The essedarius fought from a car. When his adversary forced him out of the car, he was compelled to continue the fight on foot, like an unhorsed knight. ↩
Epicurus, Frag. 187 Usener. ↩
I.e., exeas e vita, “depart from life.” ↩
The defeated gladiator is supposed to be on his back, his opponent standing over him and about to deliver the final blow. As the blade wavers at the throat, searching for the jugular vein, the victim directs the point. ↩
I.e., when on the home stretch. ↩
Frag. 503 Usener. ↩
The argument is that work is not, in itself, a good; if it were, it would not be praiseworthy at one time and to be deprecated at another. It belongs, therefore, to the class of things which the Stoics call ἀδιάφορα, indifferentia, res mediae; cf. Cicero, De Finibus III 16. ↩
Literally, “come to the end of his furrow.” ↩
I.e., philosophy. ↩
The Great St. Bernard and Little St. Bernard routes over the Alps. ↩
A mountain in Illyria, over which the Via Egnatia ran. ↩
Dangerous quicksands along the north coast of Africa. ↩
The toga praetexta, badge of the official position of Lucilius. ↩
For example, Time or Chance. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, VIII 364 f. ↩
In the Golden Age, described in Letter XC, when men were nearest to nature and “fresh from the gods.” ↩
The text seems to be corrupt. Hense thinks that expectare is to be supplied with nihil sibi—“To expect nothing for oneself”; but the use of the verb in two meanings would be harsh. The thought seems to be “asking for no added years”; and one suspects that the loss of a word like adrogantem before nihil. ↩
Stoic as well as Epicurean. ↩
Contrasted with alte cinctos. The sleeveless and “girt-up” tunic is the sign of energy; cf. Horace, Satires I 5. 5, and Suetonius, Caligula, 52: the effeminate Caligula would “appear in public with a long-sleeved tunic and bracelets.” ↩
Who wore sleeves. ↩
I.e., the Epicureans. ↩
For the phrase ductu et auspiciis see Plautus, Amphitryon I 1. 41 ut gesserit rem publicam ductu imperio auspicio suo; and Horace, Odes I 7. 27 Teucro duce et auspice Teucro. The original significance of the phrase refers to the right of the commander-in-chief to take the auspices. ↩
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIII 824. ↩
Either “maxims” or “outlines,” “themes.” For a discussion of them see Quintilian, Institutio Oratoria I 9. 3 ff. ↩
The objector is the assumed auditor. The answer to the objection gives the usual view as to the power of the living voice; to this Seneca assents, provided that the voice has a message of its own. ↩
A reference to the act (iniectio) by which a Roman took possession of a thing belonging to him, e.g., a runaway slave—without a decision of the court. ↩
I.e., the proverb may apply to tasks which a man performs with his hands, but it is an understatement when applied to the tasks of the soul. ↩
The question of Lucilius represents the popular view, which regards love as including friendship. But according to Seneca it is only the perfect love, from which all selfishness has been removed, that becomes identical with friendship. ↩
I.e., they are no more correct now, when they called him a trifler, than they were before, when they called him happy. ↩
Aristo of Chios, Frag. 388 von Armin. ↩
As a Roman, living in an age when philosophy was recommended and prescribed. ↩
I.e., if death inspired no terror. ↩
And since after death we do not exist, death cannot be harmful to us. Seneca has in mind the argument of Epicurus (Diogenes Laertius, X 124–5): “Therefore the most dread-inspiring of all evils, death, is nothing to us; for when we exist; death is not present in us, and when death is present, then we do not exist. Therefore it does not concern either the living or the dead; for to the living it has no existence, and the dead do not themselves exist.” Lucretius uses this argument, concluding it with (III 830): Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum. ↩
For example, in Letter LXXVII. ↩
He refers to the famous oath which the gladiator took when he hired himself to the fighting-master; uri, vinciri, verberari, ferroque necari patior; cf. Petronius, Satyricon 117. The oath is abbreviated in the text, probably by Seneca himself, who paraphrases it in Letter LXXI, paragraph 9. ↩
Awaiting the signal of “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” Cf. Juvenal, III 36 verso pollice, vulgus Quem iubet occidunt populariter. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, II 494. ↩
In the language of Stoicism, ἀμαθία, stultitia, “folly,” is the antithesis of σοφία, sapientia, “wisdom.” ↩
The regular method of studying philosophy was, as we infer from
