in dealing 
 with his difficult pupil. Tacitus, in the well-known passage on 
 the beginning of Nero's reign {Annales, XIII. 2), says that this 
 would have been signalized by murders if Seneca and Burrus 
 had not prevented, exerting their influence upon the young prince 
 each in his own way, — Burrus militaribus curis et severitate 
 morum, Seneca praeceptis eloquentiae et comitate honesta. 
 
 Nero seems to have responded well, at first. Suetonius ( Nero, 
 10) describes his eager endeavor to please the people around him: 
 atque ut certiorem adhuc indolem ostenderet . . . neque liberalitatis 
 neque clementiae, ne comitatis quidem exhibendae ullam occasionem 
 omisit. But he had early given evidence of opposite qualities. 
 Britannicus's murder had occurred some months before the 
 De Clementia appeared. And in the essay Seneca seeks by every 
 means to impress upon his pupil the attractiveness of the ideal of 
 a mild and popular prince. It is worth while to observe the variety 
 of motives to which Seneca appeals, some of them thoroughly 
 good, others much less noble. The element of flattery is of course 
 inevitable, but it is ingenious and grave and moderate. Bearing 
 in mind the necessities of the case, one finds little that can be said 
 seriously to belie Seneca's final reflection upon his relations with 
 the Emperor, " that his own character was not inclined to adulation 
 and that of this no one had a better reason to be aware than Nero, 
 
 161 
 
152 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. I 
 
 who had oftener encountered free speech on his part than servility" 
 (Tac. Ann. XV. 61). Mere decency, in a published work ad- 
 dressed to the head of the government, required an attitude that 
 under different circumstances would have been less appropriate; 
 and there was ample reason to suppose that the best way to make 
 Nero's good impulses settle into principle was to single them out 
 for compliment. Furthermore, when Seneca recognized that 
 vanity was a large force in Nero's character, it was hardly less than 
 a duty to seek to make it effective as a restraint and stimulus 
 on the side of good government.' 
 
 In the rhetorical sense the De dementia is one of Seneca's 
 finest works. But as we have it, it is incomplete. Originally it 
 was written in three books, corresponding presumably to the 
 three divisions of the subject as it is outlined in chapter iii. 1. 
 Of these we have only the first book and seven chapters of the 
 second, none of the rest remaining but a few quoted fragments. 
 
 The best source of the text is a Vatican manuscript (Laure- 
 shamensis S. Nazarii, now No. 1547 in the Palatine collection of 
 the Vatican library) of about the ninth century. In this the 
 De dementia is preserved along with the De Beneficiis, with which 
 it occurs in several other manuscripts also. 
 
 Book I 
 
 I. I write of clemency to you, Nero, that you may realize your 
 qualities and understand the greatness of your part in the world. 
 It is a high standard of generosity which you have set yourself, 
 but men's doubts of you have disappeared, and all regard you 
 as the pattern of your own future action. 
 
 1. specuU vice fungerer : serve as a mirror. — verus fructus, 
 etc. : i.e. virtue is its own reward; fecisse, substantive. ■ — illis, 
 ipsas : both referring to virtutum. — banc immensam multitudi- 
 nem: i.e. the world of humanity whom he saw around him; note 
 the peculiar force of hanc. — ezsultaturam : with mvltitudinem. 
 
 ' There is a curious parallel in the Octavia, vss. 438-592, where Seneca 
 is represented in conversation with Nero as appealing to the same 
 motives that are suggested in the De Clementia. In a different way the 
 present essay throughout offers many parallels to the De Ira, naturally, 
 since anger and clemency are so often opposed. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 153 
 
 — hoc iugum; the imperial government. — secum: i.e. to one's 
 self. 
 
 2. Egone, etc.: Caesar speaks. — placui: have been deemed 
 suitable (by Providence). — quid cuique . . . pronuntiat: i.e. 
 Caesar is the mouthpiece of Fortune. — nulla pars: sc. orbis 
 terrarum. — volente propitioque me : epithets familiar in forms of 
 prayer to the gods. — pax mea : the poets of the Augustan age 
 had celebrated the universal peace that was brought about by 
 the imperial government, and even in burlesque {Apoc. x. 2) 
 Augustus is made to mention that he had secured peace on land 
 and sea. But the majestic idea of the Pax Romana was becom- 
 ing concrete almost in the same way with the term Imperium; cf. 
 iv. 2. — funditus excidi: to be utterly destroyed. — regium decus: 
 a crown. — mea iuris dictio: i.e. all these questions are under my 
 jurisdiction. 
 
 3. iuvenilis impetus: an indirect caution. — non ipsa . . . 
 gloria : not the pride of power shown by inspiring fears, which is 
 dira, sed frequens, etc. ; one of the subjects of compulit. Later in 
 life, Tacitus records, Nero was suspected of this very motive 
 (Ann. XVI. 23). — nemo non, cui alia desunt, etc. : any one who 
 lacks other titles to favor, is an object of my regard simply as a 
 human being ; in this, Seneca lends Nero one of his own most sig- 
 nificant and influential ideas. 
 
 4. sic . . . tamquam legibus . . . rationem redditurus : as if I 
 were about to render an account to the laws. — quas . . . evocavi : 
 cf. Apoc. xii. 2, iurisconsuUi e tenebris procedebant. But Claudius 
 had made a similar favorable impression at the beginning of his 
 reign (Suet. Claud. 12). — Alterius . . . ultima: / have pitied the 
 youth of one (culprit), the old age of another. — dignitati donavi, 
 etc. : I have pardoned because of his high position, etc. — mihi 
 peperci: I have spared my own sensibilities. 
 
 5. principum: i.e. imperatorum, a late use of the word. — tu 
 . . . magnum longumque eius bonum: you, its great and endur- 
 ing benefactor; an intimation, also, of long life in well-doing. 
 
 6. ingens tibi onus: i.e. you have set a difficult standard for 
 yourself; cf . Cons, ad Polyb. iii. 2, fin. — Ti. Caesaris prima tem- 
 pora: it was only in his later years that Tiberius was notorious 
 for evil. — ad gustum exigitur: i.e. is preferred as the model; a 
 
154 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. I-III 
 
 gastronomic figure, — is taken as the sample, foretaste. — per- 
 sonam f erre : wear a mask. — ficta . . . recidunt : nee simulatum 
 potest quicquam esse diuturnum, as Cicero says (De Off. II. 12, 43). 
 
 7. Magnam adibat aleam: i.e. ran a great risk. — quo: adverb. 
 — in tuto sunt: i.e. to continue the aleatory figure, are "a sure 
 thing." — tui: obj. gen. — quidem: correl. with the following 
 tamen. — quod contigit : which is already attained. — haec con- 
 f essio : i.e. (se) esse felices. — et ilia {confessio) : nihil . . . posse. 
 
 8. securitas, ius : in apposition with multa. — - nisi pereundi 
 licentia: i.e. such liberty of self-destruction as the state had in 
 the civil wars. 
 
 9. cui . . . placeat: who is so sure of his own blamelessness. 
 
 n. Clemency is not merely for the wicked; it may have to do 
 with the good; but it should be exercised discriminatingly. 
 
 1. honor: so. medicinae; respect for it even apud sanos. — in- 
 terim fortuna pro culpa est: sometimes incriminating circum- 
 stances come by chance (to the guiltless).. — condicione temporum: 
 Seneca probably refers to the praiseworthy but misguided ob- 
 stinacy of some who stood out still for the old republican power 
 of the senate. Cicero made a similar plea for such men in his 
 oration pro Marcello, 20. — Adice, quod: cf. Cons, ad Polyb. vii. 4, 
 and note. — reverti ad innocentiam possit: i.e. by generous treat- 
 ment. And the better Ms. authority at this point, instead of 
 the following sed, gives si, after which we should have to recognize 
 a lacuna in the text, perhaps to be filled by some such explanation 
 as si dementia spem restituerit. 
 
 2. deploratis: equivalent to desperatis; a post- Augustan usage. 
 Cf. xiv. 1. — -abscisam: i.e. eliminated from our policy ("cut 
 out"). — tarn omnibus . . quam nulli: to pardon everybody is 
 as cruel as to pardon none. — praeponderet : let it lean (turn the 
 scale) to the side of mercy. 
 
 m. Divisions of the subject proposed. Clemency is the most 
 suitable of the virtues for any human being, especially for a ruler; 
 for him it wins the greatest security. 
 
 1. haec sue melius loco: perhaps in the second book, judging 
 from the part of it which remains; but none of the extant por- 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 155 
 
 tion of the work exactly corresponds to this promise. — tres par- 
 tes: the amplification of these three divisions is not complete: 
 the first is treated in Book I.; the second begins with the in- 
 complete Book II., more precisely at chapteriii. Book III., which 
 is not extant, was presumably occupied with the third. — man- 
 suetudinis, vel poenae remissionis : genitive of material, after 
 prima {pars erit}. — vitia . . . virtutes imitantia : e.g. as miserv- 
 cordia in some respects resembles dementia (II. iv. 4). 
 
 2. Nullam . . . convenire: subject of constet, the whole being 
 the subject of necesse est. — inter nos: i.e. the Stoics, enlightened 
 souls, among whom Seneca seeks to include his pupil, the young 
 emperor. — inter illos : the contrasted sect, the Epicureans. — 
 virtutem naturae suae : a virtue suited to his nature. — quae : ref. 
 to virtutem. — manus retinet: stays his violent impulses, i.e. in 
 order to avoid trouble. 
 
 3. Ita: i.e. si . . . potentia est. — pestifera vis: predicate; the 
 subject is valere ad nocendum. — Illius: i.e. quem, cuius, quo. — 
 tam supra SB . . . quam prose: the natural emphasis is reversed; 
 as truly for them as he is above them; cf. xx. 2. — experiuntur: 
 %ey have reason to know. — tamquam ad . . . sidus: in Apoc. iv. 
 1 , Nero is compared to Lucifer, Hesperus, and Sol. — latera : of. 
 iv. 1, adversa volneribus pectora. 
 
 4. se suaque iactandi quocumque . . . salus: of casting them- 
 selves and their resources into whatever breach the ruler's safety 
 requires. Cf. Cic. pro Marcello, vii. 21, for similar reasoning. — 
 ezcipere f errum : suffer wounds. — nonniunquam senis et invalidi : 
 a pleasant hint of Nero's own admirable youth. 
 
 5. corpus animo deservit: a simile comparable to the old fable 
 of the belly and the other members of the body told to the Roman 
 plebs by Menenius Agrippa (Livy, II. 32; cf. Shakespeare, Corio- 
 lanus, i. 1). — cum hoc: although this (the body). — ■ ille: animus. 
 — in qua sede . . . incertus: i.e. its location in the body is un- 
 known; there were various ancient theories as to the seat of the 
 understanding, in the heart, liver, etc. — avarus dominus: i.e. 
 the mind. — dextram flammis objecimus : like Mucius Scaevola, 
 who put his right hand into the fire in order to impress the Etru- 
 rian king, Porsenna, with his Roman fortitude. — voluntarii terram 
 subsiluimus : like M. Curtius, who plunged on horseback into 
 
156 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. III-Vl 
 
 the chasm in the Forum, thenceforward called the Lacus Curtius, 
 in order to satisfy the conditions laid down by the oracle and 
 save his country. Subsiluimus is here exceptionally used in the 
 literal sense of its component parts, and transitively. — sic: cor- 
 relative with the foregoing quemadmodum. — multitude . . . pres- 
 sura se : the populace, that would crush itself. 
 
 IV. It is but reasonable that the people should regard the 
 interests of the head of the state before their own. 
 
 1. Suam itaque, etc. : in explanation of the preceding sections; cf . 
 iii. 4, non . . . sine ratione, etc. — denas: ten at a time. — trahunt: 
 i.e. breathe. — Rege incolumi, etc. : from Vergil, Georgics, IV. 212, 
 where he is describing the life of the bees. The queen bee was 
 anciently considered the "king" of the swarm. Seneca quotes 
 the verse also in Ep. 114, 23; cf. Apoc. iii. 2, note. 
 
 2. Romanae pacis: cf. i. 2, pax mea, and viii. 2, in tua pace. — 
 sciet : in the sense of the French savoir, to know how. — domi- 
 nandi, parendi: the Roman people both ruled and were ruled. 
 
 3. tutores: protectors, indicating Seneca's idea of the governing 
 function. • — amari ultra . . . necessitudines : that they are loved 
 (to a degree) beyond (that of) private relationships. — sanis homini- 
 bus : to normal men. — in quern . . . convertit : recall the famous 
 remark of Louis XIV., I'etat, c'est moi. — Caesar: Augustus, who 
 organized the principate. — illi : Caesari. — huic : rei publicae. 
 
 V. So it is reasonable that the head of the state should be 
 considerate of its members, since they are parts of himself; this 
 is the digniiied and divine attitude. 
 
 1. rem ipsam premit: i.e. the apparent digression is really 
 quite germane to the subject. — quod adhuc colligit : as (the 
 argument) up to this point indicates; colligit is here used, as occa- 
 sionally it is with numbers, in the post-Augustan sense of 
 " amounts to." — misso sanguine : of shed{-ding) blood. — sustinenda 
 est manus : your hand must be held carefully, like that of a surgeon, 
 lest it cut too deep. 
 
 2. ut dicebam: in iii. 2-3. — materia: opportunity for its 
 exercise. 
 
 3. virtutibus inter se . . . concordia, etc.: it was the Stoic 
 doctrine that virtue is essentially one, not plural. Hence the 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 157 
 
 separate "virtues," as different manifestations of the same thing, 
 were all equally virtue, and therefore equally good. — magnani- 
 mitas: in the sense of superiority to trifles. — retundere: note 
 the frequency of substantive infinitives. — melius . . . con- 
 spicitur: cf. Consol. ad Polyb. vi. 4, and note, ref. to Matt. v. 14. 
 
 4. eum : subject of inicere and uti. — ipsi, qui pereunt, adsen- 
 tiuntur : cf . Cons, ad Polyb. xiii. 4, scias licet ea demum fulmina 
 esse iustissima, quae etiam percussi colunt. — excanduit: cf. Apoc. 
 vi. 2, excandescit. — sibi manum inicere : restrain himself. — cogi- 
 tantem: with eum, above. — servare: sc. contra legem. 
 
 5. nisi se ad illam extulit: unless it (animus) rises to the level 
 of that (fortuna). — illam . . . infra ad terram deducit: drags it 
 down; cf. the colloquialism, "run it into the ground." — esse, 
 despicere, furere, praemordere, urguere: substantives. — urguere: 
 to "worry," as a cat does a mouse. — proiectos: their victims 
 when "down." — quae impulerunt: what they have already felled. 
 
 — pertinacia: i.e. persistent rage. 
 
 6. eminet, exaequat : the understood subject refers to regem. — 
 et mentis amittere : and who deserve to lose, sc. vitam vel dignitatem. 
 
 — superiori: dative of separation; i.e. one can kill one's superior, 
 but one can give life only to one's inferior. 
 
 7. est excellentis f ortunae : belongs to the superior station. — 
 suspici: to be looked up to. — illi, dis: datives after contigit, of 
 which the subject is posse (se. facere). — in lucem edimtir : we are 
 brought into the world. — tarn boni, etc. : cf. Matt. v. 45 : " He 
 maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good," etc. — Deorum 
 . . . adserens : assuming the attitude of the gods. — alios . libens 
 videat : let him look upon some with pleasure. — alios in numerum 
 relinquat: i.e. to complete the total; for "it takes all kinds of 
 people to make a world." 
 
 VI. There is no one who does not need indulgence, for all have 
 sinned. 
 
 1. defluens eliditur, quotiens, etc. : i.e. as a stream is dammed 
 up by an obstructing rock. — in qua . . . caveae postulantur : in 
 which the places are filled (lit. required) in three theatres at once. 
 The three theatres (cf. Suet. Aug. 45, per trina theatra) were those 
 of Pompey, Marcellus, and Balbus. They were, of course, im- 
 
158 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. VI-IX 
 
 mensely larger than the ordinary theaters of the present day, 
 being able to contain, it was said, thirty or forty thousand people 
 each; otherwise the inference would have been pointless. — in 
 qua consumitur, etc. : Rome was a market for the products of 
 the entire world. — aratur : is produced. — quanta solitude . . . 
 sit: after cogitato. 
 
 2. quotusquisque: i.e. how often one? cf. St. John viii. 7. — non 
 ex ipsa . . . quaerit : would not be convicted under the same law by 
 which he is conducting the trial. — difficilior : more unwilling. 
 Seneca here shows the keenness of his psychology. — petere . . . 
 meruit: has needed to seek it. 
 
 3. Peccavimus omnes : scriptural parallels are numerous; e.g. 
 Eccles. vii. 20. Cf. also Seneca himself {De Ira, II. 28, 1), hoc 
 primum nobis persuadeamus, neminem nostrum esse sine culpa. ■' — 
 ex destinato : of deliberate intention. 
 
 4. peccando : i.e. because of the lessons of his sinful experience. 
 
 Vn. A ruler should treat his subjects no more severely than he 
 wishes the gods to treat him. He cannot act as among equals. 
 
 1. talem . . . quales . . . velit: i.e. as he wishes his tres- 
 passes to be forgiven. — Expedit : is it well ? a rhetorical question 
 without the proper particle. — cuius non membra . . . colli- 
 gant: a result clause after tutus; i.e. safe from the danger that 
 the haruspices may have to collect his limbs for burial, as they 
 did those of persons struck by lightning, who were thus marked 
 by the displeasure of the gods. 
 
 2. fulminibus: with the lightnings of divine vengeance. — mundi 
 status : the aspect of the world. — puro die : mth a clear sky. — 
 fragoribus: crashes of thunder. — ignes: lightnings. — morati im- 
 perii : of a well-ordered government. 
 
 3. trementes, expavescentes : the people. — eo: the ruler. — 
 Facilius . . . ignoscitur: we more easily excuse. — privatis: con- 
 trasted with is, cui ultio infacili est. — omissa ea: sc. ultione. 
 
 4. Humili loco positis . . . liberius est: for those who occupy a 
 humble station it is more permissible. — exercere manum ; to en- 
 gage in violence. — morem . . . gerere : to yield to their rage. — 
 leves : of little consequence. — inter paria : between equals, either 
 persons or things; contrasted with regi. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 159 
 
 Vni. Great power entails proportionate obligations to self- 
 restraint. 
 
