Tag: Epistolography

Every Age a Clodius

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Seneca, Moral Epistle 97.10-13

“Every generation produces a Clodius, but every one doesn’t make a Cato. We lean more easily into ruin, not because we have no leader or lack a guide, but because the action itself happens easily without a leader, without help. The path to vice isn’t just downhill, it’s steep too and it makes many of us unfixable because life’s mistakes feel good while screwups in all the other arts are a source of shame and causes harm to those who do them.

A captain doesn’t smile when his ship flips over; a doctor doesn’t grin at a sick patient dead, an orator does not laugh when the person they’re defending loses because of their mistake. But in contrast, everyone’s personal crime is a source of pleasure! This guy is charmed by adultery, the same ‘difficulty’ that got him into trouble in the first place. Another dude finds counterfeiting and theft a thrill, and isn’t disappointed with his fault until his luck fails him. This is the outcome of debased practices!

However, so that you know that our spirits possess some notion of proper behavior even when they have been seduced into the worst things and that we are not ignorant of what is wrong, just negligent, everyone covers over their faults and, even if they do it well, still enjoy their products even while disguising them. The good conscience wants to step out and be seen–evil is afraid of shadows. So, I think that Epicurus put it well that “It’s possible for a guilty person to hide, but it’s impossible to trust the hiding.”

Or, if you think it is better to convey the sense in this way: “There’s no advantage for people who screw up to hide because even if that have the good luck, there’s no promise of staying hidden.” I mean this: crimes can be safeguarded, but they can never be secure.”

Omne tempus Clodios, non omne Catones feret. Ad deteriora faciles sumus, quia nec dux potest nec comes deesse, et res ipsa etiam sine duce, sine comite procedit. Non pronum est tantum ad vitia, sed praeceps, et quod plerosque inemendabiles facit, omnium aliarum artium peccata artificibus pudori sunt offenduntque deerrantem, vitae peccata delectant. Non gaudet navigio gubernator everso, non gaudet aegro medicus elato, non gaudet orator, si patroni culpa reus cedidit; at contra omnibus crimen suum voluptati est. Laetatur ille adulterio, in quod inritatus est ipsa difficultate. Laetatur ille circumscriptione furtoque, nec ante illi culpa quam culpae fortuna displicuit. Id prava consuetudine evenit.

Alioquin ut scias subesse animis etiam in pessima abductis boni sensum nec ignorari turpe, sed neglegi; omnes peccata dissimulant et, quamvis feliciter cesserint, fructu illorum utuntur, ipsa subducunt. At bona conscientia prodire vult et conspici; ipsas nequitia tenebras timet. Eleganter itaque ab Epicuro dictum puto: “potest nocenti contingere, ut lateat, latendi fides non potest,” aut si hoc modo melius hunc explicari posse iudicas sensum: “ideo non prodest latere peccantibus, quia latendi etiam si felicitatem habent, fiduciam non habent.” Ita est: tuta scelera esse possunt, secura esse non possunt.

Etching of a scene from the Roman Republic. A man in a toga lies dead on the stairs of a building. Onlookers stare from above and the side.
Francesco Bertolini, Antiquite romaine ‘le cadavre de Publius Clodius Pulcher (92-52 avant JC) retrouve sur la via appia a Rome

Sad About Other People’s Riches

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 93.32-34

“I dare say that the soul knows  that riches are kept apart from where they are stored: the soul should be filled instead of a treasure chest. The soul should be in charge of all things and should be positioned as the owner of the nature of things so that the boundary of its realm should be the rising and the setting of the sun like the gods; that the soul may also gaze down upon the wealthy thanks to its own riches–none of them are as happy in their own possessions as they are sad about other people’s riches.

When the spirit rises to this sublime peak, it treats the body too not as a lover of a required burden but as a steward and is not subservient to the thing that it governs.. For no one is free if they are enslaved to their body. Truly,  provided you pass over the rest of the masters created by excessive concern to the body, the power it exerts is distracting yet sophisticated. From here, it leaves with an equal spirit or an exulted one, but once it has departed has no concern for the future of the flesh left behind.

