Seneca: Letters from a Stoic (affiliate link). (New York: Penguin Classics, 1969; 2014 edition). 309 pages.
Every year I try to read some classic literature. This book qualifies. Lucius Annaeus Seneca was born in Cordoba, Spain, and lived during the first century. He suffered most of his life from bad health, especially asthma, and even contemplated suicide to alleviate his suffering (vii). Under the emperor Caligula, Seneca became a leading speaker in the senate, which caused the emperor to distrust him and contemplate removing him. Under the emperor Claudius, he once again came under scrutiny and distrust and was banished from Rome. When Claudius married Agrippina, she had Seneca recalled and made tutor to her 17-year-old son, Nero (ix).
During the first five years of Nero’s reign, Seneca and Burrus effectively administered the empire while Nero grew into manhood (x). During that period, Seneca became fabulously wealthy, drawing much criticism. This book’s editor notes that Seneca provides a classic example of someone who did not practice what he preached (xii). He was a Stoic and applied certain disciplines, such as eating a plain diet, abstaining from alcohol, taking cold baths, going for a daily run, and sleeping on a hard mattress. Nero had his half-brother and then his mother murdered. As Nero became more violent, Seneca allegedly advised him that “However many people you slaughter, you cannot kill your successor” (xii).
Eventually Burrus was murdered, leaving Seneca vulnerable. Seneca eventually asked Nero if he might retire. For three years, he withdrew from the public eye and spent his time writing. He gave his entire fortune to Nero in an attempt to appease him. After a failed conspiracy against Nero, Seneca was implicated. Nero sent word that he expected Seneca to commit suicide (xv).
This book is comprised of a series of letters Seneca wrote to a younger man named Lucilius. Seneca uses this format to convey the wisdom he has learned over the course of his life. This book became quite popular in its day. It’s said that George Washington was an avid admirer of Seneca and patterned much of his own vaunted self-control after the Roman. Since the book is a series of Seneca’s thoughts on life, I’ll highlight some of his comments to provide an idea of his viewpoints and approach to successful living.
Though Seneca traveled throughout his life, he criticized those who thought they could better themselves merely by moving about constantly. He writes, “To be everywhere is to be nowhere. People who spend their whole life travelling abroad end up having plenty of places where they can find hospitality but no real friendships” (3). He also criticized reading too much, though he valued books. He claims that “Nothing is so useful that it can be of service in mere passing. A multitude of books only gets in one’s way” (4). I might disagree with him on that point!
Seneca highlights the Stoic motto, “live in conformity with nature” (10). He claims “Anyone entering our houses should admire us rather than our furnishings” (10). Interestingly, he also argued that “No one confines his unhappiness to the present” (11). He believed that when we are unhappy, it contaminates our past and present as well.
He cautions, “The greater the crowd that we mingle with, the greater the danger” (15). He was always wary of the crowd. He also believed that “You must inevitably either hate or imitate the world . . . Retire into yourself as much as you can” (18).
Seneca is known for his one-liners. He was clearly writing to be quoted. He expected to be famous for generations to come. He claimed that “Your merits should not be outward facing” (19). He also confesses that “I have only busied myself away behind closed doors in order to be of use to more people. With me no day is ever whiled away at ease. I have no time for sleep: I just succumb to it” (20). He declares, “I am acting on behalf of later generations” (20).
Although Seneca owned much property in both the country and the city, he urged readers to abstain from greed or materialism. He declares, “What you have to understand is that thatch makes a person just as good a roof as gold does” (21). He argues that those who studied philosophy were doing much more important work than those who were merely accumulating wealth.
Ironically, Seneca quotes from Epicurus, who founded the rival Epicurean school of philosophy. He quotes him as saying, “Any man . . . who does not think that what he has is more than ample, is an unhappy man, even if he is the master of the whole world” (31). Seneca adds, “Only the wise man is content with what is his” (32).
It is interesting how some of the ancients longed for the very thing Christianity offers. Seneca advises that “We need to set our affection on some good man and keep him constantly before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching us and do everything as if he saw what we were doing” (35). There are many places in which Seneca speaks as if he longed for a Holy Spirit to guide and inspire his life. He also muses, “There is a need, in my view, for someone as a standard against which our characters can measure themselves” (36). It certainly sounds at times as if Seneca recognized his need for Jesus.
Seneca wrote this book as an older man, and he has much to say about old age. He declares, “I should describe old age itself as a kind of incurable sickness” (247). He advises, “Well, we should cherish old age and enjoy it. It is full of pleasure if you know how to use it” (38). He also suggests that “. . . death ought to be right there before the eyes of young men just as much as an old one” (38).
Seneca cautioned against letting our flesh dominate us. He advises, “So keep the body within bounds as much as you can and make room for the spirit” (41). He was an early critic of New Year’s resolutions, observing, “. . . making noble resolutions is not as important as keeping the resolutions you have made already” (46).