 1. Grave: (sc. esse) predicate of arbitrium eripi. — regibus: 
 dat. of separation. — non experiris: i.e. you speak as if the idea 
 were a novelty, — that you (in a position of authority) are under 
 more constraint than we (who are subjects). — istud: i.e. im- 
 periuTO, here meaning freedom of action. — ^ quam non excedunt: 
 excedo became transitive in Silver Age Latin. — quorum et virtutes, 
 etc. : i.e. whose virtues have the disadvantage and whose vices 
 the advantage of obscurity. — vestra facta, etc. : by contrast. 
 
 — nullis magis . . . quam: sc. illis (dat. of agency). 
 
 2. licent : recall the plural also in Cons, ad Polyb. vi. 4, etc. — 
 beneficio tuo : i.e. under your beneficent government. — in tua 
 pace: cf. i. 2, pax mea. In the peace which depended upon the 
 government, the government alone could not rest. — obsidet : sc. 
 fortuna, i.e. your greatness. 
 
 3. non posse fieri minorem : in apposition with haec servitus. — 
 illis datum . . . quam tibi tutum : no more granted (permissible) to 
 them than safe for you. — fastigio . . . adfixus : Seneca similarly 
 expresses his idea in De Tranq. Animi, x. 6; multi quidem sunt, 
 quibus necessario haerendum sit in fastigio suo, ex quo non possunt 
 nisi cadendo descendere. 
 
 4. contingit: it is possible. — prodire: are going out of doors. — 
 Oriris: you are dawning, like the sun. Nero was early made ac- 
 customed to this comparison; cf. Apoc. iv. 1, et al. 
 
 5. excipiant : hear. — quia neminem adfligere : sc. potes. — 
 periculo, metu: abl. of attendant circumstance. — cogitatur: the 
 subject is quantum fecerit . . . sit. — in eo: in the case of him. 
 
 6. opportuniores, etc. : i.e. more liable to be imposed upon, 
 "easier." — acceptarum: sc. iniuriarum, obj. gen. with patientia. 
 
 — vindicta : vengeance. 
 
 7. Voluntas . . . deficiat: i.e. one's inclination to vengeance 
 should stop short of what the occasion calls for. — toUendo: sc. 
 inimicos. 
 
 IX. An example of Augustus's effective use of clemency. 
 1. domestico: i.e. in your own family. — a principatu suo: 
 from the time when he gained sole power. — in communi : while 
 
160 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. IX 
 
 still cooperating with others, in the triumvirate. — hoc aetatis: cf. 
 the commoner phrase, id temporis ; vid. G.L. 336, n. 2; B. 185, 2; 
 A.G. 397, a; H.B. 388, 6. — duodevicensimum egressus annum: 
 note the non-Ciceronian transitive use of egressus. The allusion 
 helps to fix the date of the De dementia as not long after Decem- 
 ber, 55 A.D. Augustus, however, born in September, 63 b.c, was 
 over twenty at the time of the proscriptions of 43. — pugiones in 
 sinum, etc. : he had already hidden daggers in the bosoms of his 
 friends. In Seneca's tragedy of Thyestes (722) occurs the expres- 
 sion abscondere ensem in a similar sense. — latus petierat: i.e. he 
 had tried to assassinate. — coUega proscriptionis : i.e. had par- 
 ticipated in the proscription, with Antony and Lepidus, the other 
 triumvirs. 
 
 2. cum annum quadragensimum transisset: this is the Ms. 
 reading. Another version of the story, given by Dio Cassius 
 (LV. 14-22), dates it 4 a.d., when Augustus had passed (several 
 years) beyond sixty. It has been suggested by WesseUng that 
 Seneca's text should read sexagesimum (supposing the present 
 reading to be due to an easy corruption from LX to XL) in view 
 of Dio's statement and of Seneca's epithet, senex, applied to 
 Augustus in xi. 1. Cinna, moreover, according to the Fasti, 
 was consul a.d. 5. (Cf. the end of this chapter ix.) But if 
 Seneca had thought of Augustus as sixty-six years old, he would 
 hardly have qualified his epithet by the following words, aut iam 
 in senectutem annis vergentibus ; and we have no other evidence 
 that Augustus was in Gaul so late in life. It seems probable 
 that the apparent error is Seneca's rather than a copyist's. This 
 may be one of the matters in which, according to Quintilian's 
 ■ criticism, Seneca was misled by secretaries to whom he intrusted 
 the investigation of particular points. — in Gallia moraretur : 
 Augustus was in Gaul when he was about forty-seven years 
 old. Dio, however, puts the incident in Rome. — L. Cinnam: 
 Cn. Cornelius Cinna Magnus; according to Dio, Tvatos Kopy^Xios 
 $vyaTpidovs tov fieydXov nofxiTTjlou &v {Gnaeus Cornelius, son of 
 the daughter of Pompey the Great), which agrees with the 
 inscriptions showing his name. Apparently the praenomen Lucius 
 is here an error of Seneca's. This Cinna' s father was the L. 
 Cornelius Cinna who was praetor in 44 b.c; he had married a 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 161 
 
 daughter of Pompey. Corneille's tragedy of Cinna is based upon 
 this story. — vellet : bc. Cinna. 
 
 3. Constituit: sc. Augustus. — hoc detracto: i.e. except for the 
 present crime. — iam . . . nonpoterat: his character was so changed. 
 
 4. non occidere . . . sed immolare: with the emphasis on the 
 distinction. 
 
 5. tanti: G.L. 380, 1,rem.; B. 203, 3; A.G. 417; H.B. 356, 1.— 
 ut ego non peream : ut . . non is not instead of ne, but non goes 
 with the verb in a species of litotes. 
 
 6. Livia : a longer version of the conversation with her is given 
 by Dio, LV. 16 seq. — non procedunt: as we say, do not "go." — 
 Q. Salvidienus Rufus: an officer of Augustus's army. His plot 
 (40 B.C.) was revealed by M. Antony, and he was accused in the 
 senate by Augustus himself. Being condemned, Salvidienus 
 committed suicide. Cf. Livy, Book 127, Periocha; Dio, XL VIII. 
 33; Suet. Aug. 66. — Lepidus: Suetonius {Aug. 19) mentions him 
 and the other conspirators whose names follow here: coniura- 
 tiones . . . compressit alias alio tempore, Lepidi iuvenis, deinde 
 Varronis Murenae et Panni Caepionis, mox M. Egnati, etc. Cf. 
 Sen. de Brev. Vit. iv. 5 : dum (Augustus) . . . hostes perdomat . . . 
 in ipsa urbe Murenae, Caepionis, Lepidi, Egnatiorum in eum 
 mucrones acuebantur. Lepidus was a son of the triumvir. Cf. 
 Dio, LIV. 15. — Murena: A. Terentius Varro Murena was by 
 adoption a brother of Terentia, the wife of Maecenas, who incurred 
 Augustus's displeasure by divulging to her the secret of the dis- 
 covered conspiracy (Suet. Aug. 66). He was the Licinius 
 Murena to whom Horace addressed the famous ode on the Golden 
 Mean (Carm. II. 10); in 23 b.c. he was Augustus's colleague in 
 the consulship, but within a year he was involved in the conspiracy 
 with Fannius Caepio. Cf. Suet. Tib. 8; Veil. Paterc. II. 91; Dio, 
 LIV. 3. — Egnatius : M. Egnatius Rufus, by his demagogical and 
 arrogant conduct, rendered himself offensive to Augustus and 
 was prevented from standing for the consulship. After his con- 
 spiracy against the emperor he met his death in prison. Cf. Veil. 
 Paterc. 11.91-92; Dio, LIII. 24; Tac. Ann. I. 10, etc. — quos 
 tantum ausos pudet: some others who ventured to conspire 
 against the emperor were of very low rank (cf. Suet. Aug. 19: 
 nam ne ultimae quidem sortis hominum conspiratione et periculo 
 
162 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. IX-X 
 
 caruit). — quomodo . . . cedat: how clemency may result. — pro- 
 dessefamae tuae: i.e. help your reputation for magnanimity. 
 
 7. sibi . . advocatixm: i.e. a counsellor who supported Augus- 
 tus's own inclinations. — renuntiari . . . amicis: countermanded 
 the request for their attendance, since he had already settled the 
 case. 
 
 8. in hostiiun castris : i.e. in the Pompeian party. — non fac- 
 tum . . . sed natum : naturally, since he was Cn. Pompei nepos, 
 his hostility to the Caesars was hereditary, and his father, some- 
 what equivocally, had favored the "tyrranicides" of the Ides of 
 March. — victo victores invideant: i.e. my partisans have occa- 
 sion to envy you, who belonged to the beaten side. 
 
 9. Non praestas . . . fidem, etc. : you are not keeping our agree- 
 ment; it was understood that, etc. 
 
 10. defixum : struck dumb. ■ — quo . . . animo : with what pur- 
 pose f — male . . agitur : things are in a bad way with the Roman 
 people. — Domum tueri ... in private iudicio superatus : an 
 otherwise unrecorded defeat in a legal action by the influence of a 
 mere libertinus. — adeo nihil facilius, etc. : i.e. having been de- 
 feated by a freedman, you think the next best person against 
 whom to take counsel (advocare) is the emperor. — Cedo : impera- 
 tive; see lexicon. — Paulusne . . . praef erentium : representa- 
 tives of noble houses which have still maintained their greatness. — 
 te . . . f erent : will they suffer you (to rule) 7 — inania nomina : 
 mere inherited names as their only title to respect. — imaginibus 
 suisdecori: two datives; are a credit to their ancestors ; lit. to their 
 family portraits. 
 
 11. hanc poenam: the two hours' ordeal. — prius: the former 
 time it was to you as an open enemy. — parricidae : because 
 Augustus was Pater Patriae. — ^debeas: sc. mihi vitam tuam. 
 
 12. detuUt ultro consulatum: elsewhere (De Benef. IV. 30, 2) 
 Seneca indicates distinctly that it was the greatness of Cinna's 
 grandfather Pompey to which he owed this nomination. — questus : 
 reproaching him. — auderet : note the change of subject. — petere : 
 to offer himself as a candidate. — heres solus illi: i.e. Cinna willed 
 all his property to the emperor. — Nullis amplius insidiis : so also 
 says Dio, LV. 22; it is not quite true, but the later conspiracies 
 were of minor importance. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 163 
 
 X. The extent of Augustus's clemency and its noble results. 
 
 1. abavustuus: Augustus. Nero's mother, Agrippina Minor, 
 was the daughter of Agrippina Major, who was the daughter of 
 Augustus's daughter Julia. By adoption the relation could also 
 be traced through the emperor Tiberius and his adopted son 
 Germanicus, who was the father of Agrippina Minor. — si non 
 ignovisset, etc.: Cicero hints at the same thing in reference to 
 Julius Caesar in the Pro Marcello, v. 13: amplissimos viros . . . 
 patriae reddidit. — Sallustium : C. Sallustius Crispus, grandson of 
 the sister of Sallust the historian, and his heir, was at first an 
 opponent of Augustus, but afterwards became influential as his 
 friend. His gardens near the Porta Collina were famous. Horace 
 addressed to him Carm. ii. 2. — Cocceios: M. Cocceius Nervals 
 supposed, after having been a partisan of Antony, to have been 
 forgiven by Augustus for the sake of his brother, L. Cocceius Nerva. 
 He was consul a.u.c. 718. The plural is generic; i.e. such men as 
 Cocceius, etc. — ■ Deillios: Q. Deillius (or Dellius) was an officer of 
 Antony the Triumvir, who went over to the side of Octavius 
 shortly before the battle of Actium ; cf. Dio, L. 23 ; Veil. 
 Paterc. 11.84. — cohortem primae admissionis : i.e. the most inti- 
 mate class of his friends, those admitted to an audience in preference 
 to others. — Domitios : Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus was pardoned 
 by Julius Caesar after Pharsalia; later he became a partisan of 
 Antony, but went over to Octavius before Actium. He was con- 
 sul 32 B.C. and was the great-grandfather of Nero. — Messalas: 
 M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, the famous orator, was among those 
 proscribed by Antony, but fled to the camp of Brutus and Cas- 
 sius, where he was high in authority. After their death he saved 
 himself by going over to Antony and Octavius. He was highly 
 favored by Augustus. Cf. Apoc. x. 2. — Asinios: C. Asinius 
 Pollio, the orator and historian, when Octavius asked him to go 
 with him to the fight at Actium, is reported to have declined on 
 account of his previous relations with Antony; "I will remain 
 neutral," he said, et era praeda victoris. — Cicerones: the son of the 
 orator, with Messala Corvinus, had been among the partisans of 
 Brutus. — Ipsum Lepidum : the discarded triumvir was defeated 
 by Octavius 36 b.c. and did not die until 13 B.C.; at the latter 
 date Augustus was named Pontifex Maximus. — cLuam diu mori : 
 
164 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. X-XII 
 
 what " an unconscionable time a-dying ! " — tulit . . . retinentem : 
 i.e. allowed him to retain the emblems of authority even after 
 his loss of the power. 
 
 2. gratum, etc. : sc. eum. — nondum subactis: when they were 
 not yet accustomed to subjection. — famam, quae . . . servit : such 
 fame as rarely is at the service of -princes {even) while they are 
 still alive. 
 
 3. non tamquam iussi : i.e. not perfunctorily. — parentis 
 nomen, etc. : i.e. that the name of Pater Patriae befitted him. 
 The spontaneous manner of its bestowal is described in Suet. 
 Av^. 58. — probrosis in se dictis adrisit: Macrobius has gathered 
 {Sat. II. iv. 19-31) a long list of jests which Augustus allowed to 
 be made with impunity at his expense. — quod dare ilium poenas 
 apparebat, cum exigeret : because it appeared that he paid a penalty 
 V)hen he exacted it; i.e. he suffered sympathetically. For ilium we 
 might have expected ipsum. — filiae suae : Julia was at that time 
 the wife of Tiberius; she was in insulam Pandateriam relegata. 
 According to Dio (LV. 10) and Velleius Paterculus (II. 100), 
 some of those who had been guilty with her were put to death; 
 others were exiled. In De Benef. VI. 32, Seneca discusses other 
 aspects of Augustus's state of mind on the same occasion. — adeo 
 
 non occidit ut : he was so far from killing, that . — dimissis : 
 
 to them when they were banished. — diplomata: practically pass- 
 ports; letters recommending the bearers to the attentions of 
 provincial officials. 
 
 4. Hoc est ignoscere : this is real pardon. — qui . . . gratifi- 
 centur: i.e. who will seek to please you by killing men whom they 
 infer that you hate. — non dare . . . sed praestare : in apposition 
 with hoc; not merely to grant safety but to provide it. 
 
 XI. Clemency like that of Augustus, coming after years of 
 bloodshed, is not to be compared to that which you, Nero, have 
 shown in your youth. Clemency as a safeguard; a distinction 
 between kings and tyrants. 
 
 1. Haec Augustus: sc. faciebat. — si in certamen iuvenilium 
 annorum, etc. . even if he take his old age for comparison with your 
 youth. — fuerit, etc. : be it granted that he was, etc. — mare Ac- 
 tiacum . . . infectum: in the battle with Antony and Cleopatra. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 165 
 
 — fractas in Sicilia classes : in the victory over Sextus Pompeius, 
 36 B.C. — Perusinas aras: L. Antonius, the brother of the trium- 
 vir, was captured by Octavius at Perusia, 41 B.C., and the story 
 was current that he and three hundred of his followers were slain 
 at an altar to Julius Caesar. According to Livy, however (Book 
 126, Periocha) , Octavius fame coegit {L. Antonium) in deditionem 
 venire ipsique et omnibus militibus eius ignovit, Perusiam diruit, etc. 
 
 — proscriptiones : those which marked the arrangements of the 
 second Triumvirate, 43 b.c. 
 
 2. lassam crudelitatem : i.e. weariness of cruelty. — habere, 
 fudisse: in apposition with haec {dementia vera). — haec est . . . 
 temperantia et . . . amor: explained by non . . . temptare, sed 
 hebetare. — et humani generis comprendens ut sui amor : a love 
 that includes all the human race as (well as) one's self. — non 
 cupiditate, etc. : depending on corruptum, which modifies the sub- 
 ject of temptare and hebetare. — quantum . . liceat . . . temp- 
 tare: to try to what lengths one may go in tyrannizing over one's 
 countrymen. 
 
 3. nulli . . . citius, etc. : i.e. no one has ever had the power 
 earUer in Ufe. 
 
 4. tutiores praestat : sc. principes vel reges. — Quid interest 
 inter tyrannum ac regem? The distinction that follows is evi- 
 dently not the original Greek one, but the later one made by the 
 philosophers, which has come down to modern times, and to the 
 definition of which Seneca here contributes. 
 
 Xn. The real distinction between a king and a tyrant ; and the 
 consequence of tyranny, that the tyrant must be an object of 
 fear and hatred. 
 
 1. " Quid eigo? " sc.inquis. — tyrannis . . . cordi: two datives; 
 a common idiom, as we say, it is to one's mind. ■ — factis . . . non 
 nomine: i.e. one called a tyrant (in the original sense) may really 
 be less of one than a man who is named a king. — Dionysius 
 maior : this implies for the elder Dionysius a better character than 
 most of the historians give him. Though he did much for Syra- 
 cuse, his cruelty and suspicion seem to mark him as a tyrant even 
 by Seneca's definition. — L. SuUam tyrannum appellari: although 
 he was made dictator by constitutional forms. 
 
166 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XII-XIII 
 
 2. licet: concessive. — se togae reddiderit: retired to private 
 life. The dictatorship was a military office; hence the significance 
 of the return to civilian dress. — septem milia : Seneca in De 
 Benef. V. 16, 3, alludes to them as two legions. The number is 
 variously given by different authors. — ad aedem Bellonae : at 
 this temple, which stood just outside the city in the Campus Mar- 
 tins, the Senate received generals newly returned from war. The 
 seditiosi pauculi (note the diminutive) were being butchered 
 in the neighboring Villa PubUca. — Hoc agamus : let us attend 
 to our present business. 
 
 3. Sedmox: sc. loquemur; a promise not fulfilled in the extant 
 portion of the De dementia. — utique, etc.: sc. irascendum sit: 
 and how (it is proper to be angry) if citizens have gone over to the 
 status of enemies; in De Ira, I. xvi. 1, Seneca denies the propriety 
 of anger even in this case. — ex eodem corpore : i.e. from the same 
 body politic. — uterque licet . . . valletur : although one no less 
 than the other is defended by armed men. — magna odia : the hatred 
 of his subjects. — illas ipsas manus: i.e. those of his guards. 
 