But just as we neglect the clippings from our beards and hair, in the same way, when the divine spirit is about the leave the person that acted as a vessel to carry it, it cares as little as a baby just born does about afterbirth about the body, whether it is burned, or covered with stone, or interred, or fed to wild animals.”

Scit, inquam, aliubi positas esse divitias quam quo congeruntur; animum impleri debere, non arcam. Hunc inponere dominio rerum omnium licet, hunc in possessionem rerum naturae inducere, ut sua

rientis occidentisque terminis finiat1 deorumque ritu cuncta possideat, cum opibus suis divites superne despiciat, quorum nemo tam suo laetus est quam tristis alieno. Cum se in hanc sublimitatem tulit, corporis quoque ut3 oneris necessarii non amator, sed procurator est nec se illi, cui inpositus est, subicit. Nemo liber est, qui corpori servit. Nam ut alios dominos, quos nimia pro illo sollicitudo invenit, transeas, ipsius morosum imperium delicatumque 34est. Ab hoc modo aequo animo exit, modo magno prosilit, nec quis deinde relicti eius futurus sit exitus quaerit. Sed ut ex barba capilloque tonsa neglegimus, ita ille divinus animus egressurus hominem, quo receptaculum suum conferatur, ignis illud exurat an lapis includat4 an terra contegat an ferae distrahant, non magis ad se iudicat pertinere quam secundas ad editum infantem.

a pile of ancient greek coins on a black background
From Izmir, From another hoard found at Clazomenae, with coins from the 4th century BC.

Contemplate This: Bad Things are Going to Happen

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 91.6-7

“Chance selects some new way to apply her strengths to us when we forget her.  A single day can break up and scatter something built over over the years through great labor and indulgence from the gods. Well, whoever said “day” has given a long delay to the troubles rushing our way–an hour, a minute of time is enough for overthrowing empires. There would be some comfort for our weakness and our efforts if all things would just pass away at the same speed as their development; but the truth is that improvements happen slowly, and destruction rushes on.

Nothing is stable in private or in public. Human fate turns just like that of cities. Fear presses on during the greatest calm and even though there’s nothing from without causing it, troubles appear where they were expected the least. Regimes that have endured civil war and external conflict crumble without anyone attacking them. How rare is the state that has maintained its good fortune!”

So, we have to think about everything and make our minds resolved for the things that can happen. Contemplate this: exile, torture of sickness, wars, shipwrecks.”

Eligit aliquid novi casus, per quod velut oblitis vires suas ingerat. Quidquid longa series multis laboribus, multa deum indulgentia struxit, id unus dies spargit ac dissipat. Longam moram dedit malis properantibus, qui diem dixit; hora momentumque temporis evertendis imperiis sufficit. Esset aliquod inbecillitatis nostrae solacium rerumque nostrarum, si tam tarde perirent cuncta quam fiunt; nunc incrementa lente exeunt, festinatur in damnum. Nihil privatim, nihil publice stabile est; tam hominum quam urbium fata volvuntur. Inter placidissima terror existit nihilque extra tumultuantibus causis mala, unde minime exspectabantur, erumpunt. Quae domesticis bellis steterant regna, quae externis, inpellente nullo ruunt. Quota quaeque felicitatem civitas pertulit? Cogitanda ergo sunt omnia et animus adversus ea quae possunt evenire, firmandus. Exilia, tormenta morbi, bella, naufragia meditare.

GIF from the moving AIRPLANE where the flight attendant says "everybody get in crash positions" and the passengers all rearrange themselves as if they had crashed unprepared.

 

Best Thing About Philosophy? The Price

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 90.1-2

“My Lucilius, who can question that the live we live is a gift from the immortal gods, but the fact that we live well comes from philosophy? So, by this logic, as much as a good life is a greater benefit than merely living, so much more so would we owe to philosophy than we would owe to the gods, if philosophy itself were not something the gods gave us.

