Fourth Place is Still Better than You!

May 14, 2023May 14, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 100.9

“Offer up someone you think is better than Fabianus. Sure, there’s Cicero , who has nearly as many books relevant to philosophy as Fabianus does. I’ll allow this, but it is no minor affair to be somewhat less than the best. Then there’s Asinius Pollio. I’ll grant that too and respond that it is impressive to be third after those two. Name Livy too, for he also wrote dialogues, which you can include as philosophy no less than history, alongside books that expressly contain philosophy. I grant Livy his place as well. Think, then, of how many authors Fabianus surpasses if he is inferior to only three, and three rhetorical greats as it is!”

adfer, quem Fabiano possis praeponere. Dic Ciceronem, cuius libri ad philosophiam pertinentes paene totidem sunt, quot Fabiani; cedam, sed non statim pusillum est, si quid maximo minus est. Dic Asinium Pollionem; cedam, et respondeamus: in re tanta eminere est post duos esse. Nomina adhuc T. Livium, scripsit enim et dialogos, quos non magis philosophiae adnumerare possis quam historiae, et ex professo philosophiam continentis libros; huic quoque dabo locum. Vide tamen, quam multos antecedat, qui a tribus vincitur et tribus eloquentissimis.

color photography of a black figure greek vase. nude youths on horseback in horse-race — C Painter (late work) – period / date: high archaic, ca. 560-550 BC

Dude, Stop Thinking About Tomorrow

May 13, 2023May 13, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 99.4-5

“But most people don’t add up how many things they have gained, how much joy they have experienced. This grief of yours has this problem among others: not only is it excessive, it is also ungrateful. Have you had a friend like this for no reason at all? Is it worthless that you have had so many years, such a profound sharing of life, so deep a well of shared interests? Do you entomb friendship with the friend? Why mourn that you lost if you gained nothing to have had it in the first place?

Believe me, a great part of those we have loved remains with us even after fortune has removed them. What has passed is ours and no time better safeguarded than what has already been. We remain ungrateful for what we had because we hang on the hope of the future as if the future–provided we have any at all–will not quickly join the past.

Whoever finds joy only in the present chooses a limit for the enjoyment of things. the future and the past also delight us, one by anticipation, the other through memory. But one is only potential and may not happen, while the the other necessarily happened.”

“Sed plerique non computant, quanta perceperint, quantum gavisi sint. Hoc habet inter reliqua mali dolor iste: non supervacuus tantum, sed ingratus est. Ergo quod habuisti talem amicum, periit opera? Tot annis, tanta coniunctione vitae, tam familiari studiorum societate nil actum est? Cum amico effers amicitiam? Et quid doles amisisse, si habuisse non prodest? Mihi crede, magna pars ex iis, quos amavimus, licet ipsos casus abstulerit, apud nos manet. Nostrum est, quod praeteriit, tempus nec quicquam est loco tutiore quam quod fuit. Ingrati adversus percepta spe futuri sumus, quasi non quod futurum est, si modo successerit nobis, cito in praeterita transiturum sit. Anguste fructus rerum determinat, qui tantum praesentibus laetus est; et futura et praeterita delectant, haec exspectatione, illa memoria, sed alterum pendet et non fieri potest, alterum non potest non fuisse.

Outlaw Wealth? Maybe Not

May 4, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 87.41

“Let’s imagine that we are called to an assembly: a law is on offer concerning outlawing wealth. Would we be advocating for or against it based on our philosophical arguments? Could we use our disputations to persuade the Roman people to request and praise poverty, that fundamental cause of our own empire, and also to fear their own wealth?

Could we make them see that they have discovered it among those they have conquered, to understand that from wealth ambition, corruption, and strife have disrupted a city once the most sacred and moderate, that thanks to it we show off the spoils of other nations excessively; and that whatever one people have stolen from all others can be easily taken back from the one by everyone else?