 4. Contrariis in contraria agitur: he is driven in opposite direc- 
 tions by opposite motives. — exsecrabili versu : the words are from 
 Attius's tragedy of Atreus (Frag. V. Attius, 11. 203-204, Ribbeck, 
 Trag. Rom. Frag.) and were a familiar quotation of the time, so 
 familiar as to be parodied (cf. Suet. Tib. 59). Seneca quotes them 
 again later (De Clem. II. ii. 2) and also in his De Ira, I. xx. 4, 
 alluding to the fact that they were composed in Sulla's century. — 
 multos praecipites dedit : in particular allusion perhaps to Caligula, 
 who (Suet. Calig. 30) was frequently accustomed to repeat the 
 words. — extrema admovens : sc. timor; that suggests desperate 
 possibilities. — iacentes excitat : rouses even the most passive. 
 
 5. feras . . . contineant: although a string of feathers will 
 keep, etc. Seneca elsewhere (De Ira, II. xi. 5) remarks that fierce 
 animals may be terrified by this device, and the observation was 
 familiar; cf. Verg. Oeorg. III. 372. — eques telis incessat: suppose 
 a horseman should attack, etc. Both contineant and incessat are 
 "volitive" subjunctives, one expressing concession, the other, 
 proviso. — per ipsa: i.e. the string of feathers. — proculcabunt 
 f ormidinem : they will trample down (their own) fear. — ultima 
 necessitas : i.e. desperation. — Relinquat oportet . . . ostentet : fear 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 167 
 
 (in order to control a subject people) must leave some security 
 and must show, etc. — securi, partitive gen. — ubi quiescenti paria 
 metuuntur: i.e. when the inoffensive have just as much reason to 
 fear as the actually rebellious. — ut aliena anima abuti : to be as 
 careless of one's ovm life as if it were another's. 
 
 Xm. The contrast between the wretchedness of a tyrant and 
 the peace and security of a kind ruler. 
 
 1. ut quibus . . . utatur : since he uses them. — gloriosus 
 miles: proud of his duty; certainly in no particular allusion to 
 the title of Plautus's comedy. — parentis: a paternal government 
 in its passive aspect. — ilium : the tyrant'. — necesse est graven- 
 tur: it is inevitable that they should detest. 
 
 2. quibus : depending upon utitur. — ut eculeo et f erramentis 
 ad mortem paratis: like the rack and like (executioners') axes; 
 the words are coordinate with quibus. — non aliter quam bestiis: 
 as to the wild animals of the amphitheatre, which were sometimes 
 employed in the execution of criminals. Of. Epist. 7, 5. — omni- 
 bus reis aerumnosior: m,ore tormented than any prisoner at the 
 bar; modifying quisquam, i.e. the tyrant. — vindices : avengers. — 
 eo perductus : being so far involved in crime. — Hoc : this conse- 
 quence. — esse malo : predicate agreeing with cui. 
 
 3. ceteris misereri eius : contrasted with miserabilem . . . sibi. 
 — suspecta slbicuncta: the same idea reappears inxix. 5. — cir- 
 cumspexit quaeque fecit, etc. : has looked about both upon what he 
 has done, etc. — conscientiam . . . adaperuit : has laid bare his 
 conscience, burdened etc. Cf. Tac. Ann. VI. 6, si recludantur 
 tyrannorum mentes, etc. 
 
 4. alia magis, alia minus . . . nuUam non: some things more, 
 some less, . . . but every part of the state as a part of himself. — 
 inclinatus ad mitiora : i.e. not inclined to be severe. -^ ex usu: ad- 
 vantageous. — invitus . . . admoveat : cf . x. 3. — adprobare : to 
 render acceptable. — fortunam suam publicarit: shares his own 
 advantages with the public. — demeretur : from demereor ; wins 
 affection from. — aequis desideriis propensus : well disposed toward 
 their just desires. — iniquis: sc. desideriis. 
 
 5. toilers fiUos: i.e. not to commit "race suicide"; of. sustuli, 
 Cons, ad Polyb. xi. 3. — sterilitas: childlessness. — indicia: im- 
 
168 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XIII-XV 
 
 posed, i.e. caused. — recluditur : is done away with. — bene . . . 
 merituriim, etc.: being convinced that life under such circum- 
 stances is worth living. — nihil : adverb. 
 
 XrV. A prince should be like a father, who is led only with great 
 reluctance to disown his children. 
 
 1. Quod . . Quod: the first is interrogative; the second is 
 relative. — ad decretorium stilum : i.e. to the decisive writing of 
 the son's disinheritance. — indolem: (his son's) character. — 
 peiore iam loco positam : (only) started in the direction of evil. — 
 simul: sc. atque. — deploratum est: the case is regarded as hope- 
 less ; on the use of deploratum, of. ii. 2. 
 
 2. quern appellavimus Patrem Patriae: cf. x. 3. The title had 
 been given to Augustus, Caligula, and Claudius, and was given to 
 Nero himself late in the year 55 a. d., probably shortly before the 
 De Clementia appeared. — honori : dative of purpose. — Magnos : 
 referring to Pompey the Great. — Felices : referring to Sulla, who 
 took the name of Felix. — Augustos : the title of Augustus was 
 at first one of solemn religious dignity applied to the gods. — 
 ambitiosae maiestati . . congessimus : we have heaped upon 
 . . . their exacting grandeur; {ambitiosae, craving recognition). — 
 potestatem patriam : u, paternal power. — sua post illos reponens : 
 making his own interests second to theirs (lit. them). 
 
 3. Tarde: i.e. reluctantly. — membra sua: i.e. his children, his 
 own flesh and blood. — prope . . . nimis : he who condemns 
 hastily is not far from condemning gladly, nor he who punishes ex- 
 cessively, from punishing unjustly. 
 
 XV. An example of paternal clemency and of imperial modera- 
 tion and disinterestedness. 
 
 1. Trichonem: we know no more of Tricho's case than this. 
 — graphiis: the ready weapons which the crowd had at hand, 
 since it was common for a Roman to carry his stilus along with his 
 writing tablets ; recall that Julius Caesar used his against his 
 assassins. Cf. Suet. Calig. 28, for an instance more like the present 
 one. — tarn patrum quam filiorum : fathers were just as indignant 
 as sons. 
 
 2. Tarium : L. Tarius Rufus, a man of humble origin, who, by 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 169 
 
 his ability and military services attained the consulship (cons. 
 suffectTis, A.tr.c. 738) and great wealth. — causa cognita: it is 
 possible that Tarius filled some judicial office at the time; but this 
 seems to have been a sort of extra-legal domestic trial which the 
 father chose instead of a regular prosecution in the courts. Under 
 Roman law, however, a father had large powers over his family, 
 and Augustus appears to have been invited simply to give greater 
 sanction to the decision of a family council. — nemo non suspexit: 
 every one admired. — annua : an allowance. — integro : to him 
 while he was still innocent. — in qua civitate : i.e. Rome. — 
 patronus peioribus : i.e. villains never lack a defender. 
 
 3. dabo . . . principem : / will exhibit ... a prince. — • Cog- 
 niturus, cognitio: the regular terms for a judicial investigation. 
 
 — advocavit: advocatus being the regular term for a legal coun- 
 sellor. — venit: i.e. Augustus; we should have expected a demon- 
 strative to indicate the change of subject. — in privates penates: 
 as we might say, under private auspices. — in meam domum : 
 where I (Augustus) should be the judge. — futura erat: cf. G.L. 
 597, REM. 3, (a); B. 304, 3, (6); A.G. 517, d; H.B. 581, a. 
 
 4. excussis omnibus : when all the evidence had been examined. — 
 ethis . . . ethis: appos. with ommftMS. — petit: sc. Augustus. — 
 sententiam : verdict. — ea omnium . . quae Caesaris : if the 
 votes were given orally, the other members of the council would 
 be likely to agree with Caesar's opinion. — codicilli: containing 
 the verdict. — iuravit, etc. : it was so customary for childless 
 persons to make the emperor their heir that Augustus feared he 
 might be suspected of wanting Tarius to be childless. Suetonius 
 (Aug. 66) speaks of Augustus's scrupulousness in accepting 
 legacies. 
 
 5. Pusillo animo : i.e. because he should have felt above sus- 
 picion. — quilibet nostrum: any one of us (ordinary people). — 
 multa . . . famae dare: to take especial pains to avoid the ap- 
 pearance of evil. 
 
 6. et alterum heredem : two possible heirs, his son and Augustus. 
 
 — gratuitam esse severitatem : that his strictness was not influenced 
 by self-interest. — relegandum: sc. filium. 
 
 7. cuUeum, serpentes, carcerem: the old Roman punishment 
 for a parricide was that after being led blindfolded to prison, he 
 
170 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XV-XVIII 
 
 should be sewn into a sack with a snake, a monkey, a cock, and a 
 dog, and cast into the river. Seneca alludes later (xxiii. 1) to the 
 fact that Claudius (unlike Augustus; cf. Suet. Aug. 33) inflicted 
 this punishment with especial frequency. That Nero himself de- 
 served it after he had killed his mother, Juvenal intimates in his 
 eighth satire (vss. 213-214), in his well-known comparison of Nero 
 and Seneca, de quo : i.e. a parricide. — cui : i.e. a father. — quod : 
 referring to the fact, se timide gessisse. — proxtmum . . . ab : we 
 say, not far from ; the Latin, nearest from, i.e. the next thing to. 
 
 XVI. A lesson in less important things, of mildness as the best 
 method of controlling men. 
 
 1. coheredem: parents often made the emperor co-heir with 
 their children, in order to secure the safe transmission of their 
 estates. — regi: in the eyes of a king. — sentiat: sc. rex. For a 
 scriptural parallel, cf. Matt. x. 29. — pars: predicate; of whatever 
 sort (he is), he is a part of the empire. 
 
 2. ex minoribus: sc. imperiis. 
 
 3. Uter: sc. (is) qui . . . an {is) qui. — si memoria . . . non 
 constiterit : if their memory be inaccurate. — quibus . . . igno- 
 scitur : and we feel that they are excusable for deserting. 
 
 4. aequum est : the subject is gravius . . . imperari. — 
 domandi peritus : skilled in horse-breaking. — flet : sc. is or equus. 
 
 5. quique: both he who, etc. — instituit: note the following 
 constr. , catulos . . . sequi. — exercitatis : sc. canibus. — con- 
 tundet enim animos : for (if he does threaten them) he will destroy 
 their spirit. — nee . . . concedit : nor (on the other hand) does 
 he grant, etc. — Adicias his licet tardiora (eos) agentes iumenta: 
 to these (already mentioned) you may add those who drive the slower 
 draught animals. — nata . . . ad, etc. : and hence thoroughly 
 accustomed to. — nimia . . . detractare : are driven by excessive 
 cruelty to refuse the yoke. 
 
 XVn. Man being such a wajrward creature, he must be treated 
 tactfully by a prince as by a good physician. 
 
 1. morosius: more wayward. — in ivimentis: in dealing with 
 draught-cattle, etc. — erubescere : substantive after quam. — 
 pessima autem condicione . . . esse: but that a man should be 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 171 
 
 subjected to the worst of treatment by another man. — hie morbus : 
 i.e. esse m,orosum. 
 
 2. Malimedici: it is the mark of a bad physician. — ne curet: a 
 peculiar construction, and a somewhat doubtful text. We should 
 expect, after desperare, se curare posse. — idem : i.e. the same that 
 a good physician does; object of facere debebit. — is, cui tradita 
 salus omnium est: the prince. — non . . . proicere nee . . . 
 pronuntiare : in apposition with idem. — aliis morbum suum : 
 the reflexive refers to aZiis ; cf. G.L. 309, 2; B. 244, 4; A.G. 301, 
 6; H.B. 264, 2. — quosdam: instead of alios correlative with aliis; 
 variation for the sake of variety. Cf. Introd. p. xxx. — molli 
 curatione, etc. : e.j. as with sugar-coated pills. — agat . . . curam: 
 should take care. — honestae cicatricis : i.e. that in curing ills of the 
 state there may not be any shameful after-effects. 
 
 3. posse: sc. regem saeve animadvertere. — maxima: sc. gloria. 
 — impendit : sacrifices. 
 
 XVin. As cruelty in the treatment of slaves by their masters 
 is condemned by public sentiment, so is the injury of citizens by 
 the prince. 
 
 1. laus est: is praiseworthy. — in mancipio: in reference to a 
 human chattel. — illud impune possit pati : he can endure without 
 causing loss to his master. — aequi bonique natura : in promoting 
 the humane treatment of slaves, the teachings of the Stoics had 
 a great influence. — pretio paratis: purchased slaves. — Quanto 
 iustius, etc. : how much more properly does it (aequi . . . natura) 
 bid ^one situated as a prince is) not to misuse free men {ingenuis, 
 etc.) as if they were slaves, but (to treat them) as persons whom, etc. 
 The sentence is a momentary reversion from the question of the 
 treatment of slaves to the main theme of clemency in a ruler. 
 But the text is doubtful. Gertz's arrangement parenthesizes 
 quanto . . honestis f and connects aiuti with pretio paratis ; 
 but the latter part of the sentence seems a little too advanced in 
 humanitarianism for even Seneca to apply to slaves. The double 
 use of abuti with ut mancipiis and ut his, etc. is on the principle of 
 zeugma. — gradu : in rank. — quorum : subjective genitive with 
 servitus ; objective with tutela. 
 
 2. ad statuam . . . confugere : to take refuge by the statue of a 
 
172 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XVIII-XIX 
 
 god, as a sanctuary, for protection. — cum . . . liceant: althout)h 
 all kinds of severity toward a slave are permitted (by law). With 
 the plural, liceant, cf. licent, viii. 2, etc. — in hominem licere 
 commune ius animantium vetet : the common feeling of humanity 
 forbids us to consider permissible toward a human being. — P. 
 Vedius Pollio was a freedman who became an eques and a friend 
 of Augustus, but was chiefly noted for his wealth and cruelty. 
 Seneca in the De Ira (III. 40; cf. Die. LIV. 23, and Pliny, N.H. 
 IX. 23, 77) describes how, in presence of the emperor, Vedius 
 sentenced a slave for breaking a crystal dish to be thrown into his 
 fish-pond and devoured. Augustus interfered, ordered the boy 
 to be freed, and all the crystalline vases in sight to be smashed. 
 
 — peius: for plus; as we say, hate a- man "worse." — eos: so. 
 servos. — aliquid: adverbial. — vivarium quid aliud quam ser- 
 pentium : fish-pond, or rather a pond of snakes (which the eels re- 
 sembled). — sive . . . sive: i.e. whether the eels were kept for 
 food and incidentally fattened in this way, or whether they were 
 kept expressly for this purpose. 
 
 3. commonstrantur : are pointed out for opprobrium. — regum 
 . . . iniuria: the wrongdoing of kings. — latius patet: i.e. than 
 that of private individuals. — publico malo natos : those born to 
 the public injury. 
 
 XIX. The ideal clemency of a ruler is suggested even in the lower 
 orders of nature; and its consequences are as happy as those of 
 its opposite are wretched. 
 
 1. quocumque modo, etc. : i.e. whatever be the type of govern- 
 ment. — ceteris : the citizens. — Eo . . . quo in maiore, etc. : i.e. 
 so much the finer, the higher the station in which it is exhibited. 
 
 — id : agreeing in gender with quicquam and quod, though it refers 
 to dementia. — -quam non oportet, etc.: i.e. power is not neces- 
 sarily harmful. 
 
 2. Natura . . . commenta est regem: nature invented the idea 
 of a king. — regi : i.e. what we know to be the queen-bee ; cf 
 iv. 1 and note. — vacat: sc. rex. — exactor: as the superintendent, 
 overseer. — totum: subst., i.e. the whole swarm; according to 
 Vergil, Georg. IV. 213-214, even the hive and the honeycomb are 
 pulled to pieces in such a case. — nee . . . plus unum : never more 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 173 
 
 than one ' king" at a time. — pugna: hy means of a fight between 
 rival candidates they discover the better one. 
 
 3. Hoc tamen maxime: in this (sine aculeo esse) even more 
 charaoteristioally than magnitudine et nitore. — pro . . . captu: 
 for their size. — sine aculeo : Seneca is in error ; the queen has a 
 sting, which she uses in the pugna above mentioned. On this 
 point (ef. Pliny, N. H. XI. 17, 52) the ancient authorities were 
 not agreed; some thought the "king" bee had no sting, others 
 that he had one but could not use it. — noluit . . . nee . . . nee: 
 cf. G.L. 445; B. 347, 2; A.G. 327, 2; H.B. 298, 2, a. — ultioaem 
 magno constaturam : a revenge that would he ^so) costly ; since the 
 bees that have stings, as he says, lose them in making one attack, 
 aculeos in volnere relinquunt. — iram eius inermem : cf . Verg. Georg. 
 IV. 217, on the defence of the rex by the other bees. — Exemplar 
 hoc: i.e. this limitation of the rex apium. — illi: i.e. Naturae. — 
 ingentium rerum documenta in minima (sc. re) arguere: to assert 
 in a very small matter, the proofs of the greatest principles. 
 
 4. ab . . . non trahere mores : i.e. not to follow their example. 
 
 — quanto vehementius nocet : it is capable of doing so much more 
 serious harm. — cum telo suo frangeretur : as the sting of the bee 
 is left in the first wound it inflicts. — alienis viribus exercere odia : 
 to use other men's strength as the instrument of his own hatred. — si 
 per se . . . faceret: contr. alienis . . . exercere. 
 
 5. illi: for the man who indulges his rage. — necesse est timeat : 
 cf. xiii. 3. In the De Ira, II. xi. 3, Seneca quotes Laberius's line, 
 necesse est multos timeat quem multi timent, upon the repetition 
 of which in the theatre, says Macrobius (Sat. II. vii. 5), all the peo- 
 ple looked at Caesar, notantes impotentiam eius hac dicacitate 
 lapidatam. — non captatur : is not actually being attacked. — Hanc 
 aliquis, etc. : would a man endure to spend . . . when it is possible 
 (by) being harmless to others . . . to wield a beneficent authority 
 to the satisfaction of everybody f 
 
 6. dementia . . . praestabit: cf. xi. 4. 
 
 7. vota non sub custode nuncupantibus : i.e. not uttering them 
 for public observation; cf. e.g. Seneca's own prayers for Clau- 
 dius in Corsica {Cons, ad Polyb. xii. 5). Suetonius in Calig. 28 
 describes a curious case. — valetudo: so. principis or praesidis. 
 