They granted this knowledge to no one, but they gave the ability to develop it to all. For, if they had made philosophy a gift shared by all and we were born wise, then wisdom would have missed what is best in itself, not being a chance acquisition. For now wisdom’s most valuable and impressive trait is that it does not come to us, because each person is in debt to themselves for wisdom and it is not found at someone else’s cost”

Quis dubitare, mi Lucili, potest, quin deorum immortalium munus sit quod vivimus, philosophiae quod bene vivimus? Itaque tanto plus huic nos debere quam dis, quanto maius beneficium est bona vita quam vita, pro certo haberetur, nisi ipsam philosophiam di tribuissent. Cuius scientiam nulli dederunt, facultatem omnibus. Nam si hanc quoque bonum vulgare fecissent et prudentes nasceremur, sapientia quod in se optimum habet, perdidisset: inter fortuita non esse. Nunc enim hoc in illa pretiosum atque magnificum est, quod non obvenit, quod illam sibi quisque debet, quod non ab alio petitur.

Futurama take my money meme with the word philosophy at the top

 

Going into Exile to Save the State

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 86.1-3

“I write to you while staying that that very home of Scipio Africanus, now that I have given my due to his memory and the altar that I believe is the grave of so great a man. I am certain that his spirit returned to the sky it came from, not because he led enormous armies–for irate Cambyses also had armies and he used his rage well–but thanks to his exceptional moderation and his dutifulness.

I judge this quality to be more admirable than the fact that left his country while he was defending it. For  either Scipio had to stay in Rome, or Rome could be free. He said, “I wish to limit the laws in no way, nor to undermine our customs. Let the law be equal for all citizens. My country: use the good I have done without me. I have been responsible for your freedom and I will also be its test. I leave as an exile, if I have grown beyond what is good for you.”

How can I but admire this greatness of spirit that guided him to depart voluntarily into exile and unburden the state? Circumstances were drawn to a point where either freedom would abuse Scipio or Scipio would abuse freedom.”

In ipsa Scipionis Africani villa iacens haec tibi scribo adoratis manibus eius et ara, quam sepulchrum esse tanti viri suspicor. Animum quidem eius in caelum, ex quo erat, redisse persuadeo mihi, non quia magnos exercitus duxit, hos enim et Cambyses furiosus ac furore feliciter usus habuit, sed ob egregiam moderationem pietatemque, quam magis in illo admirabilem iudico, cum reliquit patriam, quam cum defendit; aut Scipio Romae esse debebat aut Roma in libertate. “Nihil,” inquit, “volo derogare legibus, nihil institutis. Aequum inter omnes cives ius sit. Utere sine me beneficio meo, patria. Causa tibi libertatis fui, ero et argumentum; exeo, si plus quam tibi expedit, crevi.”

Quidni ego admirer hanc magnitudinem animi, qua in exilium voluntarium secessit et civitatem exoneravit? Eo perducta res erat, ut aut libertas Scipioni aut Scipio libertati faceret iniuriam

Color photograph of a bronze statue head from a 3/4 angle. Lips are pursed, eyes are intense.
“Scipio Africanus the Elder”. The Roman general Scipio earned the surname Africanus after his victory at the Battle of Zama, which ended the Second Punic War in 202 BC. This bust of Scipio Africanus the Elder is at the National Museum in Naples, Italy.

For Those Who Are About to Die

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Seneca, Moral Epistles 82. 20-21

When someone is leading an army to die for their wives and children, how should they rally them? I offer to you that Fabius who took the burden of a war for the whole state upon a single household. I show you the Spartans who were placed at the passes of Thermopylae. They could not expect either victory or retreat.

That place was destined to be their grave. How would you rally them so that they would offer up their bodies to receive the ruin meant for the whole people, so that they would leave life instead of their position? Would you say, “What is evil is not glorious; death is glorious, therefore death is not evil?” What a moving speech! Who would hesitate to hurl themselves against the enemy’s spears and die where they stood?

But Leonidas spoke to them more bravely. He said, “Comrades: eat breakfast well, since tonight we dine in hell.”