It is enough to advocate for the law and to control our own actions rather than to write our way around them. Let us speak more bravely, if we can; if we cannot, more honestly.”

Putemus nos ad contionem vocatos; lex de abolendis divitiis fertur. His interrogationibus suasuri aut dissuasuri sumus? His effecturi, ut populus Romanus paupertatem, fundamentum et causam imperii sui, requirat ac laudet, divitias autem suas timeat, ut cogitet has se apud victos repperisse, hinc ambitum et largitiones et tumultus in urbem sanctissimam et temperantissimam inrupisse, nimis luxuriose ostentari gentium spolia, quod unus populus eripuerit omnibus, facilius ab omnibus uni eripi posse? Hanc satius est suadere et expugnare adfectus, non circumscribere. Si possumus, fortius loquamur; si minus, apertius. Vale.

He Sees The Secrets That We Keep

April 30, 2023April 29, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 83.1-3

“You demand that I describe each of my days to you and in their entirety too. If you think that there’s nothing I should hide among these, you have a high opinion of me. Still, this is certainly the way we should live, as if out in front of everyone. This is also how we should think, as if there is someone out there who can see into our deepest heart. And there is. For what is the advantage if something can be kept secret from a person? Nothing is secret from God. He is in our souls and is present among our thoughts. He enters among them, I say, as someone who may leave at any time.

So, I will do what you demand and write you openly what I am doing and in what order. I will observe myself constantly and take stock of every day, which is a very useful practice. This is what makes us the worst: no one examines their own life. We think about only what we are going to do, even though our future plans rely on the past.”

Singulos dies tibi meos et quidem totos indicari iubes; bene de me iudicas, si nihil esse in illis putas, quod abscondam. Sic certe vivendum est, tamquam in conspectu vivamus; sic cogitandum, tamquam aliquis in pectus intimum introspicere possit; et potest. Quid enim prodest ab homine aliquid esse secretum? Nihil deo clusum est. Interest animis nostris et cogitationibus mediis intervenit—sic intervenit, dico, tamquam aliquando discedat. Faciam ergo, quod iubes, et quid agam et quo ordine, libenter tibi scribam. Observabo me protinus et, quod est utilissimum, diem meum recognoscam. Hoc nos pessimos facit, quod nemo vitam suam respicit. Quid facturi simus cogitamus. Atqui consilium futuri ex praeterito venit.

Seneca’s Spirit in the Sky

April 26, 2023April 26, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 79.11-13

“Much of our work is done–well, if I am willing to tell the truth, it isn’t much. For goodness is not being better than the worst. Who would brag about their eyes after just glimpsing daylight? Someone who has seen the sun shine through a mist may be happy that they have fled the shadows even though they still do not enjoy the light’s benefit.

Our spirits will not have a reason to congratulate themselves until they are freed from the shadows they’re stumbling in and have not glanced at the light with fleeting vision but have exulted in the whole day and have been restored to their own place in the sky–when they return to the place they inhabited before they were born.

Their origins call souls on high–and they can make it back there even before being released from this prison once they abandon their vices and launch purely and lightly into divine contemplation.

It pleases me, dearest Lucilius, that we are doing this, that we pursue it with all our strength, even though few people–or none at all–know about it. Fame is virtue’s shadow–it follows even against our will.”

Iam multum operis effecti est; immo, si verum fateri volo, non multum. Nec enim bonitas est pessimis esse meliorem. Quis oculis glorietur, qui suspicetur diem? Cui sol per caliginem splendet, licet contentus interim sit effugisse tenebras, adhuc non fruitur bono lucis. Tunc animus noster habebit, quod gratuletur sibi, cum emissus his tenebris, in quibus volutatur, non tenui visu clara prospexerit, sed totum diem admiserit et redditus caelo suo fuerit, cum receperit locum, quem occupavit sorte nascendi. Sursum illum vocant initia sua. Erit autem illic etiam antequam hac custodia exsolvatur, cum vitia disiecerit purusque ac levis in cogitationes divinas emicuerit.