 — excitari, esse: after pulchrius . . . quam. — metum: i.e. that 
 
174 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XIX-XXII 
 
 evil will befall the prince. — commutatum : given in exchange. 
 
 8. Nonne ille, cui contingit, sibi quoque vivere debeat ? Should 
 not he whose good fortune it is (to live as has been described) find 
 it worth while to live for his own sake also, i.e. for the mere pleasure 
 of it as well as for the good he can do 7 — In hoc . . . probavit : 
 to this end he has shown by constant evidences of his goodness, etc. — 
 f ortunam : i.e. the caprices of fortune. — intuetur : so. civitas. 
 The state regards such a ruler as we should regard the gods if they 
 would give us the power to see them. — visendi sui : vid. gram. 
 G.L. 428, REM. 1; B. 339, 5; A.G. 504, c; H.B. 614. 
 
 9. proximum illis locum : cf. i. 2. — Hoc, hoc : explained by 
 ita haheri, etc. — imitari: to make (this) your ideal. — habeare: 
 indef. second person ; that you may he considered. 
 
 XX. The prince should be more severe in punishing injuries 
 to others than those to himself. 
 
 1. si aut se . . . aut alium : the si is superfluous ; these are 
 the two possible reasons for inflicting punishment. — de ea parte: 
 i.e. punishment inflicted for the former reason. — dolori debetur : 
 is due to personal grievance. — ezemplo : to •principle, i.e. when the 
 prince is punishing for the sake of other men. 
 
 2. hoc loco: when we are talking not about mere justice but 
 about something higher. — ne facile credat : that the prince should 
 he slow to helieve accusations. — innocentiae f aveat : i.e. assume 
 innocence till guilt is proved. — at, ut appareat, . . . sciat : and 
 that he should bear in mind that it is just as much the judge's affair 
 as the defendant' s, that {innocence) should appear. The emphasis 
 upon periclitantis and iudids, however, is reversed. Gertz has 
 pointed out that this is a frequent trick in Seneca's style. Cf. 
 the instance already noted in iii. 3. — animum . . . habeat: 
 retain his self-control. — poenam . . . donet : remit the penalty. — 
 exorabilior: more willing to pardon. 
 
 3. (est) magni animi : generous. — sibi : dative of separation. 
 — f acilem : easy-going. — suis stimulis : injuries to himself. — 
 magni animi esse : the subject is pati . . . iniurias. — in simima 
 potentia: i.e. when one could revenge one's self if one chose. — 
 principe impune laeso: than a prince who is not quick to punish 
 personal offences. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 175 
 
 XXI. Of personal vengeance the prince should consider him- 
 self, as he is, above the need ; and generosity to a fallen enemy 
 enhances his reputation. 
 
 1. in reliquum: for the future. — alieno male: i.e. by showing 
 that he can do an injury. — opinionem : reputation. — quos pares 
 aliquando habuit: i.e. fallen foes.- — Regem . . . servabat, as 
 Seneca has already practically said, in v. 4 and 6. 
 
 2. Uti animose: to use in a noble spirit. — dandi auferendique: 
 dependent upon potens. — quos . . . par fastigium obtinuisse : cf . 
 quos pares habuit, above. The case of Britannicus occurs to us 
 in illustration, but Nero had spoiled that for contemporary use ; 
 conquered kings are meant. • — ■ hoc arbitrium : i.e. dandi auferendi- 
 que vitam potentiam. — perdidit . . . qui debet: i.e. he no longer 
 feels that it belongs to him ; note the change of subject from 
 the foregoing. — alienam . . sententiam: another man' s decision, 
 as to whether he (victus) shall be allowed to keep his life and his 
 kingdom. — quam si ex oculis ablatus : since in this latter case he 
 would be no longer a reminder of his preserver's generosity. — in 
 triumpho cito transisset: as the triumphal procession would have 
 soon passed by and been forgotten. 
 
 3. regnum . . . suum . . . relinqui apud eum: his (the de- 
 feated monarch's) kingdom to be left in his own hands. Note the 
 use of the reflexive. — ex victoria . . . triumphare: to triumph 
 over victory. — nihil . . . dignum . . . victore apud victos : recall 
 the exclamation attributed to Caractacus, the conquered British 
 chief, when he first saw the palaces of Rome: "What did you 
 want of our hovels ? " 
 
 4. minoris: genitive of value, predicate of adjlixisse eos. — 
 animalibus . . . obterentem inquinantibus : creatures that defile the 
 one who crushes them. — in ore civitatis : talked about. — servati 
 punitique: whether they are spared or punished. 
 
 XXll. In the case of other men's injuries there are three pos- 
 sible motives for inflicting punishment ; the reformation of the 
 criminal is better effected by kindness; frequent punishment 
 makes crime become common. 
 
 1. haec tria: the three objects aimed at by the law. — poena 
 eius: as an example. — Nemo . . . locum: i.e. if a man has no 
 
176 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XXII-XXV 
 
 longer anything to lose, he cannot be deterred by the fear of loss; 
 non habere is the subject of est. 
 
 2. nota: mark of condemnation. — levat: i.e. renders minus 
 gravem; cf. xxiii. 1, for an example. — habet: provides. — ad- 
 siduitate: by constant repetition. 
 
 3. eorum: vitiorum. 
 
 XXIII. The principle is illustrated by Claudius's treatment of 
 parricides. 
 
 1. Pater tuus: Claudius, Nero's father by adoption. This 
 seems to have been an exhibition of his stupid scrupulousness and 
 of his antiquarian fondness for old customs, quite as much as of 
 his occasional cruelty. Observe that Seneca does not hesitate to 
 criticise Claudius plainly to Nero. — cuUeo insuit : on the legal 
 punishment for parricide, cf . xv. 7. — altissimi viri : men of the 
 most ancient time. — ^ rerum naturae: i.e. human nature. — velut 
 incredibile genus . . . praeterire : to pass by as inconceivable. — 
 quam . . . ostendere: aitev maluerunt. — ^ cum lege coeperunt : i.e. 
 were unknown until the law suggested their crime. Curiously 
 enough, Cicero had argued in just the opposite way on the sub- 
 ject. Quoting Solon, who he says had been commended for 
 making no enactment as to a crime that was previously unknown, 
 lest he might seem to suggest rather than to prevent it, Cicero 
 goes on to say: How much wiser were our ancestors, who since 
 they knew that there was nothing so impious that human wicked- 
 ness would not attempt it, invented a punishment so peculiarly 
 severe that it would deter those whose consciences did not deter 
 them; etc. (pro Rose. Am. 25). — pessimo . . loco: at its low- 
 est ebb. — pietas: filial piety. — cruces: the especial punishment 
 for misbehaving slaves ; hence more frequently to be expected 
 than cullei. 
 
 2. indulgetur: impersonal, since the verb takes the dative; 
 Encouragement is given to it (innocentia) as to a common good. — 
 Putet: volitive subjunctive, expressing a condition. — erit: sc. 
 innocens. — a communi frugalitate desciscentibus : at those who 
 deviate from the general virtue. 
 
 XXIV. Another illustration of the same principle. Mercy is 
 the more effective deterrent from wrong-doing. 
 
AD NERONEivi DE CLEMENTIA 177 
 
 1. sententia : apparently the proposition got no further, — 
 was not passed as a senatus consultum. — cultus: dress. The 
 slaves and lower classes generally, the tunicatus popellus, wore 
 tunics without togas. — numerare nos : i.e. and see how few the 
 masters really were. — pars . deterior, etc. : i.e. if no rascals 
 are pardoned, it will soon become evident how much the rascally 
 part of society preponderates (over the better sort). — melius pare- 
 tur: better obedience is rendered to him who rules more indulgently. 
 
 2. in . . . arduum nitens: i.e. inclined to resist what is un- 
 pleasant. — dignam . . quam servet: sc. clementiam. 
 
 XXV. The unnatural and progressive character of the disease 
 of cruelty, and the penalties of arousing general hatred. 
 
 1. tarn miti animo: i.e. as man's. Elsewhere (De 7ro, I. v. 2) 
 Seneca argues in the same way in regard to anger. — gaudere, 
 transire : in apposition with ista. — abiecto homine : throwing 
 away the {character of a) man. — Lysimachum: one of Alexander's 
 generals, who, because he mercifully killed the tortured Callis- 
 thenes to save him from the king's unjust rage, was himself thrown 
 to a furious Hon. He saved himself, however, and was pardoned 
 by Alexander. The incident furnishes Seneca with a favorite in- 
 stance, to which he alludes also in De Ira, III. xvii. 2; xxiii. 1. — 
 tjbi potius: your own rather than the lion's. — capacem: large 
 enough to take in. — exitium: appositive. — f amiliarium : a 
 reference to Alexander's murder of his friend Clitus, as well as of 
 CalHsthenes. — uUi salutaris : a positive benefit to any one. — citra 
 sanguinem, etc. : short of (i.e. without) bloodshed. — vocatur : the 
 subject is the following clause. — carnifex inter homines: i.e. in- 
 stead of a Hon. 
 
 2. nova . . . conquirit: invents new methods of torture. — animi 
 morbus: Caligula furnishes the classical example, and was very 
 likely in Seneca's mind. 
 
 3. tam multis . . . quam multorum: as already intimated, 
 xiii. 3 and xix. 5. — non numquam : correlative with alias, for 
 variety. — consternatione publica: general revolt. — quod: i.e. 
 publica pernicies, but not agreeing with the word in gender. 
 
 4. parvolae: note the diminutive. — aliqua: sc. serpens. — 
 ballistis petitur: this is reported to have hteraUy happened in 
 
178 NOTES, LIB. I, CAP. XXV-XXVI 
 
 Africa in the first Punic War ; Aul. Gell. VII. 3. — verba dare: a 
 familiar comic idiom for beguile ; here, to give the slip. — ingenti- 
 bus obviam itur: great evils men go directly to attack. 
 
 5. pestilentiam esse : subject of apparuit. — dis ipsis manus 
 intentantur : i.e. men show their indignation by laying violent 
 hands upon the statues of the gods. — Sub uno . . . apparuit : 
 an hypothetical case. — depastiun : devouring. — parte lU'bis obrui- 
 tur : is extinguished by the destruction of a whole section of the city. 
 
 XXVI. The appalling consequences of a Ufe given up to cruelty, 
 contrasted with the happiness of wielding a power for good. 
 
 1. sub certo . . . periculo: i.e. in spite of the certainty of 
 punishment. — • tyrannorum : sc. crudelitatem. — sua praesidia: 
 their own guards ; note the use of the reflexive. — ipsos : the 
 tyrants. — nequitia : abstract for concrete, wickedness in the per- 
 son of a bad man. — apparet: obey, remain a servant. — nee 
 quantum iubetur peccat: nor does it sin (only) so far as it is bidden; 
 i.e. the tsrrants' guards, who have been taught to do evil, better 
 their instructions and turn against their masters. 
 
 2. puta: suppose; i.e. if ; a late use of the word. — non . . . 
 securi ineunt : men do not go even to dinner without anxiety. — 
 lingua . . . ebriis custodienda: because of possible informers, 
 under a suspicious and tyrannical emperor. No man knew who 
 his neighbor at table might be and Veritas in vino was dangerous. 
 Nero in the early part of his reign (Suet. Nero, 10) limited the 
 rewards of the delatores. Seneca (De Benef. III. 26) says of the 
 craze for accusations under Tiberius, excipiebatur ebriorum sermo, 
 simplidtas iocantium, etc. — spectacula, ex quibus materia criminis, 
 etc. : It was because the crowd at a show did not favor the same 
 performer he did, that Caligula (Suet. Calig. 30) wished that "the 
 Roman people had but one neck. " — Apparenttur : sc. spectacula or 
 ludi. — - artiflcum . . . nominibus r by artists of the highest reputa- 
 tion. 
 
 3. occidere . . . fugare : in apposition with istud. — aspectu 
 sue : by one' s appearance ; the reflexive refers to the subject im- 
 plied in the impersonal ventum est. — in nos . . . potestas : power 
 over us. 
 
 4. Ilia : i.e. animalia. — expertia, damnata : concessive. — ab- 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 179 
 
 stinent suis : spare their own hind. — horum : i.e. human tyrants, 
 contrasted with ilia. — externa : i.e. aliena, contrasted with sua. 
 
 — quo . . . eo incitatior: cf. xxv. 2. — serpit, putat: so. rabies. 
 
 — inicere tectis ignem : an interesting remark in view of the sub- 
 sequent charge that Nero set fire to Rome. — aratrum vetustis 
 urbibus inducers : i.e. to plough over the ruins of a conquered city. 
 
 — potentiam (sc. esse) : predicate, modifying the substantives 
 inicere and inducere. — unum . . . aut alterum : to order one or 
 two at a time to he slain. — imperatorium (sc. esse) : predicate of 
 inhere. — in ordinem coactam : subjected to undignified restraint. 
 
 5. Felicitas (sc. est) ilia : explained by the following. — civi- 
 cam: sc. coronam. The civic crown of oak leaves was the prize 
 of saving the hfe of a Roman citizen. The emperor, as "pre- 
 server of the state," regularly had one fixed at the entrance of 
 his house on the Palatine. — Haec . . . potentia est : note the 
 chiastic balance of this closing sentence, divina potentia being 
 contrasted with incendi et ruinae potentia, and servare with occidere. 
 
 BOOK II 
 
 I. I am inspired to write, Nero, by your noble utterance of 
 regret at signing a death warrant. 
 
 1. »ina . . . vox tua: a saying of yours. — audisse: sc. me, 
 which is, indeed, found in one Ms. — non composita nee alienis 
 auribus data : not premeditated nor designed for effect. — cum f or- 
 tuna tua: i.e. with the duties entailed by your high office. — in 
 medium adduxit: has brought into evidence. 
 
 2. Sextus Afranius Burrus : the virtuous old commander of the 
 praetorian guard {praefectus praetorio, 51-62 a.d.), a man, as 
 Tacitus says {Ann. XII. 42), egregiae militaris famae, who helped 
 Seneca to control the early years of Nero's reign for the benefit 
 of all concerned. According to Suetonius (Nero, 35), he was 
 ultimately poisoned by Nero; cf. Tac. Ann. XIV. 51. — tibi: 
 dativus commodi. — scriberes : object of exigebat. — Vellem, etc. : 
 Suetonius {Nero, 10) reports the exclamation thus: cum de sup- 
 plido cuiusdam capite damnati ut ex more subscriberet admoneretur, 
 Quam vellem, inquit, nescire litteras. 
 
 3. quae iuxta iacent dubiae libertatis : i.e. kingdoms adjacent to 
 
180 NOTES, LIB. II, CAP. I-IV 
 
 the empire which the Romans had not yet turned into provinces, 
 like Pergamus under Attains or Judaea under Herod the Great. 
 
 — quae se contra . . . attoUunt: nations outside the empire, and 
 hostile. — in . . . verba . . . iixrarent: a legal expression for 
 taking a particular form of oath; kings should swear loyalty to 
 the principle you have enunciated. — publica . . . innocentia 
 dignam : worthy of (the days of) the general innocence of the human 
 race. — antiquum . . saeculum : the Golden Age. 
 
 4. consentire ... ad aequum: men ought all unitedly to turn 
 to righteousness. — alieni : obj. gen. — ex qua . . . oritur : cf . St. 
 Paul, First Epist. to Timothy, vi. 10, "The love of money is a root 
 of all kinds of evil.'' — pietatem . . resurgere, vitia . . . dare: 
 also subjects of decebat. — vitia diuturno abusa regno : the vices 
 which have abused their long reign. — f elici . . . saeculo : cf . A poc. 
 iv. 1 , felicia saecula praestabit. 
 
 II. Your words are a distinguished expression of the sentiment 
 which will influence the world. 
 
 1. Futiurum hoc : i.e. that the dream will be realized. — parce- 
 tur . . . manibus: i.e. men will anticipate your will and save you 
 the trouble of enforcing it, and the pain of signing a death warrant. 
 
 2. me morari hie patere: permit me to linger longer on this 
 point. — non ut blandum : i.e. not as a compliment. — nee . . . 
 mihi mos est: recall the passage already quoted (p. 151) from 
 Tac. Ann. XV. 61, where Seneca says, nee sibi promptum in adula- 
 tiones ingenium, idque nulli magis gnarum quam Neroni, qui 
 saepius libertatem Senecae quam, servitium expertus esset. How- 
 ever true Seneca's assertion was, the generality is obvious that it 
 is the best of flattery to deny any intention to flatter. — quid 
 ergo est ? i.e. why am I so insisting upon your virtues if I am not 
 trying to please you ? — quod . . . cupio : in apposition with id. 
 
 — ut quod nunc . . . iudicium : that what is now a natural im- 
 pulse may become a settled principle. — illud . . . considero : this 
 is the answer to his question, quid ergo est? — multas voces . . . 
 ferri, etc. : in apposition with illud. — ut illam : as, for example, 
 this. — • ' oderint,' etc. : cf. I. xii. 4, quoting the same words 
 fromAttius's ^(rews. — versus . . . qixi . . . iubet: 'E/wS 0av6vTos 
 yata luxOijTa) irvpl, when I am dead, let the earth be consumed 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 181 
 
 by fire, perhaps from a lost play of Euripides, though its 
 authorship is not certain (Vid. Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag, adesp. 
 513, 2d ed.)- It is quite in the tone of the saying attributed 
 to Louis XV., apr^s moi le deluge. According to Suetonius 
 (^Nero, 38), some one at a later time quoted this verse in Greek to 
 Nero, and he ferociously replied, Immo, i/Mv fflwos {nay rather, 
 while I am still alive). Suetonius comments simply, planeque ita 
 fecit, and goes on to describe the great fire. The quotation was 
 weU known. Cf. Cic. de Fin. III. 19, 64. — huius notae: of this 
 type. 
 
 3. ingenia: i.e. men of talent. — in immani et invisa materia: 
 in a vein of cruelty and malice. — secundiore . . . concitatos : have 
 loith more felicitous expression (than in other states of mind) 
 uttered striking and effective sentiments. — adhuc : i.e. until I heard 
 yours. — vocem . . . animosam : spirited utterance. — ut ... ita 
 etc. : while rarely . . . yet sometimes it is necessary that you write 
 that (the confirmation of a criminal's sentence) which, etc. Cum 
 . . . dilationibus modifies scribas necesse est. 
 
 in. (Beginning the second of the three parts into which the 
 subject is divided in Book I. chapter iii. 1.) Clemency must be 
 defined, lest we mistake something else for it. 
 