In aciem educturus exercitum pro coniugibus ac liberis mortem obiturum quomodo exhortabitur? Do tibi Fabios totum rei publicae bellum in unam transferentes domum. Laconas tibi ostendo in ipsis Thermopylarum angustiis positos. Nec victoriam sperant nec reditum. Ille locus illis sepulchrum futurus est. Quemadmodum exhortaris, ut totius gentis ruinam obiectis corporibus excipiant et vita potius quam loco cedant? Dices: “quod malum est, gloriosum non est; mors gloriosa est; mors ergo non malum”? O efficacem contionem! Quis post hanc dubitet se infestis ingerere mucronibus et stans mori! At ille Leonidas quam fortiter illos adlocutus est! “Sic,” inquit, “commilitones, prandete tamquam apud inferos cenaturi.”

Leonidas meme from the movie 300 with the king shouting. Here he is saying tamquam apud inferos cenatur which means "breakfast well, for tonight we dine in hell."

Kindness is Important–I wrote a Book about It

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Seneca, Moral Epistle 81.1-3

“You are complaining that you encountered someone who was ungrateful. If this is the first time, then you should be grateful to your luck or your own care. For this matter, however, care can only make you mean: if you want to avoid this kind of risk, then you won’t do people favors. So, you lose out on them, in order to prevent another wasting them.

It is better to receive no thanks than not to help people. You need to plant even after a bad harvest! Often the long term failure of unfertile soil is overcome by one season’s growth. To find one thankful person, you have to try with many ungrateful ones. No one has so perfect a hand when doing favors that they are not deceived again and again.

People should wander so they can find their way again.. Sailors try the sea after a shipwreck; an investor doesn’t flee the marketplace because of one conman. If we had to give everything up that presented danger, then life would grow boring with meaningless leisure.

But this situation should make you even kinder. For when the outcome of any event is uncertain, you need to try often to finally succeed. Well, I wrote enough about all this already in the books I wrote,  under the title “On Benefits”

Quereris incidisse te in hominem ingratum. Si hoc nunc primum, age aut fortunae aut diligentiae tuae gratias. Sed nihil facere hoc loco diligentia potest nisi te malignum. Nam si hoc periculum vitare volueris, non dabis beneficia; ita ne apud alium pereant, apud te peribunt.

Non respondeant potius quam non dentur. Et post malam segetem serendum est; saepe quicquid perierat adsidua infelicis soli sterilitate, unius anni restituit ubertas. Est tanti, ut gratum invenias, experiri et ingratos. Nemo habet tam certam in beneficiis manum, ut non saepe fallatur; aberrent, ut aliquando haereant. Post naufragium maria temptantur. Faeneratorem non fugat a foro decoctor. Cito inerti otio vita torpebit, si relinquendum est, quicquid offendit; te vero benigniorem haec ipsa res faciat. Nam cuius rei eventus incertus est, id ut aliquando procedat, saepe temptandum est. Sed de isto satis multa in iis libris locuti sumus, qui de beneficiis inscribuntur.

peter parker meme: frame one, man holding book that says "on benefits"; frame two, man reading book that says "gratitude is less important than kindness"

 

Tricks with His Lips! Fronto on Why Seneca is Trash

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Fronto to Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus (“On Speeches”, Ambr. 382)

“…I am going to add in some potentially inapt and unfair comments, for I plan to remind you of the experience of having me as a teacher…

Still, it would be better for you to neglect these things than to nurture them poorly. For when it comes to that confused in the combined type, grafted in part on Cato’s pine-nuts and Seneca’s soft and febrile plums, well I think it should be pulled up by the roots—no, to use a Plautine line, uprooted below the roots!

I am not ignorant that Seneca is a person fully stuffed and overflowing with ideas, but to be honest I see his sentences as trotting around, announcing their course with a full gallop, but stopping to fight nowhere and never striking the sublime. Like Laberius, he plays at wit-darts, or really just assembling sounds, rather than composing words worth repeating.

Do you believe that you would uncover graver sentiments on the same ideas in your Annaeus than in Sergius*? Ah, Sergius’ words don’t have the same rhythm or the same speed as Seneca’s, I admit. The sounds don’t sing the same, I won’t deny it.

