This is one of Seneca’s most famous letters, and one of the most surprising things written in the Roman world. Lucilius has been treating the people he enslaves as human beings, and Seneca cheers him on. He takes apart the cruelty of the Roman dinner party, reminds his friend that fortune can make anyone a […]
Letter 46: On a New Book by Lucilius
Lucilius has finally sent the book he promised, and Seneca can’t put it down. This short, delighted letter is a reader’s thank-you note: he skips lunch, ignores the weather, and finishes it in one sitting. But underneath the praise is a promise every writer needs from a friend: a second, careful reading and the plain […]
Letter 45: On Sophistical Argumentation
Lucilius complains that books are scarce where he’s posted, and Seneca replies that a few good books beat a pile of mediocre ones. That sets him off on a theme close to his heart: philosophy that wastes itself on clever word puzzles while people still don’t know how to live. Words rarely fool us, he […]
Letter 44: On Philosophy and Pedigrees
Lucilius is feeling like a nobody again, sure that nature and luck have shortchanged him. Seneca won’t have it. In one of the most democratic letters he ever wrote, he insists that philosophy never checks your family tree. Socrates wasn’t an aristocrat, Cleanthes hauled water for a living, and Plato was made noble by philosophy, […]
Letter 43: On The Relativity of Fame
Lucilius is surprised that word of his private plans has reached Seneca. Who would bother gossiping about him? Seneca’s answer is short and searching. Greatness is relative: in his own province, Lucilius is a big ship on a small river, and people are watching. That makes it all the more important to live well. Then […]