 1. in contrarium : to the opposite quality. — Plura : several 
 definitions. — ne ... formula excidat : from the legal use of the 
 word formula, lest the case be lost ; i.e. in the present instance, 
 lest the definition be rejected because of inadequacy or inaccuracy. 
 
 2. Ilia finitio: i.e. the following. — reclamabitur : it will be 
 objected etc., as the first of the contradictiones. — cuiquam minus 
 debitor to any one less than what is due. By ethical theory the 
 criminal has a right to punishment; but evidently the difficulty 
 of definition with which Seneca is engaged here is a double sense 
 in the word merito. Cf. II. iv. 1 and vii. 1-4. — atqui, etc. : in 
 answer to the objection. — citra id, quod, etc. : stops short of that 
 which. 
 
 IV. The contrary of clemency is not strictness, as the ignorant 
 suppose, but cruelty. The opposite vice of pity is also carefully 
 to be distinguished from it. 
 
182 NOTES, LIB. II, CAP. IV-VI 
 
 1. ' Sed quidam,' etc. : an objection by a supposed disputant. 
 — obvlos: men whom they meet. — in compendium : for profit. — 
 Decidendi causa : for the mere sake of killing. — • saeviunt : inflict 
 torture. — Busiris : a legendary king of Egypt, who cruelly sacri- 
 ficed strangers to Jupiter and was himself slain by Hercules. — 
 Procrustes: one of the mythical highwaymen of the Corinthian 
 isthmus, who violently fitted passing travellers to his iron bed, 
 and was himself despatched by Theseus. 
 
 2. non . . . laesa est: it (the emotion, standing for the person 
 who feels it) has not suffered injury. — extra finitionem nostram : 
 as given above, nihil aliud . . . poenis. — continebat : included 
 (only). — possumus dicere, etc. : Seneca by implication admits 
 that he is making a somewhat arbitrary distinction; cf. illos . . . 
 vocabo, below. — varia . . . genera eius: i.e. insaniae. In De 
 Ira, I. i. 2 Seneca speaks of anger as brevem insaniam. — nuUtun 
 certius: sc. genus insaniae; no kind is more unmistakable. — in 
 
 . . . pervenit : shows itself by. — lancinationes : savage mutila- 
 tion (of its victims). The word is from the verb lancino, to tear 
 in pieces, to mangle. 
 
 3. causam . . . modum non: a reason . . . but no moderation. 
 — -Phaleris: a tyrant of Agrigentum, famous for his cruelty and 
 especially for the brazen bull in which he roasted men ahve. He 
 was a familiar example. — finire : conclude. — convenit : there is 
 harmony; i.e. there is no inconsistency between clemency and 
 strictness. 
 
 4. Et haec : this also, i.e. as well as its opposite, cruelty. Seneca 
 naturally avoids mentioning that Nero's Vellem nescirem litteras 
 (II. i. 2) was really an instance of pity, misericordia, rather than of 
 clemency. — Utraque, etc. : i.e. one of these is in the direction of 
 strictness, the other in that of clemency; both of them we ought 
 to avoid. — per speciem: cf. II. iii. 1, speciosum . . . nomen. — 
 leviore periculo, etc. : i.e. the latter error is less serious in its con- 
 sequences, but it is equally far from what is ideally right. 
 
 V. The distinction of pity {misericordia) from clemency ; popu- 
 lar misunderstanding of the Stoic attitude. 
 
 1. religio . . . colit, superstitio . . . violat: a hint, perhaps, 
 of the drift of Seneca' s lost work de Superstitione (see Introd. p. xxi) 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 183 
 
 But the distinction was not new. Cicero says (De N.D. II. 28, 
 71), non enim philosophi solum, verum etiam maiores nostri super- 
 stitionem a religione separaverunt. — succidentis : i.e. unable to 
 endure. — carcerem effringereat: and let the poor romantic 
 villains out of jail. 
 
 2. maleaudire: has a bad reputation; as we say a thing "looks" 
 badly. Cf . the Greek itaicus &Koieiv, — apud imperitos : among 
 the undiscriminating. — sectam Stoicorum : see Introd. p. xvi. — 
 minime principibus, etc. : cf . Ep. 73. — illi : the sect. — quod . . . 
 negat: subject of obidtur. 
 
 3. Quod si est: if this is so. — quidnam haec scientia: what 
 would this special knowledge (for sapientia, philosophy) be? an 
 obviously absurd system, if it be like what is described in the 
 clauses, quae . . . cludit. — portum . . . mutuo auzilio : the ref- 
 uge of mutual kindness. — Sed : but, on the contrary. — ut propositum 
 sit . . . esse: so that it is its avowed object to be, etc. Esse and 
 consulere are subjects of sit. 
 
 4. aegritudo: cf. animi ad spedem . . . succidentis (v. 1). — 
 obducat: becloud. — magnus animus: i.e. superiority to petty 
 emotions. 
 
 5. hoc : this experience. — ne in suis quidem . . . calamitati- 
 bus: in Ep. 63, 14, Seneca confesses that he put himself inter 
 exempla - . . eorum quos dolor vicit. 
 
 VI. Though avoiding the weak emotion of pity, the man of the 
 Stoic ideal will do all the good acts that pity might suggest. 
 
 1. Adice, quod, etc. : even considering the fact that, etc. The 
 balance is shown by the following autem. — providet : looks ahead. 
 — in ezpedito : in readiness. — numquam autem, etc. : i.e. even 
 with all this intellectual preparation the mind cannot afford to 
 be sad. — liquidum : anything clear. — • ex turbido : cf . Matt. vii. 
 16, "Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?" — ■ 
 inhabilis: inept. — non miserettir: se. sapiens. The play on the 
 words miseretur and miseria is ill-rendered by pity and pitifulness. 
 
 2. libens et altus : i.e. sapiens, who is free from pity. — non 
 accedet : but will not join in. — ex communi : out of the common 
 store, i.e. on a basis of human brotherhood. — catenas solvi: i.e. 
 from the captive. — ludo eximet: i.e. will let the (enslaved gladia- 
 
184 NOTES, LIB. II, (JAP. Vi-Vii 
 
 tor) out of the place where he was compelled to fight. — etiam 
 noxium : even of a guilty man, though criminals' bodies were com- 
 monly cast into the river ; proper burial was popularly regarded as 
 necessary for the repose of a soul. — voltu sue : ynth his natural 
 expression unchanged. 
 
 3. Etiam ad calamitosos, etc. : even to those wretched men who 
 deserve both condemnation and correction he will give according to 
 their share, etc. — forte laborantibus multo libentius subveniet: 
 but he will much more gladly help those whose troubles are not their 
 own fault. — f ortunae intercedet : he will mitigate the severities of 
 fortune. — ubi enim, etc. . for in what will he make a better use of 
 his means or his strength than in restoring what chance has cast 
 down ? — deiciet : avert. — cms . . . aridum : a withered leg. — 
 propitius respiciet: will look graciously upon. 
 
 4. habet . . . ex ea: i.e. it derives some of its quality from 
 wretchedness itself. — subfunduntur : are suffused. — • tarn modifies 
 oculos esse imhecillos ; quam modifies adridere . . . et . . . di- 
 ducere . . . esse morbum. — morbum: i.e. a weak condition of the 
 nerves. The Stoic evidently resents the contagiousness of laughter 
 and yawning ; but as he says of such matters in the De Ira, II. 
 iv. 2, Ista non potest ratio vincere. — miseria : abl. of cause with 
 paventium. — quam si, etc. : if any one dem,ands it (pity) from a 
 wise man, he might almost as well demand {prope est ut exigat), etc. 
 
 VII. Nor will the wise man give pardon, which, must be carefully 
 distinguished from clemency. 
 
 1. At . . . ignoscet: the transition is abrupt. The objector, 
 recalling the statement in II. v. 2, that the wise man will not pity 
 nor pardon, asks, now that pity has been discussed. But why will 
 he not pardon ? — constituamus : let us decide. — quare non debeat: 
 after rationem. — quibus hoc propositum est: i.e. those who make 
 a business of answering this sort of question. — ego (sc. rationem 
 reddo) ut . . . dicam: / explain (only) to the extent of saying, etc. 
 Seneca seems to fear that his condemnation of pardon may strike 
 Nero as contradicting his approbation of clemency ; hence his 
 reserved form of statement ; in alieno iudicio, also, imphes that 
 Seni!ca was not fuUy in accord with his fellow-sectarians on this 
 point. — Ei ignoscitUT, qui : pardon is given (when at all) to him 
 who, etc. — poenam . . . non donat : does not remit the penalty. 
 
AD NERONEM DE CLEMENTIA 185 
 
 2. quod ... vis: to the questioner, or perhaps the hypothet- 
 ical culprit. — idem . . . quod si ignosceret: the same which ^e 
 would do) if he pardoned (i.e. ignored). ^ — quod fieri debuit: i.e. 
 the exaction of the penalty. — verbis tantum : with reproof only, 
 instead of the material penalty.- — invidia . . . laborantem: te. 
 clearly guilty. — quia deceptus est : because he was misled into 
 wrongdoing. 
 
 3. non sub formula: not by the letter of the law. — quanti vult, 
 taxare litem: estimate the damages at whatever figure she pleases, 
 i.e. impose if she chooses a merely nominal penalty. — quern 
 iudices: subjunctive of characteristic. — venia . . . remissio est: 
 the equivalent of the preceding statement; venia is the act de- 
 scribed in ignoscere. — hoc . . . praestat : clemency is superior 
 (to pardon) primarily in this, that it does not indicate that those 
 whom it excuses ought to have been treated otherwise; lit., clemency 
 offers this (advantage over pardon) that, etc. Judging from 
 Seneca's use of praestare elsewhere, we must take it here in the 
 active sense, with hoc as its object. 
 
 4. De verbo : i.e. a mere verbal distinction between the duty of 
 exacting a just penalty and of remitting an unjust one. — de re 
 . . . couvenit: we are in agreement as to the fact. — sapiens multa 
 remittet: cf. II. vi. 2, and vii. 2, showing in each case that the wise 
 man will do all the good that might be prompted by the weaker 
 emotion. — paium sard sed sanabilis ingenii : genitive of quality. 
 — quoque : correlative to non tantum. — adminicula : props. — ■ 
 ne proceritatem rami premant: i.e. in case the tree tends to branch 
 out too widely instead of growing tall. — vitio loci : because of 
 the sterility of the ground. — nutriunt: i.e. fertilize. — aliena umbra 
 laborantibus : overshadowed by others. 
 
 5. quod ingenium qua ratione: as we might say, colloquially, 
 what character must be treated by what method. — quo modo in 
 rectum prava flectantur: cf. Isaiah, xl. 4, "The crooked shall be 
 made straight." 
 
 The manuscripts end abruptly at this point. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE MORALES 
 
 Seneca's friend Lucilius, to whom he addressed not only the 
 Letters but also the De Providentia and the Naturales Quaestiones, 
 was a procurator of Sicily, unknown to us except through Seneca's 
 writings. Though he was of comparatively humble origin, his 
 proficiency in legal and hterary studies raised him to equestrian 
 rank, and he was the author of a poem on Aetna, perhaps the one 
 which has been partially preserved to us along with the poems of 
 Vergil. He was a younger man than Seneca, as we learn from 
 Epistle 26, 7; and in the preface to Book IV. of the Naturales 
 Quaestiones Seneca compliments him upon his freedom from am- 
 bition and his fondness for quiet and literary pursmts. 
 
 Seneca's Letters are short ethical treatises, ostensibly written 
 for Lucilius' s philosophic guidance, but evidently intended for 
 publication; their epistolary form is suited to their discursive- 
 ness and the variety of their subjects, which are taken from the 
 interests of Seneca's daily life and topics suggested by Lucilius' s 
 correspondence. In literary style they are among the most fin- 
 ished of Seneca's works. They were written during the last years 
 of his life, many of them probably while he was living in partial 
 retirement, after having lost his influence at the imperial court, and 
 was seeking his satisfactions in philosophic observation and in 
 the final preparation of his soul. There are frequent allusions 
 in them to his own old age. As to their date we cannot be entirely 
 precise, but they probably range from about 58 or 59 to 64 a. d., 
 or the end of Seneca's Mfe, A. d. 65. 
 
 The one hundred and twenty-four existing epistles were grouped 
 in twenty books. We know that the division into books was 
 ancient, and also that some of them are now lost, from the fact 
 that Aulus Gellius, writing in the second century, makes a quota- 
 tion from the twenty-second book which does not occur in the 
 letters we have. It is believed that the first three books (Ep. 
 1-29) were published by Seneca himself, perhaps with a view to 
 
 186 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA VII 187 
 
 their effect upon Nero, and that the other books appeared not 
 long after their author's death. 
 
 Manuscripts of the Epistulae Morales are more numerous than 
 those of any of Seneca's other works. At some time in the medi- 
 aeval period (probably in the ninth century) the existing collection 
 of letters was divided into two parts. The best authority for the 
 text of the first part, consisting of the first thirteen books (Ep. 1- 
 88) , is a Paris manuscript of the tenth century, Number 8540 in 
 the Biblioth^que Nationale. The text of the second part, Books 
 XIV-XX., is based chiefly upon a manuscript at Bamberg {codex 
 Bambergensis V. 14) of about the end of the ninth century, and 
 a manuscript of the ninth or tenth century (Argentoratensis C VI. 
 6) which was destroyed by fire at Strasbourg in 1870 during the 
 German siege. Fortunately it had been collated by Bucheler before 
 that time. 
 
 EPISTULA VII 
 
 On the need of avoiding the corrupting influences of the crowd, 
 especially of the brutal public shows. Evil example does great 
 injury. A few friends should be sought, with whom we can be 
 mutually helpful ; more are not necessary even as an audience for 
 our literary work. 
 
 1. Seneca . . salutem: sc. dicit; the ordinary form in be- 
 ginning a letter and often even more abbreviated. — quaeris: 
 questions from Lucilius furnish the text for many of Seneca's 
 letters. — Turbam: in the preface to Book IV. of the Naturales 
 Quaestiones Seneca commends Lucilius for his natural inclina^ 
 tion to avoid the crowd, and gives him the same advice. Else- 
 where in a slightly different sense he says (De Vit. Beat, ii.), ar- 
 gumentum pessimi turba est, on the vulgarity of arguing from the 
 opinion of the majority. — ^ committeris : with reflexive sense 
 (middle voice). — numquam mores quos extuli refero: a frank 
 confession of Seneca's old age which is to be remembered in view 
 of the inconsistencies charged against him by others ; cf. Ep. 8. 3. 
 — quod composui : the part of my character which I have put in 
 order. — sine offensa prof erantur : are taken out of doors without 
 prejudice to their health. — ex longo morbo : i.e. moral weakness. 
 
188 NOTES 
 
 2. vitium . . . adlinit: cf. "Can a man touch pitch and not 
 be defiled?" — in . . . spectaculo desidere: to sit idly at a show. 
 Pliny (Ep. IX. 6, 3) speaks of the circus more contemptuously, 
 using the same verb. 
 
 3. meridianimi spectaculixm : during the morning in the amphi- 
 theatre were the combats with wild beasts ; after midday, gladia- 
 tors who had survived the early fights {meridiani, Suet. Claud. 341, 
 and often condemned criminals also, fought without the usual 
 defences. But there seems to have been sometimes an interval 
 of milder entertainment at midday for those of the crowd who did 
 not go home to luncheon, with pantomimes, pageantry, clowns, 
 etc. We may infer that the better custom was being superseded 
 by the worse. — misericordia fuit : by comparison. — omissus 
 nugis: with no more trifling. 
 
 4. plerique: i.e. turba. — ordinariis . . . et postulaticiis : the 
 ordinary gladiators, paired in equal combat, and favorite gladia^ 
 tors in the service of the emperor, who were sometimes produced 
 at the special request (jpostulare) of the crowd, as "extra numbers" 
 not down on the programme. — Quo: what is the use of? — obiciun- 
 tur : are exposed to the ferocity of. — Interfectores : i.e. victors in 
 previous conflicts, especially over the beasts, again paired against 
 new opponents. — Ferro et igne : reluctant gladiators were driven 
 on with whips and hot irons. — ■ vacat harena : when there is pro- 
 fessedly little or nothing going on, i.e. in a sort of entr'acte or 
 interlude. 
 
 6. 'Sad latrocinium fecit' etc.: here Seneca quotes a supposed 
 advocate of the show; this is his justification for the butchery of 
 the men. — 'Quare tam timide,' etc. : this again is the enthusiastic 
 spectator, who now is criticising the actors. — Plagis agitur : he 
 is driven back by blows into the fight ; cf. res geritur, above. — 
 'interim iugulentur': i.e. the half-dead gladiators who are being 
 dragged out of the arena ; the exhortation is again the specta- 
 tor's. — eum docetis esse crudelem, etc. : i.e. Nero; perhaps the 
 last fiattery addressed to him by Seneca in the hope of making 
 him deserve it. 
 
 6. Subducendus populo : must be got away from the influence of 
 the crowd. — Socrati . . . Laelio : even though they were men of 
 extraordinarily firm character. Cato, either the Censor or the 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA VII 189 
 
 Younger (Cato Vticensis); Laelius (Sapiens), the friend of the 
 younger Scipio, a character in several of Cicero's dialogues. 
 
 7. convictor delicatus : an effeminate comrade. — • rubiginem : 
 i.e. the rust of envy. — accidere his moribus, etc. : happens to the 
 characters of those exposed to the bad influence of the public. 
 
 9. gloria publicandi ingenii: the vanity of showing your talent. 
 — in medium : into publicity. — recitare r authors' readings were in 
 fashion. Horace had spoken of them as a thing to be indulged 
 in very modestly. Pliny the Younger was fond of them. Juvenal 
 and Martial intimate that the public was finding them a bore. — 
 istis : cf . isti populo. — si haberes . . . idoneam mercem : i.e. 
 if you had a style suited to the comprehension of the ordinary 
 hearer. — unus aut alter : here and there a listener capable of being 
 trained to understand you. The extant poem on Aetna was written 
 to set forth a scientific theory of volcanic activity. — 'Cui . . . 
 didici ? '' why (you say) have I studied literary art, if not to exhibit 
 it? — si tibi didicisti: elsewhere, however, Seneca finds a more altru- 
 istic reason for study; e.g. Ep. 6, 4, in hoc aliquid gaudeo discere, ut 
 doceam; cf. Ep. 8, 1. 
 