But what if the same meal is offered to two people and the first picks up the olives on the table with his fingers, brings them to his mouth, puts them between his teeth to chew them in the right and proper way, while the other throws them up high and catches them with his mouth open and then shows them off once caught with his lips like a juggler? Really, children at school would applaud at what was done and the guest would be entertained, but one will have eaten lunch properly while the other did tricks with his lips.

So you say that some things are expressed cleverly and some with weight. But sometimes little silver coins are found in the sewer. Should we take over the job of cleaning the sewers too?”

…pauca subnectam fortasse inepta iniqua, nam rursus faxo magistrum me experiare….

Neglegas tamen vero potius censeo quam prave excolas. Confusam eam ego eloquentiam, catachannae ritu partim pineis nucibus Catonis partim Senecae mollibus et febriculosis prunulis insitam, subvertendam censeo radicitus, immo vero, Plautino ut utar verbo, exradicitus. Neque ignoro copiosum sententiis et redundantem hominem esse: verum sententias eius tolutares video nusquam quadripedo concitas cursu ten<d>ere, nusquam pugnare, nusquam maiestatem studere; ut Laberius dictabolaria, immo dicteria, potius eum quam dicta confingere.

Itane existimas graviores sententias et eadem de re apud Annaeum istum reperturum te quam apud Sergium? Sed non modulatas aeque: fateor;  neque ita| cordaces: ita est; neque ita tinnulas: non nego. Quid vero, si prandium utrique adponatur, adpositas oleas alter digitis prendat, ad os adferat, ut manducandi ius fasque est ita dentibus subiciat, alter autem oleas suas in altum iaciat, ore aperto excipiat, ut calculos praestigiator, primoribus labris ostentet? Ea re profecto pueri laudent, convivae delectentur; sed alter pudice pranderit, alter labellis gesticulatus erit.

At enim sunt quaedam in libris eius scite dicta, graviter quoque nonnulla. Etiam laminae interdum argentiolae cloacis inveniuntur; eane re cloacas purgandas redimemus?

*either Sergius Flavius or Plautus, an author reputed to have used harsh language

Marcus as a young boy

Nothing To Write about: Cicero Gives Up

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Cicero to Atticus, 129 (VII.6) Formiae, ca. 18 December 50 (Full Latin text on the Scaife Viewer)

“There’s clearly nothing for me to write to you about. You know everything worth knowing and I have nothing to expect from you. Still, let me keep up our practice so that we don’t let anyone travel near you without a letter.

I am really afraid for our country. I have barely found anyone who doesn’t think we should give Caesar what he wants, rather than fighting with him.”

Plane deest quid ad te scribam. nota omnia tibi sunt, nec ipse habeo a te quod exspectem. tantum igitur nostrum illud sollemne servemus, ut ne quem istuc euntem sine litteris dimittamus.

De re publica valde timeo, nec adhuc fere inveni qui non concedendum putaret Caesari quod postularet potius quam depugnandum.

The Epidemic’s Over, We’re Fine

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image of white house statement decalring state of emergency over COVID19 over

Cicero, Letters to Friends, to Terentia 8 (14.1)

“When it comes to my family, I will do what you report seems right to our friends. Concerning where I am currently, the epidemic is certainly already over and, even though it lasted a while, it didn’t touch me. Plancius, the most dutiful man, longs to keep me with him and detains me here.

I was hoping to stay in some deserted place in Epirus where Piso and his soldiers would never come, but Plancius holds me here. He posts that it will turn out to be possible for him to leave for Italy with me. Should I see that day and return to your embrace and my families and get you and myself back again, I will judge that a great profit of your commitment and mine.”

De familia, quo modo placuisse scribis amicis faciemus. de loco, nunc quidem iam abiit pestilentia, sed quam diu fuit me non attigit. Plancius, homo officiosissimus, me cupit esse secum et adhuc retinet. ego volebam loco magis deserto esse in Epiro, quo neque Piso veniret nec milites, sed adhuc Plancius me retinet; sperat posse fieri ut mecum in Italiam decedat. quem ego diem si videro et si in vestrum complexum venero ac si et vos et me ipsum reciperaro, satis magnum mihi fructum videbor percepisse et vestrae pietatis et meae.

Cicero Very Fine