Seneca

Stoicism

With Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius he forms the great trio of Roman Stoicism.

💡 Did you know? Seneca was the best-known Roman representative of Stoicism: the philosophy of composure and virtue.

Córdoba

Around 4 BC, son of the rhetorician Seneca the Elder.

💡 Did you know? Seneca was born in Córdoba in Spain, then part of the Roman Empire.

Nero

The empress Agrippina recalled him from exile for the task; in Nero's first five years he effectively co-governed the empire.

💡 Did you know? Seneca tutored the young Nero and at first guided his rule: until the emperor turned against him.

Letters to Lucilius

124 letters to his friend Lucilius: still among the most read books of antiquity.

💡 Did you know? The „Letters to Lucilius“ convey Stoic wisdom as personal advice to a friend.

We waste our life

'Life is long enough if you know how to use it.'

💡 Did you know? „It is not that we have little time, but that we waste much of it“: so Seneca's essay on the shortness of life.

Fate leads the willing

In Latin: 'Ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt': the heart of Stoic acceptance of fate.

💡 Did you know? „Fate leads the willing and drags the unwilling“: Seneca's image for Stoic equanimity.

rich despite preaching frugality

His answer, in essence: the wise man possesses wealth without being possessed by it.

💡 Did you know? His fortune is said to have amounted to 300 million sesterces.

Corsica

Allegedly over a court affair: there he wrote consolations to his mother and friends.

💡 Did you know? Emperor Claudius banished Seneca for eight years to Corsica: where he devoted himself entirely to philosophy.

forced suicide

The occasion was the Pisonian conspiracy; whether Seneca was involved remains unclear. He died composed, as the Stoa teaches.

💡 Did you know? On Nero's order Seneca had to take his own life in 65 AD: calmly opening his veins, like a Socrates of Rome.

tragedies

'Medea', 'Oedipus', 'Thyestes': blood-soaked plays that shaped Renaissance theatre and Shakespeare.

💡 Did you know? Besides philosophy Seneca wrote bloody tragedies that strongly influenced Shakespeare and European theatre.

time

'Everything, Lucilius, is borrowed; only time is our own': the first letter to Lucilius.

💡 Did you know? That is why his letters begin with the advice to reclaim one's own time.

Seneca

Seneca was a Roman statesman and Stoic philosopher whose letters and essays are still read today as guides to living.

💡 Did you know? The preacher of composure was, ironically, driven to death by his own pupil Nero.