 10. Sed ne soli mihi, etc. : Seneca ends many of his letters with 
 quotations gleaned from his reading, "finds" which he wants to 
 share with his friend. In Ep. 2, 4r-5 he says: "When you have 
 read a considerable quantity, pick out one thing to reflect upon 
 for the day." Hoc ipse quoquef ado ; ex pluribus, quae legi, aliquid 
 adprehendo. Hodiernum hoc est, quod apud Epicurum nanctus 
 sum, e.q.s. Cf. Ep. 4, 10; sed ut finem. epistulae imponam, accipe 
 quod mihi hodierno die placuit. — in debitum : having formed the 
 habit of putting one in each letter, Seneca playfully treats it as 
 an obligation; cf. diumam, tibi mercedulam debeo, Ep. 6, 7. — in 
 antecessum : advance pa3mient for future letters. — Democritus : 
 of Abdera (5th-4th century B.C.), the "laughing philosopher." 
 His theories are associated with the doctrine of atoms suggested by 
 Leucippus ; none of his works have come down to us except quoted 
 fragments, which have been compiled by Natorp (Marburg, 1893). 
 
 11. quo . . . spectaret: at what . . . aimed. Cf. cui . . . 
 didici f above. — haec . . . sumus: Epicurus, Frag. 208, ed. 
 Usener (Leipzig, 1887). 
 
 12. ex . . , adsensione: from the applause. — si is es quein 
 
190 NOTES 
 
 intellegant multi : i.e. If you have descended to the level of their 
 intelligence. — latrorsus . . . spectent: let your merits look within 
 for approval. 
 
 EPISTULA VIII 
 
 On the naotive of Seneca's retirement from "the crowd," — 
 to teach to posterity the lessons which he himself has learned too 
 late ; a better service to the world than trivial accommodations 
 in business or politics. True freedom comes only in the service 
 of philosophy. 
 
 1. Ubi (sc. sunt) ilia praecepta yestra: a taunting allusion to 
 the Stoic preaching that one should never retire from active virtue. 
 
 2. Secessi: the explanation is evidently of Seneca's own retire- 
 ment after the death of Burrus. — posterorum negotitun ago, 
 / am working for the benefit of posterity. — in tneis ulceribus, 
 evidently, moral ills ; cf. ex hngo morho, Ep. 7, 1. — serpere: to 
 spread as a contagion. 
 
 3. sero cognovi: Seneca doubtless regretted some of the things 
 he had done with Nero. Cf. Ep. 7, 1, numquam mores . . . re- 
 fero. By rectum iter he probably means one with less of compro- 
 mise. — -ad . . . fortuitum bonum suspiciosi: one of Seneca's 
 lost works was De Bemediis Fortuitorum. — decipitur : is caught. 
 — viscata; covered with bird-lime. — haeremus: we stick on the 
 viscata beneficia, i.e. we are ensnared. Cf. Ep. 119, 12, sic divitiaa 
 habent, quomodo habere dicimur febrem, cum ilia nos habeat. 
 
 4. In praecipitia: i.e. facilis est descensus. — eminentis vitae 
 exitus, etc.: "pride goeth before a fall." — transversos agere: 
 push out of the way, i.e. start on the wrong track. — aut saltim 
 rectis aut semel ruere: sc. necesse est ; i.e. one must either (go) by 
 right (means) or fall once for all (and be done with it) . Cf . Ep. 
 71, 9,ne hoc quidem miserae rei publicae continget, semel ruere. — 
 non vertit: i.e. Fortune does not turn aside, when she has once 
 got a man started wrong, but she throws him forward and dashes 
 him against obstacles. — cernulat: a word peculiar to Seneca: 
 from the poetic cernuus, with face bowed forward. 
 
 6. Durius tractandum: sc. corpus. — cibus . . . sedet: i.e. let 
 food be sought only to allay. — utrum caespes erexerit : whether 
 sod composes the house. — varius lapis: variegated marble. — 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE VII, VIII 191 
 
 culmo : thatch. — auro : referring to the gilding of the coffered 
 ceilings in splendid houses. — cui magno nihil magnum : i.e. by 
 comparison. 
 
 6. ad vadimonium : to give bail for a client. — descenderem, 
 the Forum, where the law-courts were, being in a hollow between 
 the hills. — anulum imprimerem : affix my seal as a witness. — 
 senatu: where important elections were now held instead of in 
 the popular assembly. — vocem . . . conmiodarem: i.e. assist the 
 candidate. 
 
 7. ut institui: cf. Ep. 7, 10. — adhuc . . . complicamus: / 
 stiU have just been reading; complicare is strictly of the closing 
 of the book. — philosophiae . . . libertas: Epicurus, Frag. 199 
 (Usener). circumagitur : a reference to a formality of liberating 
 a slave, in which the master took his hand and turned him around 
 as a free man. — Hoc and ipsum modify servire. 
 
 8. nostrorum : i.e. Stoicorum. — togatas : the fahulae togatae 
 were plays on Roman subjects, not exclusively tragedies like the 
 •praetextae, nor merely comedies. Seneca here contributes to the 
 definition of them. Cf . the special modern use of the word " drama " 
 to designate a certain kind of play. — mimos : farces. — Publilius 
 Syvis was a writer of mimes in Julius Caesar's time. To him are 
 credited a large number of aphorisms which have come down 
 as a collection of Sentential. — non excalceatis . . . sunt : i.e. 
 worthy to be spoken not by actors in farces but by tragedians. 
 Tragic actors wore cothurni ; regular comedians wore socci ; mimic 
 actors were excalceati, wearing neither, and they were without 
 masks. 
 
 9. in nostro habenda : to be counted as really ours. — Alienum 
 est omne, etc.: the vss. are in iambic senarii. Vid. Syri Sent. 
 Ribbeck, Comicorum Rom. Frag. p. 309. 
 
 10. adstrictius: more concisely. — Non est tuum, etc.: of this 
 and the following which Seneca borrows from Lucilius the source 
 is unknown. Cf. Ribb. Comicorum Rom. Frag. p. 394. — non 
 impute in solutum: / do not count toward the reckoning, i.e. of 
 quotations due. 
 
192 NOTES 
 
 EPISTULA XVII 
 
 On the folly of postponing the pursuit of philosophy until one has 
 acquired riches. Poverty is often more convenient than wealth. 
 
 1. omnia ista: evidently explained by the following, moratur 
 . . . res familiaris. — ezpedi aut incide: i.e. untie the Gordian 
 knot or cut it. — Moratur, etc.: cf. Luke xiv. 18, "And they all 
 with one consent began to make excuse," e.q.s. — ut . . . possit: 
 so that I can retire from business. 
 
 2. eius . . . boni: i.e. philosophy. — simunam . . . prosit: 
 i.e. the benefit of it in a general way ; contr. partes autem, etc. — 
 Ciceronis . . . verbo, opituletur: commonly included among the 
 fragments of Cicero's Hortensius ; Frag. 98, ed. Mueller, Vol. 
 4 (3) , p. 326. — ad calculos : i.e. calculating whether you can afford 
 it or not ; cf. calculos ponere, Cons, ad Polyb. ix. 1. 
 
 3. quid si adpetenda est ? sc. paupertas. In the dialogue de 
 Vita Beata, xxi. seq., Seneca discusses the question, evidently 
 pertinent to his own situation, quare opes contemnendas dicit et 
 habet? His answer is that riches, though not essential, are evi- 
 dently a convenience. The philosopher may show more virtues 
 in proper conduct with wealth than without it; non amat divitias 
 sed mavult. He does not, like other men, feel the need of them 
 if they are gone. Cf . Ep. 5, 6 : infirmi animi est pati non posse 
 divitias. — Cum classicum, etc. : when the signal for battle sounds 
 (the poor man) knows that he is not wanted. — cum ' aqua ' con- 
 clamata est: apparently instead of crying "fire!" they cried 
 water ! — with which to put the fire out. The poor man has merely 
 to walk out of the house, if it is burning up ; he has no property 
 to rescue. Cf. De Clem. I. xxv. 5. — non strepitat portus, etc. : 
 i.e. he can go without making a great commotion. 
 
 4. cuius mores sanus dives imitatur: Seneca himself lived very 
 abstemiously. Cf. also Ep. 18, 5 seq. 
 
 5. nihil prius . . . parandum, etc.: i.e. this should be the 
 first thing of all to seek, the knowledge of what should be sought. 
 — et parare (i.e. rationem parandi) disce: the more proper pre- 
 liminary. — bene morl : suicide being the Stoic's justified resource. 
 
 6. ad hoc properantibus : by those who are aiming at this. — quod 
 promittitur: as the reward of philosophy. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE XVII, XVIII 193 
 
 7. dictu foedis: so. alimentis or cibis. — animum: sc. suum; 
 contr. regno . . . alieno. — sine viatico : cf. Matt. x. 9-10, " Pro- 
 vide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for 
 your journey," etc. 
 
 8. an iam nimis habeas : only philosophy can answer this ques- 
 tion for you. 
 
 9. necessitates ultimae : in which a man mohstus sibi est. — si 
 . . . produci : i.e. if his needs are few and elementary. — ventri 
 et scapulis suum reddet : he will render to his belly and his shoulders 
 their ovm, i.e. the food and clothing they need. — ad divitias eun- 
 tium : of those in search of wealth. 
 
 10. in longum . . . differs: i.e. adopt such slow methods of 
 becoming rich. — tabulas beati senis : the will of a rich old man. — 
 Haec ad alios pertinent: i.e. this discussion of real poverty does 
 not apply to you. — saeculum muta: if you go back to the days of 
 smaller fortunes. 
 
 11. nisi te male instituissem : i.e. by training you to expect a 
 quotation. — multis . . . mutatio: Epicurus, Frag. 479 (Usener). 
 
 12. lUud : i.e. the quality of mind. 
 
 EPISTULA XVIII 
 
 On doing as the Romans do, and a better appUcatioii of the 
 principle of nonconformity than withdrawal from participation in 
 the Saturnalia; temporary experiments in poverty as an ascetic 
 exercise. 
 
 1. December . . . mensis: the Saturnalia began on December 
 17, and properly included three days, though the festivities lasted 
 a week. The whole month, however, was sacred to Saturn. Ma- 
 crobius (Sat. I. 10) gives a well-known account of the institution. 
 Cf. also Warde Fowler, The Roman Festivals, pp. 268 seq., on the 
 keeping of the Saturnalia. — sudat: apparently in the effort to 
 have a good time. — apparatu : preparations for the revels. — 
 tamquam . . . intersit : ironically. — dies rerum agendarum : 
 business days. — nunc annum : i.e. that the whole year is given up 
 to merry-making. 
 
 2. utrum nihil . . . movendum: whether we ought to make no 
 change in our usual habits. — exuendam togam : it was customary 
 
194 NOTES 
 
 in the Saturnalia to leave oflf the toga and go about in less formal 
 and more comfortable attire. 
 
 3. arbitri partibus functus : in playing the part of our adviser. — 
 pilleatae turbae: the festive crowd, wearing liberty caps, as was 
 usual. — blanda : alluring occupations. 
 
 4. illud temperatius: evidently the behavior which Seneca 
 prefers. In Ep. 5 he condemns ostentatious affectation of the 
 philosophic character. — nee insigniri nee misceri omnibus : 
 neither to be noticeable nor to be absolutely one of the crowd. 
 
 5. placet temptare . . firmitatem: but if you want to show 
 your firmness of character, do it in a less easy and more useful way 
 than by refusing to join in the holiday festivities. — hoc est quod 
 timebatur: i.e. this which for a few days I am voluntarily under- 
 going is all that poverty could entail upon me. 
 
 7. Timoneas: of Timon, the Athenian misanthrope, who turned 
 his back upon the world. — • cellas : huts. — luxuria . . . ludit : 
 luxury amuses itself when bored with riches. — grabatus . . . sitr 
 let the pallet be the real article, and the coarse blanket and the hard 
 black bread. — dipondio satur : when you have satisfied your 
 hunger at the cost of a dupondius, — ■ about two cents. — hoc . . . 
 dat at irata: even when Fortune is unfriendly, she gives, etc. 
 
 8. illo nomine: on this account, explained by the following non 
 coactus, etc. — Exerceamur ad palum : the Roman soldiers prac- 
 tised fighting against a stake set into the ground, as athletes now 
 practice boxing with a punching-bag. 
 
 9. an aliquid deesset: i.e. whether he really missed what he 
 thus went without. — dignum . . . pensaret : worth taking a 
 great deal of trouble for. — Charino magistratu : an otherwise un- 
 known official by whose archonship or other magistracy Epicurus' s 
 letter seems to have been dated. — Polyaenus : a disciple of Epi- 
 curus; not to be confused with the better-known Polyaenus of 
 M. Aurelius's time. — non toto asse se pasci: that he had made u, 
 meal for less than an as, while his friend Metrodorus's had cost a 
 whole a.s, between one and two cents. Epicurus Frag. 158 (Usener) . 
 
 10. aqua at polenta, etc.: i.e. cheap fare. 
 
 11. sepositos . . . pascit: i.e. condemned criminals are better 
 fed. — decretis : as in the case of the prisoner ; contr. sponte. 
 
 12. Aude, hospas, etc.: Vergil, Aen. VIII. 364-365. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE XVIII, LVI 195 
 
 13. tamquam ezituras . . . adspezeris: regard them as transi- 
 tory. 
 
 14. complicare: cf. Ep. 8, 7. — Delegabo te: I will refer you. — 
 immodica ira, etc. : Epicurus Frag. 484 (Usener). Cf. De Clem. II. 
 iv. 2, varia genera insaniae. 
 
 16. sed quo incidat : upon what fuel the fire falls. — maximum : 
 sc. ignem. — corripi f acilia : note the use of the infinitive depend- 
 ing upon the adjective. — scintiUam, etc.: cf. "Behold how great 
 a matter a little fire kindleth." 
 
 EPISTULA LVI 
 
 On an experiment in mental concentration, and on the difference 
 between outer and inner distractions. 
 
 1. in studia seposito: to a man who has gone off (separated him- 
 self) for study. — supra . . . balneum habito : i.e. for a temporary- 
 lodging, probably at the watering-place of Baiae near Naples. — 
 manus plumbo graves iactant : as now athletes use dumb-bells. — 
 retentum spiritum remiserunt: exhale their breath after holding 
 it. — cum . . . incidi: when I (i.e. my auditory attention) have 
 encountered a man who is not doing any of these actively noisy 
 things. — inlisae manus: of the hand (of the anointer) slapping 
 the shoulders of the inert one. — pilicrepus : a kind of juggler who 
 tossed balls up into the air, several at a time, and caught them; 
 he also appears to have shouted the score (numerare) while others 
 played. — actum est: it is "all up"; there is no more chance for 
 quiet. 
 
 2. scordalus: a vulgar word, meaning something between a 
 "bum"' and a "thug." — deprensum: an uproar would naturally 
 follow an arrest. — vox . . . placet : under the resonant arches. 
 ■ — tenuem et stridulam vocem : shrill and harsh ; at least not 
 rectam Uke the voices of those who have been mentioned before; 
 object of exprimentem. — quo sit notabilior : to attract attention. — 
 iam libarii, etc.: sc. adice or cogita. Then there are the different 
 cries of the pancake-seller, and (there are) the sausage-seller and the 
 confectionery-seller and pedlers from all sorts of cook-shops selling 
 their wares each with his own distinctive tone. Words formed in 
 -arius were especially common in plebeian Latin. 
 
196 NOTES 
 
 3. cui mens . . . constat : whose mind is not driven distracied. 
 — adsidua salutatio : a much milder affliction than the miscel- 
 laneous noise Seneca has described. We have no knowledge that 
 Chrysippus the philosopher perished in this way; apparently the 
 present individual is a contemporary of Seneca and Lucilius. — ■ 
 cuidam genti, etc. : Seneca tells the same thing in his discussion 
 of the Nile ip the Naturales Quaestiones, IV. ii. 5. 
 
 4. fabrum : a carpenter. — serrarrium : a sawyer. — Meta Su- 
 dans: a fountain in Rome, so called probably because in shape it 
 resembled a meta (goal). The core of brick work which remains 
 of it near the Colosseum is apparently of the Flavian period, and 
 its construction is generally credited to Domitian; but since the 
 name occurs here in Seneca, Domitian' s work must have been a 
 reconstruction of something of an earlier date. — tubulas . . . et 
 tibias : litth trumpets and flutes, apparently in some sort of beg- 
 ging device common in the vicinity of the Meta Sudans. 
 
 5. audire . . . possim : i.e. without being disturbed. — si adfec- 
 tus fremunt : if the passions rage. 
 
 6. Omnia noctis erant, etc. : a verse from P. Terentius Varro 
 Atacinus's poem called Argonautae (adapted from the Argo- 
 nautica of ApoUonius) of which only fragments have come down 
 to us. Seneca the Elder (Con^row. VII. 1, 27) quotes this verse 
 with the one before it, Desierant latrare canes urhesque sihbant, 
 calling them illos optimos versus Varronis. Cf. ApoU. Rhod. III. 
 749 seq. Vid. A. Riese, M. Ter. Varronis Sat. Menipp. Reliq. 
 p. 262. 
 
 7. suspensum . . . vestigium ponitur: i.e. they walk on tip- 
 toe as they approach the bedroom. 
 
 9. detinent : occupy them. — et . . . stationis paenitentia seces- 
 sisse : and in dissatisfaction with our unlucky and disagreeable post, 
 to have gone into retirement. 
 
 11. si receptui cecinimus: if we have (really) sounded the retreat. 
 
 12. nee sese adhuc reduxit introrsus: and has not yet fallen 
 back upon its inner resources. — erigitur : has its attention called 
 aside. — quod . . . curiosum facit: which makes him, care (what 
 the unexpected may be). — Et me, quern dudum, etc.: Aeneid, 
 II. 726-729, from the account of Aeneas's flight, with his father 
 on his shoulders and his child beside him. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE LVI, LXI, LXXIII 197 
 
 13. Prior ille : i.e. Aeneas in his first character. — quaelibet 
 rox pro fremitu accepta: the least sound, taken as an evidence of 
 tumult. 
 
 14. ex istis f elicibus : those whom you consider fortunate. — te 
 . . esse compositum : of. Ep. 7, 1, quod composui. 
 
 15. Quid ergo? the interlocutor returns to the original ques- 
 tion of Seneca's lodging. — conunodius : as Seneca had said of 
 other material advantages, they are not necessary to the wise 
 man, but are convenient; cf. Ep. 17, 3, note. — Ulixes . . . adversus 
 Sirenas : Odysseus stopped the ears of his comrades with wax ; 
 Odyssey, XII. 177. 
 