Hoc nos agere, Lucili carissime, in hoc ire impetu toto, licet pauci sciant, licet nemo, iuvat. Gloria umbra virtutis est; etiam invitam comitabitur.

Best to Write Last? Seneca Breaks ChatGPT

April 26, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 79.6

“There’s a big difference in whether you write on material that has been thoroughly worked through or on something just breaking. New material expands each day and what you know doesn’t stand in the way of new discoveries. But the best opportunity is to write last: the words are waiting for you and they look different when arranged in a new way. You’re not stealing them as if they belong to someone else–they’re in the public domain!”

Multum interest, utrum ad consumptam materiam an ad subactam accedas; crescit in dies et inventuris inventa non obstant. Praeterea condicio optima est ultimi; parata verba invenit, quae aliter instructa novam faciem habent. Nec illis manus inicit tamquam alienis. Sunt enim publica

Learning Like the Kids

April 23, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 76.1-3

“You are threatening to become my enemy if I leave you ignorant of what I am doing every day. Look how straightforward I am with you when I tell you even this. I am listening to a philosopher and I am on my fifth day listening to his lectures at school, starting at two in the afternoon.

“A fine time of life for that!” you say. What’s wrong with it? What’s more foolish than not learning because you haven’t don so in a while? “What, then? Should we act like the groupies and the kids?” Well, things are pretty good for me if this alone besmirches my old age.

This school accepts people from every age. “Should we grow old just to follow the kids?” I will enter the theater as an old man or get taken to the games and refuse any bout fought to the finish without me, but I should be embarrassed at attending a philosopher’s talk? As long as you are ignorant, you have to learn. If we trust the old saying, as long as you live! And nothing fits this situation better: as long as you are alive you must keep learning how to live.”

Inimicitias mihi denuntias, si quicquam ex iis, quae cotidie facio, ignoraveris. Vide, quam simpliciter tecum vivam: hoc quoque tibi committam. Philosophum audio et quidem quintum iam diem habeo, ex quo in scholam eo et ab octava disputantem audio. “Bona,” inquis, “aetate.” Quidni bona? Quid autem stultius est quam, quia diu non didiceris, non discere? “Quid ergo? Idem faciam, quod trossuli et iuvenes?” Bene mecum agitur, si hoc unum senectutem meam dedecet. Omnis aetatis homines haec schola admittit. “In hoc senescamus, ut iuvenes sequamur?” In theatrum senex ibo et in circum deferar et nullum par sine me depugnabit ad philosophum ire erubescam?

Tamdiu discendum est, quamdiu nescias; si proverbio credimus, quamdiu vivas. Nec ulli hoc rei magis convenit quam huic: tamdiu discendum est, quemadmodum vivas, quamdiu vivas.

Unpolished Words and Saying What You Mean

April 22, 2023April 19, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 75.1-3

“You grumble that my letters to you are not very polished. Well, who speaks with polish unless they want to talk ostentatiously? I want my letters to have the quality of the kind of conversation we’d have while sitting next to each other or walking: easy and unlabored, since there is nothing forced or false about them.

If I could, I would prefer to show rather than tell you what I am feeling. Even if I were debating with you, I wouldn’t stomp my foot, or wave my hands around, or raise my voice–I’d abandon those tricks to the orators because I am happy to have shared my experiences with you without elaborating them or cheapening them.

I wish I could make this single thing clear to you: whatever I say, I don’t just feel it, I mean it. Men kiss their girlfriends one way and their children another, but enough emotion is clear in the parental embrace too, since it is sacred and restrained.”