Seneca quotes Epicurus once again, saying, “If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor; if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich. Nature’s wants are small, while those of opinions are limitless” (48).
Seneca sagely advises, “It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself to deal with difficult times” (51). He also notes, “Barley porridge, or a crust of barley bread, and water do not make a very cheerful diet, but nothing gives me keener pleasure than the ability to derive pleasure even from that” (53).
Seneca regularly encourages his readers not to fear death but to recognize its value. He suggests that “It’s only when you’re breathing your last that the way you’ve spent your time will become apparent. I accept the terms and feel no dread of the coming judgment” (58). He made this statement as someone who was ultimately commanded by his emperor to take his own life. He also writes, “A person who has learned to die has unlearned how to be a slave. He is above, or at any rate beyond the reach of, all political powers. What are prisons, warder, bans to him? He has an open door. There is but one chain holding us in fetters, and that is our love of life” (59).
Though Seneca offers a steady flow of advice to readers, he confesses, “No, I’m not so shameless as to set about treating people when I’m sick myself. I’m talking to you as if I were lying in the same hospital ward” (60). Seneca encourages self-examination. He advises, “. . . conduct inquiries of your own into all the evidence against yourself. Play the part first of prosecutors, then of judge and finally of pleader in mitigation. Be harsh with yourself at times” (67). Seneca knew he had critics who derided his hypocrisy and advice to others.
Concerning rhetoric, Seneca claims, “What is required is not a lot of words but effectual ones” (73). He also advises not to speak too quickly: “Nonetheless, what is waited for does sink in more readily than what goes flying past” (76).
At times, Seneca sounds quite spiritual. He observes, “God is near you, is with you, is inside you. Yes, Lucilius, there resides within us a divine spirit, which guards us and watches us in the evil and the good we do. As we treat him, so will he treat us. No man, indeed, is good without God—is anyone capable of rising above fortune unless he has help from God? He it is that prompts us to noble and exalted endeavors” (80).
It’s interesting that Seneca was George Washington’s favorite author. In these letters, Seneca instructs people to treat their slaves well, for they are not animals but human beings (86-87). He advises, “. . . treat your inferiors in the way in which you would like to be treated by your superiors (89). In relating to others, including slaves, Seneca writes, “I propose to value them according to their character, not their jobs. Each man has a character of his own choosing, and it is chance or fate that decides his choice of job” (91). Of course, these statements seem archaic to us, but they would have sounded enlightened in his day, as they did in Washington’s.
Concerning time management, Seneca writes, “Even if you had a large part of your life remaining before you, you would have to organize it very economically to have enough for all the things that are necessary; as things are, isn’t it the height of folly to learn inconsequential things when time is so desperately short!” (98).
Seneca again considers God, declaring, “What was the cause of God’s creating the universe? He is good, and whoever is good can never be grudging with anything good; so he made it as good a world as it was in his power to make it” (128). He goes on, “Am I not to inquire how everything in the universe began, who gave things form, who separated them out when they were plunged together in a single conglomeration of inert matter? Am I not to inquire into the identity of the artist who created the universe?” (131).
In preparing for adversity, Seneca suggests that “We should project our thoughts ahead of us at every turn and have in mind every possible eventuality instead of only the usual course of events” (205). He also encourages readers that “. . . whatever happens is never as serious as rumor makes it out to be” (207).
I liked Seneca’s proposition, “For the only safe harbour in this life’s tossing, troubled sea is to refuse to be bothered about what the future will bring and to stand ready and confident, squaring the breast to take without skulking or flinching whatever fortune hurls at us” (221). In speaking of life’s difficulties, Seneca argues, “It’s not because they are hard that we lose confidence; they’re hard because we lack the confidence” (223). He later states, “One can do nothing better than endure what cannot be cured and attend uncomplainingly the God at whose instance all things come about. It is a poor soldier that follows his commander grumbling” (234).
Knowing his life was in danger due to the high stakes of power politics in the empire, he spent his final years putting his thoughts and wisdom down in writing. As he approached his end, he declares, “I leave you my remaining possession, and my best: the pattern of my life” (291). Perhaps because of the dramatic way he died, by cutting his own veins and then taking poison, and also because his wife attempted to join him in death by cutting her veins as he did, Seneca became famous.
His influence has ebbed and flowed over time, but much of his advice remains relevant. Seneca was not a Christian. Yet in his pursuit of understanding life, he regularly butted up against Christianity’s teachings. It is sad he did not ultimately find what he sought. Seneca personifies the fact that a person who knows many things is not necessarily one who practices them. His life was inconsistent. But perhaps, like Solomon, that is why he fascinates us centuries later.
Seneca represents some of the best of Stoicism. As a major philosophical movement in history, it is certainly appropriate to read what he had to say.
Rating: 4