 EPISTULA LXI 
 
 On readiness for the end of life, and on the way to preserve 
 our moral freedom in presence of the inevitable. 
 
 1. In hoc . . . eunt: are directed to this end, i.e. imponere 
 . . . finem. — malis : faults. — nee . . . tamquam ultimum rapio : 
 apparently a reaction from the maxim credited to Publilius Syrus, 
 that a man should use each day as if it were to be his last. 
 
 2. non . . . pendeo : / am not in suspense. — in senectute : sc. 
 euro. 
 
 3. Quicquid necesse futurum est repugnant!, etc. : what would be 
 necessary if one resisted, ceases to be a matter of constraint when we 
 acquiesce. — facerequod nolit: in apposition with partem. — nostri: 
 instead of nostram. 
 
 4. in . . . avidi: greedy after. 
 
 EPISTULA LXXIII 
 
 On the erroneous notion that philosophers are bad citizens. 
 True philosophers, far from being disloyal to the government, are 
 more grateful to it than any one else is, since it secures them 
 peace and freedom for their philosophical pursuits ; and leisure 
 is worth more to them than to others, because their use of it 
 leads them to the highest ends. 
 
 1. qui existimant, etc. : cf. De Clem. II. v. 2, scio male audire 
 apud imperitos sectam Stoicorum; but this was on the ground of 
 their severity. Tigellinus (Tac. Ann. XIV. 57) accused the sect 
 
198 NOTES 
 
 to Nero of making men arrogant and troublesome. Eplctetus at 
 a later day, who was himself one of the philosophers expelled 
 from Rome by Domitian, defends them from the same charge of 
 disloyalty. 
 
 The fact was that the Stoic assumption of cosmopolitan sU' 
 periority to mere local citizenship (cf. De Otio, iv.) and of indif- 
 ference to the concrete details of politics, and also their insistence 
 upon liberty of character, which was often misunderstood as 
 republican sentiment, undoubtedly led them to use expressions 
 which gave color to the charge against them. — adversus illos : i.e. 
 magistratus, etc. — praestant: do they (i.e. rulers) provide. 
 
 2. ii : subject of colant. — ad propositum : for their aim. — in 
 medio positi: in active business. — imputant: chaxge, i.e. demand. 
 
 3. quot vincat: i.e. how many he has below him in the social 
 scale. — ■ incipit ... a fine: one is no sooner ended than another 
 begins. 
 
 4. At ille: the philosopher. — nescientibus : i.e. the student's 
 gratitude is greater than the rulers realize. — illis inviis : from 
 those pathless regions of folly from which his teachers led him. 
 
 5. Verum alios, etc. : sc. inquis. — quam a vectore : than by a 
 mere passenger who has no merchandise at hazard. — saburrae 
 loco: for mere ballast. 
 
 6. operosior : more harmful. — idem . . . debere : owe the same, 
 i.e. the same that a man does who profits better by the oppor- 
 tunity. — quamvis . . . descripta sint: although (these things) 
 were by no means arranged for my sake. 
 
 7. stulta avaritia: cf. De Benef. VII. iii. 2, unus est sapiens, 
 cuius omnia sunt; the wise man is always dives. Cf. Ep. 17, 10. 
 — socium efficit . . . est : the fact that a thing is in the smallest 
 share (degree) common property, makes him a partaker in it. 
 
 8. magna et vera : e.g. pax et libertas, below. — congiario : 
 public largess of money or food ; from the measure of a congius ; 
 vid. Lex. — Epulum et visceratio: public feasts given to the poor 
 by the emperor or some other great person. 
 
 9. Cogitat . . . per quern : (the philosopher) considers who it is, 
 i.e. gubernator. — bene debere beneficia: to recognize one's obligor 
 tions. 
 
 10. illi : instead of sibi ; the philosopher. — O Meliboee, etc. : 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE LXXIII, LXXX 199 
 
 Verg. Eel. I. 6-7, where the shepherd Tityrus speaks, referring to 
 Augustus. Seneca also quotes the lines in De Benef. TV. vi. 4. 
 
 11. ilia . . . otia . . . quorum: i.e. peaceful opportunities 
 spent in ordinary business or amusement. — ille meas, etc. : Eel. 
 I. 9-10. — deos facit: i.e. through the pursuit of philosophy. 
 
 12. compendiario : so. itinere; cf. Apoc. xiii. 1, eompendiaria 
 (■wa). — Seztius: a teacher of the Pythagorean philosophy, with 
 Stoic tendencies, at Rome. There were two of the name, father 
 and son; this was probably the elder. 
 
 13. luppiter quo antecedit, etc.: cf. Horace, Ep. I. i. 106-108, 
 where he gently satirizes the pretensions of the Stoic sapiens. 
 
 14. hoc se . . . suspicit: for this reason he respects himself. 
 
 15. hac: sc. via. — itur ad astra: Verg. Aen. IX. 641; quoted 
 also by Seneca in Ep. 48, 11. — non sunt di fastidiosi . . . ad- 
 mittunt, etc.: cf. Apoc. viii-xi. — hominem ad deos ire : cf. quid 
 di ad homines, Apoc. xiii. 2. 
 
 16. Semina . . . dispersa: cf. the parable of The Sower, Luke 
 viii. 5-8. 
 
 EPISTULA LXXX 
 
 On the importance of training the mind no less than the body, 
 and of freeing the soul from subjection to the fear of death or of 
 poverty; the fictitious nature of worldly prosperity. 
 
 1. molestos: hores. — ad sphaeromachian avocavit: has at- 
 tracted to the hall-game. There were several kinds of ball playing 
 common among the Romans, at least two of them played by a 
 number of men on a side and properly described by the Greek 
 torm atpaipoiMxic: These were the game called iwlaKvpos or 
 irlKoivos, and that called harpastum, which was played with 
 a smaller ball than the other. The details of the games are some- 
 what in dispute or wholly obscure. Consult the dictionaries of 
 antiquities, s.v. pila; cf. also Becq de Fouquiferes, Les jeux des 
 anciens, Paris, 1869, etc. — Non crepabit . . . ostium: in De Ira, 
 III. 35, 3, in a different vein, Seneca speaks contemptuously of 
 the luxurious man's nervous irritation at a sudden ianuae impul- 
 sum. — velum : the portifere of the room in which he sits. — 
 vadere : to advance, i.e. iii the regions of original thought. — 
 
200 NOTES 
 
 priores: Seneca's predecessors in the Stoic school. — permitto 
 mihi, etc.: vid. Introd. p. xix. 
 
 2. Magnum . . . verbum: i.e. an over-statement. — secretum; 
 retirement. — clamor ex stadio : the sound of the cheering in the 
 distance, at the ball-game. Note the Greek word, stadium. — 
 Cogito mecum, etc. : cf . the problem of college athletics. In Ep. 
 15, 2, Seneca insists even more emphatically upon what he con- 
 sidered the folly of excessive physical training. The same idea 
 appears in De Brev. Vit. xiii. 1. His position was, of course, a 
 Stoic commonplace. — quam multi . . . quam pauci : note the 
 chiastic arrangement of the sentence. 
 
 3. calces: recognized, as well as pugni, as ''nature's weapons" 
 in pugilistic encounters. — non unius: i.e. often of several op- 
 ponents in succession. — exsurgat: i.e. rise undiscouraged after 
 each assault of Fortune. — Illis : the athletes. 
 
 4. Velle : this is, however, a positive spiritual effort ; the Stoics 
 by no means acquiesced in the Socratic dictum that "virtue is 
 knowledge." Cf. Ep. 90, 44: non . . . dat natura virtutem ; ars 
 est bonum fieri. — huic servituti . . . quam: i.e. from this moral 
 servitude, as bad as the slavery which, etc.- — ventre fraudato: i.e. 
 saving money from their food in order to gather a private hoard 
 (peculium) with which to purchase freedom. — quanticimique : 
 gen. of value; at any cost whatever. — in ilia . . . natum: contr. 
 mandpia. 
 
 6. in tabulas . . . coicitur: i.e. is recorded in the censors' 
 lists (of freedmen). — tibi des: i.e. by willing it; subject of 
 oportet. 
 
 6. fidelius: more sincerely. — in alto: at bottom, i.e. in the 
 depths of his mind. — suppurata : festering. — cor . . . exedentes, 
 which are eating one' s heart out. — agere f elicem : to act the part 
 of a happy man. 
 
 7. hie humanae vitae mimus : cf. Shakespeare's "All the world's 
 a stage, and all the men and women merely players" {As You 
 Like It, ii. 7). The passage recalls Augustus's well-known dying 
 inquiry of his friends, "whether he seemed to them mimum vitae 
 commode transegisse" (Suet. Aug. 99). In Ep. 76, 31, also, Seneca 
 alludes to the short duration of the airs of royal splendor assumed 
 by an actor. — latus incedit: as Horace (Sat. II. 3, 183) says. 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE LXXX, CVI 201 
 
 Latus ut in circo spatiere, strut about like a "swell." — resupinus: 
 with head throvm back, i.e. and chest thrown forward. — En im- 
 pero, etc.: the verses have been assigned to Attius's lost tragedy 
 of Atreus ; Ribbeck, however (Trag. Rom. Fragmenta, p. 249), 
 catalogues them among the fragmenta ex incertis incertorum f abu- 
 lia (Frag. LV.). The first line is also quoted by Quintilian (IX. 4, 
 140). — Pelops: the father of Atreus, who did not, however, ac- 
 cording to the legend, inherit the realm of Argos from his father, 
 but obtained it otherwise. — ponto ab Helles : tmesis; ab Helles-ponto, 
 a decided exaggeration. — quinque modios, etc. : i.e. by the 
 month, the ordinary allowance for a slave's maintenance; used 
 here in much the same way that the remark, "he has taken the 
 King's shilling, " has been used in England to designate a soldier. 
 The actor who impersonates royalty is really a humble slave. 
 
 8. impotens: insolent. — Quod nisi quieris, etc.: If you do not 
 stop it, Menelaus ; the line is possibly from the same source as the 
 others; cf. Ribbeck, Trag. Rom. Frag, incert. XV (p. 238). — 
 diurnum : his daily allowance. — in centunculo : in a patchwork 
 quilt. — -lectica: as a luxury of the rich. — personata felicitas: 
 like the actor's royal pride; cf. bracteata felicitas, Ep. 115, 9. 
 
 9. strattun : the saddle or horse-cloth. — Mangones : in this case 
 horse traders. — lenocinio: ornament. — Scythiae Sarmatiaeve: 
 Seneca purposely takes barbaric splendor for illustration. — in- 
 signi : substantive, with a diadem. — • fasciam, also indicating the 
 crown. — qualis sis aliis credis: i.e. you accept the popular esti- 
 mate of what you are. 
 
 EPISTULA CVI 
 
 Seneca's aim to develop a systematic moral philosophy. The 
 Stoic solution of the problem of mind and matter; the corpo- 
 reality of whatever produces consequences in the body (i.e. " Stoic 
 materialism"); the essential triviality, however, of metaphysical 
 speculation. 
 
 1. cave audias: do not listen to. — Neminem res sequuntur: 
 business does not pursue a man. — argumentum . . . f elicitatis : 
 an evidence of prosperity. — veniebat in contextum operis mei : i.e. 
 belonged at a future stage in the systematic development of my 
 subject. Cf. Tac. Hist. II. 8; in contextu operis dicemus. 
 
202 NOTES 
 
 2. moralem philosophiam : this, to which Seneca alludes also 
 in Ep. 109, 17, is evidently one of his lost works. — ius . . . 
 dicerem : as of a judge announcing a judicial decision. — tain longe 
 venientem : since you come from so far, i.e. from Sicily. 
 
 3. si qua : sc. alia, later. — magis iuvat quam prodest : it is 
 more interesting than useful. — bonum an corpus sit: whether "the 
 good" {i.e. goodness) is a corporeal entity. The question of course 
 belongs to that department of Stoic teaching which was called 
 "physics," i.e. in modem terminology, metaphysics. Seneca's 
 answer is the orthodox one of the Stoics, who were as far as pos- 
 sible in this respect from Platonic idealism. Similar Inquiries 
 were familiar. Cf. e.g. in Aulus Gellius, V. 15, a discussion of 
 the question corpusne sit vox an incorporeum. Vid. Zeller (The 
 Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics), chapter vi., in connection with 
 this epistle. 
 
 4. Bonum facit: i.e. the good is operative, has an effect upon 
 things. The philosophical problem of how mind can act upon 
 matter, the Stoics solved by denying the essential dualism of the 
 two. — quae animi sunt: sc. bona, corpora sunt. 
 
 5. an adfectus corpora sint: in another Epistle (113), however, 
 Seneca discusses the further question, an . . . virtutes animalia 
 sunt, and disposes of it by a reductio ad absurdum. Cf. note to 
 rotundus, Apoc. viii. 1. — tamquam: for example. — nisi dubitas 
 the reality of their physical effects, which are enumerated in the 
 following clauses. — frontem adstringant, in a scowl of anger. — 
 faciem diffundant: relax the countenance in a pleasant smile. 
 
 7. eadem . . . indicia: i.e. they have physical consequences. 
 — ex illis est: results from them. 
 
 8. Tangere, etc.: De Rerum Natura, I. 304. Here again 
 Seneca is borrowing from an Epicurean. 
 
 9. Etiam nunc: by way of introducing another argument. — 
 cui: the subject is the antecedent of corpus est. 
 
 11. morem gessi: I have complied with your request in stating 
 for you our doctrine. — latrunculis : urith pawns, as in the game 
 of chess (or with checkers), i.e. we are engaged in a mere game 
 with trifles. — in . . . teritur : our acumen is spent on useless ques- 
 tions. — ista : supervacua. 
 
 12. ad mentem bonam uti litteris: i.e. to pursue literary studies 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE CVI, CXV 203 
 
 in a way that will benefit our character. — ut cetera . . . ita 
 philosophiam : i.e. as we waste our other resources on idle luxury 
 (contr. living according to nature), so even our philosophy we 
 pervert to useless problems. — non vitae sed scholae : datives of 
 purpose; a profound bit of educational philosophy. 
 
 EPISTUIiA CXV 
 
 • On the need of genuineness in Uterature and life, and of an 
 independent estimate of the real values of things; the delusive 
 nature of the ordinary objects of human pursuit. The beauty of 
 holiness and the curse of mammon-worship. 
 
 1. circa . . . compositionem : on Seneca's principles of literary 
 style, cf. Introd. p. xxvii. seq. — velut signes: may, as it were, 
 stamp them with the seal of experience. 
 
 2. pusillis: luith trifles. — Magnus ille: the man whose soul is 
 above petty things. — comptulos iuvenes : dandies, carefully 
 groomed; the diminutive is contemptuous. — decapsula: as if just 
 from the bandbox. — cultus animi : the dress of thought. — aliquid 
 fracti: some flaw in it; another Ms. reading is ficti, something 
 artificial. 
 
 3. animum . . . inspicere: to look into the soul; cf. § 17. — 
 iustitia . . . prudentia : the four cardinal virtues. — in homine 
 . . humanitas: paradoxically a rarum bonum; the play on the 
 words is analogous to the familiar observation that common sense 
 is most uncommon. — illi, ilU, illam, referring to faciem. — quan- 
 tum ponderis gravitatisque : objects of adderent, the subjects of 
 which are providentia and magnanimitas. 
 
 4. numinis occursu obstupef actus : in accordance with the 
 familiar idea that the sight of a god is perilous for a human being, 
 the sight of this perfect holiness in a man inspires the same awe. 
 — 'fas sit vidisse': apparently quoted from one of two incom- 
 plete anonymous poems of the time of Nero, now known, from 
 the Ms. in which they are preserved,, as the Einsiedeln poems. 
 The line (I. 26) is Fas mihi sit vidisse deos, fas prodere mundo 
 (Baehrens, Poet. Lat. Minores, iii. p. 61). — benignitate produc- 
 tus : i.e. drawn on by the look of kindness. — adoret, supplicet, 
 emittat: like resistat and precetur, with nonne, conclusions to the 
 
204 NOTES 
 
 conditional Si . . . viderit. — ezstantem, elatam : the transition 
 in the application of the epithets is apparently gradual in the 
 mind of the writer, from faciem (boni viri) to the thought of the 
 goddess of the Vergilian quotation. — mite quiddam : adverbial 
 accusative, after flagrantibus. 
 
 5. O quam, etc. : Aeneid, I. 327-328, 330, where Aeneas meets 
 his mother, Venus, in disguise near Carthage. — Aderit, etc. : the 
 subject seems to be suggested by fades, as an impersonal spirit of 
 goodness. — non taurorum . . . corporibus, etc. : cf. 1 Samuel* 
 XV. 22, "Hath the Lord as great deUght in burnt offerings and 
 sacrifices, as in obejang the voice of the Lord." Cf . also Isaiah i. 
 10-20, of similar purport. Seneca discusses the question of cere- 
 monial sacrifices with some detail, and in the same spirit, in Ep. 
 95, 47 seq. — suspense : hung up, as votive offerings. — in then- 
 sauTOS stipe infusa: by gifts poured into the treasury (of a temple). 
 
 6. contingeret : nearly equiv. to liceret. — aciem . . . reper- 
 cutiunt : dazzle our sight. — aciem animi : our spiritual vision. — 
 obrutam corpcre : hidden by physical limitations. — paupertate 
 opposita: when poverty is in the way. 
 
 7. aerumnosi animi veternum : i.e. the rust of envy, the bitter- 
 ness of old sorrows, etc. This use of the substantive veternum is 
 rare. — intuentem . . . verberet: i.e. the glare tends to blind 
 the onlooker ; but "uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." 
 
 8. Ariston: a Stoic philosopher of Chios, who lived in the 
 third century B.C. Seneca's Ep. 94 is devoted largely to an 
 argument against some of his theories. — tabulas et statuas : 
 paintings and sculpture, which cost so much more than children's 
 baubles. — maculae coliunnarum : in varicolored marbles ; equiv. 
 to columnae maculosae. — capacem populi : large enough to take 
 in u whole population. — ferunt: i.e. the columns support the 
 (roof of the) hall. 
 
 9. parietes . . . inductos: marble walls in Rome were com- 
 monly of concrete merely veneered with marble. — imponimus: 
 in the "modern" sense in which the word is used in Apoc. vi. 1. 
 — Hec tantum parietibus : i.e. the charge of superficial ornamen- 
 tation extends to other features of our lives also. — incedere 
 altos: cf. latus incedit, Ep. 80, 7. 
 