Minus tibi accuratas a me epistulas mitti quereris. Quis enim accurate loquitur, nisi qui vult putide loqui? Qualis sermo meus esset, si una sederemus aut ambularemus, inlaboratus et facilis, tales esse epistulas meas volo, quae nihil habent accersitum nec fictum. Si fieri posset, quid sentiam, ostendere quam loqui mallem. Etiam si disputarem, nec supploderem pedem nec manum iactarem nec attollerem vocem, sed ista oratoribus reliquissem, contentus sensus meos ad te pertulisse, quos nec exornassem nec abiecissem. Hoc unum plane tibi adprobare vellem: omnia me illa sentire, quae dicerem, nec tantum sentire, sed amare. Aliter homines amicam, aliter liberos osculantur; tamen in hoc quoque amplexu tam sancto et moderato satis apparet adfectus.

Feelings and What You Feel from Them

April 21, 2023April 18, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ 1 Comment

Seneca, Moral Epistle 74.33-34

“What is more demented than to be crushed by future events but not to preserve oneself for the torture only instead to seek and invite misery? You should put these things off, if you can’t escape them completely. Don’t you know that no one should be tortured by the future? Whoever has heard that they will have to undergo sufferings in fifty years is not upset unless they somehow jump over the space in between and have immersed themselves in trouble scheduled for the next generation.

It’s the same when spirits that are happily sick and casting about for reasons for sorrow grow sad over ancient and forgotten things. Both the past and the future go missing–we don’t feel either one. There is no grief, moreover, except what you get from what you feel. Goodbye”

Quid autem dementius quam angi futuris nec se tormento reservare, sed arcessere sibi miserias et movere? Quas optimum est differre, si discutere non possit. Vis scire futuro neminem debere torqueri? Quicumque audierit post quinquagesimum annum sibi patienda supplicia, non perturbatur, nisi si medium spatium transiluerit et se in illam saeculo post futuram sollicitudinem inmiserit; eodem modo fit, ut animos libenter aegros et captantes causas doloris vetera atque obliterata contristent. Et quae praeterierunt et quae futura sunt, absunt; neutra sentimus.¹ Non est autem nisi ex eo, quod sentias, dolor. Vale.

Cringe Takes on Philosophy and Power

April 20, 2023April 20, 2023 ~ sententiaeantiquae ~ Leave a comment

Seneca, Moral Epistles 73.1-2

“People seem wrong to me who believe that those who are dedicated to philosophy are cantankerous and insubordinate, that they look down on officers or kings or public administrators. To the contrary, no one is more welcome to a philosopher than people like this, and rightly so, since they bring no greater advantage to people than to those for whom it is permitted to enjoy quiet leisure.

So, those who earn public security in exchange for living well ought to treat the author of this benefit as a parent and much more so than those who spend their time in public making noise, who owe much to those in charge, but demand much too–the kinds of people who are so filled by generosity, that their desires can never be satisfied because they increase as they are fulfilled.

But those who think about welcoming favors to come are forgetful of what they have already taken. Desire has no greater evil than being ungrateful. In addition, no one who works in public affairs thinks of how many they have passed, but looks instead to those who are outdistancing them. It is less pleasing to these people to see the many behind them than it is a burden to glance at anyone ahead. This is what’s wrong with all ambition–it does not look behind. Ambition isn’t unsteady alone: all desire is like this, because it always begins at the end.”

Errare mihi videntur, qui existimant philosophiae fideliter deditos contumaces esse ac refractarios, contemptores magistratuum aut regum eorumve, per quos publica administrantur. Ex contrario enim nulli adversus illos gratiores sunt; nec inmerito. Nullis enim plus praestant quam quibus frui tranquillo otio licet. 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 inputant, quibus numquam tam plene occurrere ulla liberalitas potest, ut cupiditates illorum, quae crescunt, dum implentur, exsatiet.

Quisquis autem de accipiendo cogitat, oblitus accepti est; nec ullum habet malum cupiditas maius, quam quod ingrata est. Adice nunc, quod nemo eorum, qui in re publica versantur, quot vincat, sed a quibus vincatur, aspicit. 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 instabilis est, verum cupiditas omnis, quia incipit semper a fine.