 10. quae . . . magistratus . . . detinet: i.e. distracts them 
 
AD LUCILIUM EPISTULA CXV 205 
 
 from justice. — et magistratus . . . facit: according to the re- 
 quirements of the census, that a man must have a prescribed 
 amount of property to be eligible to senatorial offices. — ex quo : 
 sc. tempore; equiv. to postquam. — honor: i.e. aestimatio. — mer- 
 catores et venales in vicem: purchasers and purchasable by turns. 
 
 11. nobis . . . fecerunt: have implanted in us. — convenit: 
 are agreed ; personal, a rare use of the word. — hoc dis . . . con- 
 secrant: Persius in his second satire (vss. 55 seq.) amplifies this 
 same thought. 
 
 12. adfectibus . . . facem subdant: i.e. both kindle and in- 
 tensify the heat of our impulses. 
 
 13. Regia Solis, etc.: quoted, as a specimen, from Ovid's 
 account of how Phaethon went to the palace of the sun-god, his 
 father, and essayed to drive his chariot {Metam. II. 1-2). — 
 Aureus axis, etc. : ibid. II. 107-108. 
 
 14. Sine me, etc.: These first seven lines, which are trans- 
 lated, very likely by Seneca himself, into Latin senarii, are from 
 unknown sources. The original Greek form has been preserved 
 only in the case of the first line, as follows, ^a /»e KepSalmvra KeK\Tj(r8ai 
 kukSv, which occurs as part of a longer fragment. Vid. A. 
 Nauck, Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, Frag, adespota, 181 
 (2d ed.); also ibid. Frag. 461. — An dives, etc.: sc. sit aliquis. — 
 Non quare et unde: cf. Juv. Sat. xiv. 207, Unde habeas quaerit 
 nemo. — tanti . . . fuit: was ''worth" as much. — Pecunia, in- 
 gens, etc. : the following five verses are a translated fragment 
 from Euripides' s lost tragedy of Danae, in whose story a shower 
 of gold figures conspicuously. They are given in the Greek form 
 by Stobaeus {Flor. 91, 4) and others. Cf. Nauck, Euripidis 
 Perditarum Tragoediarum Fragmenta, 2d ed., Frag. 326. 
 
 15. hi novissimi versus: these last five. — ezspectarent : i.e. 
 await the denouement. — Dabat . . . Bellerophontes, etc. : Bel- 
 lerophontes in that story was paying the penalty which every man 
 pays in his own (life history). Apparently Seneca has fallen into 
 the error of thinking his quotation was from the play called Bel- 
 lerophontes, by the same author, from which perhaps some of the 
 other quotations (not hi novissimi) may have been taken. Bel- 
 lerophontes ultimately comes in the story to poverty and 
 wretchedness. 
 
206 NOTES 
 
 16. e partis : because of what it has produced. — Adice : think, 
 too, of. — ut . . . detrahat : concessive. 
 
 17. deliberarent: would take counsel. — cum ambitiosis, etc.: 
 sc. deliberarent. — vota mutassent: i.e. the aspiring ones would 
 iiave changed their ideals, did they but see how disappointing 
 these have proved to those who have attained them (illi). — 
 Nemo . . . faciat: cf. Horace's first satire. — processibus: their 
 successes ; cf . Consol. ad Polyb. ix. 4, for a similar use of the word. 
 
 18. solidam f elicitatem : contrasted with bracteata felicitas, § 9. 
 — apte verba conterta, etc., reverting to the idea with which the 
 epistle began. — eant ut volent : let the words go as they please, 
 provided that they are sincere, etc. — magnus : sc. animus or a 
 demonstrative. — opinionum seciurus: i.e. disregarding other men's 
 criticisms. — profectum suum vita aestimet: judges its progress by 
 the test of life. — tantum scire . . . quantum non, etc. : a com- 
 pact summary of Stoic ethics. 
 
LIST OF TEXTUAL MODIFICATIONS 
 
 Changes (other than of mere orthography and punctuation) from the 
 texts of the editors indicated. Most of these readmgs have been used in 
 other texts. The few for which the present editor is responsible are, it 
 is hoped, in the interests of simplicity. 
 
 Ad Poltbium de Consolationb 
 
 ii. 2 (p. 2) videbaris sum 
 iii. 4 (p. 4) delibare. Nihil 
 iv. 2 (p. 4) solitudo torquet 
 V. 2 (p. 5) dolore 
 xii. 5 (p. 15) ante ilium 
 xiv. 2 (p. 16) fastos 
 xvii. 4 (p. 20) pervolgatis 
 xvii. 5 (p. 21) modo Italiae 
 
 Hermes, Teuhner ed., 1905. 
 
 videbaris sinu eum 
 delibare [voluisti]. nihil 
 solitudo [alium labor] torquet 
 dolori 
 ante illud 
 fastus 
 
 tpervocatis et 
 modo tondens Italiae 
 
 APOCOLOCYNTOSia 
 
 ii. 1 (p. 25) ortum 
 ii. 1 (p. 25) visoque 
 ii. 3(p. 25) sunt 
 ii. 3 (p. 25) ut 
 iii. 3 (p. 26) constituerat . 
 dere 
 
 Biicheler, 4th editio minor, 1904. 
 
 orbem 
 iussoque 
 cum 
 [ut] 
 vi- enclosed in dashes 
 
 ne ezcidant quae ne excidant memoriae quae 
 
 memoriae 
 Lugudunensis 
 tibi 
 
 contulerim 
 viii. 2 (p. 30) " Quare," inquis 
 ix. 1 (p. 31) sententiam dicere 
 non licere nee 
 fecisti 
 sententiam 
 tris homines as- 
 sarios 
 
 207 
 
 V. 1 (p. 27) 
 
 vi. 1 (p. 29) 
 vii. 4 (p. 30) 
 vii. 5 (p. 30) 
 
 ix. 3 (p. 31) 
 ix. 6 (p. 32) 
 xi. 2 (p. 33) 
 
 [Lugudunenses] 
 Tiburi 
 tulerim 
 
 " quare '' inquit 
 senatoribus non licere senten- 
 tiam dicere nee 
 fecistis 
 [sententiam] 
 Tristionias, Assarionem 
 
208 
 
 LIST OF TEXTUAL MODIFICATIONS 
 
 xi. 6 (p. 33) [a caelo] 'unde 
 xii. 3 (p. 35) saepe nee utra 
 
 Suggested by Prof. J. 
 
 P. Postgate, Class Rev., 
 
 July, 1905. 
 
 xiii. 1 (p. 35) deorum et 
 xiv. 3 (p. 37) Sisyphtun diu 
 xiv. 4 (p. 37) spem sine fine 
 
 effectu 
 XV. 1 (p. 37) lusuro 
 
 a caelo 'iliac unde 
 saepe ne utra 
 
 deorum [nuntius] et 
 Sisyphum satis diu 
 et speciem sine effectu 
 
 fusuro 
 
 De Clementia 
 
 Hosius, Teubner ed., 1900. 
 
 I. ii. 2 (p. 41) Sed non si* non 
 
 iii. 1 (p. 41) mansuetudinis vel manumissionis 
 poenae remissionis 
 Cf. the use of these 
 words separately in De 
 Clem. I. vli. 3; I. xi. 1 ; 
 II. ii. 1; II. V. 1; II. vii. 
 1 and 3. 
 
 vi. 1 (p. 45) relinquatuT relinquitur 
 
 xix. 3 (p. 59) ingessit ingens 
 
 xix. 3 (p. 59) arguere parere 
 
 xix. 8 (p. 59) Nonne O ne 
 
 xix. 8 (p. 59) contingit, sibi contingit ut sibi 
 
 xxiv. 1 (p. 62) in senatu a senatu 
 
 II. ii. 1 (p. 67) valetudo in omnes valetudo : inde 
 
 partes corporis exit 
 vi. 2 (p. 70) Solent volo 
 
 Epistulae 
 
 Ep. 17, 3 (p. 78) [ut] 
 
 Ep. 17, 9 (p. 80) inciderint 
 
 Ep. 56, 2 (p. 84) Ubarii 
 
 Ep. 61, 3 (p. 88) repugnanti, volenti 
 
 Ep. 106, 4 (p. 95) quae propria 
 
 Ep. 115, 14 (p. 99) pessimum, ut 
 
 Hense, Teubner ed., 1898. 
 
 j-ut 
 
 inciderunt 
 
 fbiberari 
 
 repugnanti, [in] volenti 
 
 quae [ergo] propria 
 
 pessimum, [simul] ut 
 
INDEX NOMINUM 
 
 [To the pages of the Text] 
 
 Actiacum (mare), 51. 
 
 Aeacus, 36, 37. 
 
 Aegyptiae harenae, 98. 
 
 Aemilianus (Scipio), 17. 
 
 Aesopeus logos, 9. 
 
 Africa, 98. 
 
 Africanus (Scipio), 17. 
 
 Agatho, 34. 
 
 Albanus (fundus), 20. 
 
 Alexander, 63. 
 
 Alexandria, 30. 
 
 Amphaeus, 36. 
 
 (M.) Antonius, 18, 19, 47, 48. 
 
 Apollo, 27. 
 
 Appia (via), 24. 
 
 Arar, 29. 
 
 Argos, 93. 
 
 Ariston, 98. 
 
 Asinii, 50. 
 
 Asinius (Celer), 36. 
 
 Athenae, 30. 
 
 Augeas, 30. 
 
 Augurinus, 26. 
 
 Augusta (Diva), 31 ; vid. Livia, 
 
 Augustus Caesar (Divus), 15, 
 
 18, 24, 31, 32, 39, 43, 47, 49, 
 
 51, 54, 55, 56. 
 Augustus (mensis), 30. 
 Aureum (saeculum), 99 (c/. 26) 
 Aurora, 27. 
 
 Baba, 26. 
 Bacchus, 25. 
 Bellerophontes, 100. 
 Bellona, 52. 
 Brigantae, 34. 
 Britanni, 26, 34. 
 Britannia, 15, 30. 
 
 Burrus, 66. 
 Busiris, 68. 
 
 Caepio, 48. 
 
 Caesar, vid. Claudius, Nero, Tibe- 
 rius. 
 
 Caesares, 16, 17, 20. 
 
 Carthago, 1, 17. 
 
 Cato, 74. 
 
 Catonius (lustus), 36. 
 
 Celer (Asinius), 36. 
 
 Cerberus, 35. 
 
 Charinus, 82. 
 
 Chrysippus, 84. 
 
 Qoero, 50, 78. 
 
 (L.) Cinna, 48, 49. 
 
 Claudiana lingua, 36. 
 
 Claudius Caesar (Divus), 2, 4, 5, 6, 
 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 15, 16, 24, 25, 26, 
 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 
 37 (c/. Pater tuus, 62). 
 
 Clotho, 26. 
 
 Cocceii, 50. 
 
 Corinthus, 1. 
 17, Comeha (lex), 36. 
 50, Corvinus (Messala), 32. 
 
 Cossi, 49. 
 
 Cotta, 36. 
 
 Crassus Frugi, 33. 
 
 Cretaea oppida, 35. 
 
 Cyllenius, 33. 
 
 Cynthia, 25. 
 
 December (mensis), 80, 81. 
 Deillii, 50. 
 Democritus, 75. 
 Diespiter, 31. 
 Dionysius Maior, 52. 
 209 
 
210 
 
 INDEX NOMINUM 
 
 rSs, 35. 
 
 Domitii, 50. 
 
 Drusilla {soror Gaii), 20, 24. 
 
 Drusus {pater Claicdii), 18. 
 
 Egnatius, 48. 
 
 Epicurus, 75, 77, 80, 82, 83. 
 '"EinLKoipeLOS 6e6s, 30. 
 Euripides, 100. 
 
 Fabius (Eques Ram.), 36. 
 
 Fabius Maximus, 49. 
 
 Febris, 28, 29. 
 
 Felices, 54. 
 
 Fortuna (dea), 2, 4, 10, 11, 14, 15, 
 
 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 38, 76, 81, 82, 
 
 83. 
 Forum, 31, 34. 
 
 Gaius Caesar (Caligula), 16, 20, 21, 
 
 33, 37. 
 Gaius Caesar (nepos Augusii), 18. 
 Gallia, 47. 
 GaUus, 26, 28. 
 Germania, 15, 18. 
 Germanicus (Drusus), 18. 
 Germanicus (Jrat«r Claudii), 19. 
 Graeca (lingua), 3. 
 Graeci tragici, 99. 
 Graeci, 26. 
 Graeoulus, 28. 
 Grai, 86. 
 
 Harpoeras, 36. 
 
 Hellespontus, 93. 
 
 (M.) Helvius, 36. 
 
 Hercules, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. 
 
 Hesperium mare, 29. 
 
 Hesperus, 27. 
 
 Hispani, 26. 
 
 Homericus versus, 28. 
 
 Homerus, 8. 
 
 Horatius, 35. 
 
 lanus, 31. 
 "IXioK, 28. 
 Inachia urbs, 29. 
 Ionium mare, 93. 
 
 Isthmus, 93. 
 
 Italia, 21. 
 
 lulia (proneptis Augusti), 32. 
 
 lulius (mensis), 30, 31. 
 
 luncus, 35. 
 
 luno, 30. 
 
 luppiter, 27, 28, 30, 31, 32, 91. 
 
 lustus Catonius, 36. 
 
 Ixion, 37. 
 
 KiKopes, 28. 
 
 Lachesis, 26, 27. 
 
 Laelius, 74. 
 
 Larvi, 31. 
 
 Latina lingua, 3. 
 
 Latina verba, 23. 
 
 Lepidus (insidiator) , 48. 
 
 Lepidus {Illvir), 50. 
 
 Licinus, 29. 
 
 Livia, 48; vid. Augusta. 
 
 Lucifer, 27. 
 
 Lucilius, 75, 82, 83, 88, 90, 98. 
 
 Epist. addressed to, 73 seq. 
 Lucius Caesar {nepoa Augusti), 18. 
 Lucretius, 96. 
 Luculli, 17. 
 Lugudunum, 28, 29. 
 Lupus, 36. 
 
 Lusius (Satuminus), 36. 
 Lysimachus, 63. 
 
 Magni, 54. 
 
 Magnus (Pompeius, gener Claudii), 
 
 33. 
 Marci municipem, 28. 
 Martins (campus), 35. 
 Massilia, 55. 
 Medi, 34. 
 Meliboeus, 90. 
 Menander, 37. 
 Menelaus, 93. 
 Merourius, 25, 33, 35. 
 Messala Corvinus, 32, 50. 
 Messalina, 33, 36. 
 Metamorphoses Ovidi, 31. 
 Meta Sudans, 85. 
 Metrodorus, 82. 
 
INDEX NOMINUM 
 
 211 
 
 Mnester, 36. 
 Murena, 48. 
 Myron, 36. 
 
 Narcissus, 35, 36. 
 
 Neptunus, 89. 
 
 Nero Caesar, 27, 38, 39, 51, 66, 67. 
 
 Nestor, 26. 
 
 Nilus, 84. 
 
 Nvunantia, 1. 
 
 Oceamis, 34. 
 
 Octavia (saror Augusti), 17. 
 
 Octobris (mensis), 24, 25. 
 
 Olympus, 33. 
 
 Ovidius, 31. 
 
 Parcae, 25, 27. 
 
 Parthi, 34, 80. 
 
 Parthicum bellum, 18. 
 
 Pater Patriae, 54. 
 
 P(atres) C(onscripti), 31, 32, 33, 
 
 52. 
 Paulus (contemp, Augusti), 49. 
 Paulus {victor Macedoniae), 17. 
 Pedo Pompeius, 36. 
 Pelops, 93. 
 Persis, 34. 
 Perusinae arae, 51. 
 (P.) Petronius, 36. 
 Phalaris, 68. 
 Pheronactus, 36. 
 Phoebus, 25, 26, 27, 29. 
 Pieria laurus, 26. 
 Pollio, vid. Rufrius, Vedlus. 
 Polyaenus, 82. 
 Polybius, 4, 36. 
 Pompeii, 17. 
 (Cn.) Pompeius, 48. 
 (Sex.) Pompeius, 17. 
 Pompeius, md. Magnus, Pedo. 
 Procrustes, 68. 
 Publilius Syrus, 77. 
 
 Rhodanus, 29. 
 Roma, 27, 28, 29, 30. 
 Romana pax, 17, 43. 
 Romana (urbs), 17. 
 
 Romanum (imperium), 15, 18, 66. 
 Romanum ingenium, 9. 
 Romanum (nomen), 19. 
 Romanus (populus), 34, 39, 40, 49, 
 
 50. 
 Romuleae (catenae), 34. 
 Romulus, 31. 
 Rufrius Pollio, 36. 
 
 Sacra Via, 33. 
 Sallustius, 50. 
 Salvidienus, 48. 
 Sarmatia, 94. 
 Saturnalia, 34, 80. 
 Satumalicius princeps, 30. 
 Satuminus Lusius, 36. 
 Satiu'nus, 30. 
 Scipio Aemilianus, 17. 
 Scipio Africanus, 17. 
 Scribonia, 33. 
 Scythia, 94. 
 Servilii, 49. 
 Sextitis, 91. 
 SiciUa, 21, 51. 
 (Appius) Silanus, 33. 
 (L.) Silanu.s, 30, 32, 33. 
 (C.) Silius, 35. 
 Sirenae, 87. 
 Sisyphus, 37. 
 Socrates, 74. 
 Sol, 27, 99. 
 Stoici, 69. 
 Stoicus (deus), 30. 
 (L.) Sulla, 52. 
 
 Talthybius, 35. 
 
 Tantalus, 37. 
 
 Tarius, 55. 
 
 Tecta (via), 35. 
 
 Tiber, 35. 
 
 Tiberius Caesar, 18, 24, 39. 
 
 Timoneae (cenae), 82. 
 
 Tithonus, 26. 
 
 (Sex.) Traulus, 35. 
 
 Tricho, 55. 
 
 Trogus, 36. 
 
 mixes, 87. 
 
212 
 
 INDEX NOMINUM 
 
 Valens, vid. Vettius. 
 Varro, 30. 
 Vedius Pollio, 58. 
 Venus, 30, 100. 
 Vergilius, 8, 86, 97. 
 Vettius Valens, 36. 
 
 Vica Pota, 31. 
 Vienna, 28. 
 Volcanus, 32. 
 
 Xanthus, 29. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America.