Ὄντως τὰ ὄντα. “Each idea is a single, independent, separate, self-existing, perfect, and eternal essence”; Adam, The Republic of Plato, II 169. See Zeller’s Plato (p. 237) for a list of Greek words used by Plato to indicate the reality of these ideas. ↩
Cf., for example, Parmenides 132 D. What follows is not a direct quotation, and the same thought is found elsewhere. ↩
Εἶδος. ↩
I.e., the “original.” ↩
I.e., κυρίως ὄντα. See above, paragraph 12. ↩
Frag. 49a Diels2 ποταμοῖς τοῖς αὐτοῖς ἐμβαίνομεν τε καὶ οὐκ ἐμβαίνομεν, εἶμεν τε καὶ οὐκ εἶμεν. ↩
This idea Seneca has already developed in Letter XXIV, paragraph 10. ↩
Diogenes Laertius, III 1, who records also other explanations of the name Plato, which replaced the given name Aristocles. ↩
Cf. Plato, Phaedo, 114 D καὶ ἄξιον κινδυνεῦσαι, οἰομένῳ οὕτως ἔχειν· καλὸς γάρ ὁ κίνδυνος, the “chance” being immortality. ↩
Since vale means “keep well” no less than “goodbye.” ↩
A figure taken from the praetor’s edict, which was posted publicly on a white tablet, album. ↩
I.e., grief. ↩
Aeneid, VI 278. ↩
The wise man, on the other hand, has his emotions under control, and is less likely to be swayed by “an opinion concerning a spurious good.” ↩
I.e., in spite of the fact that your style is compact. ↩
Q. Sextius was a Stoic with Pythagorean leanings, who lived in the days of Julius Caesar. He is also mentioned in Letters LXIV and LXXIII. A book of moral Sententiae, taken over by the church, is assigned to him, perhaps wrongly. ↩
Agmen quadratum was an army in a square formation, with baggage in the middle, ready for battle—as contrasted with agmen iustum (close ranks), and acies triplex (a stationary formation, almost rectangular). Agmen quadratum is first found in the Spanish campaigns of the second century BC. ↩
I.e., by the troops of the second line, who in training and quality were inferior to the troops of the legion. ↩
I.e., from that of the “fetter” to that of the “dust and dye.” In the previous paragraph Seneca has praised Lucilius for his judicious employment of metaphors. ↩
Several similar stories are related about Alexander, e.g. Plutarch, Moralia, 180 E, where he says to his flatterers, pointing to a wound just received: “See, this is blood, not ichor!” ↩
Seneca returns to the definition of gaudium given in paragraph 1: “True joy never ceases and never changes into its opposite.” It is not subject to ups and downs. ↩
Cf. Seneca, De Ira, III 6. 1. The upper firmament, near the stars, is free from clouds and storms. It is calm, though the lightning plays below. ↩
Aeneid, VI 513 f. The night is that which preceeded the sack of Troy. ↩
Catiline, I 1. ↩
I.e., like animals. ↩
I.e., you may put an epitaph upon his dwelling as if it were a tomb. ↩
A reminiscence of Lucretius, III 938 f. Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedus Aequo animoque capis securam, stulte, quietem? Cf. also Horace, Satires I 1. 118 f. vitae Cedat uti conviva satur. ↩
Demetrius of Sunium, the Cynic philosopher, who taught in Rome in the reign of Caligula and was banished by Nero. ↩
I.e., he has achieved the Stoic ideal of independence of all external control; he is a king and has all things to bestow upon others, but needs nothing for himself. ↩
Homer, Iliad, XIX 229 and XXIV 602. ↩
The teacher of Seneca, often mentioned by him. ↩
The reason is, as Lipsius observed, that friendship is essentially a social virtue, and is not confined to one object. The pretended friendship for one and only one is a form of self-love, and is not unselfish love. ↩
According to tradition, from the time of Numa Pompilius. ↩
An intimate friend of Seneca, probably a relative, who died in the year 63 from eating poisoned mushrooms (Pliny, Natural History XXII 96). Seneca dedicated to Serenus several of his philosophical essays. ↩
Cf. the closing chapter of the Agricola of Tacitus: si, ut sapientibus placet, non cum corpore exstinguuntur magnae animae, etc. ↩
See on Letter LIX, paragraph 6. As the following sentence indicates, he seems to have considered himself an eclectic in philosophy, and to have been half-Stoic, half-Pythagorean. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, IV 158 f. The boy Ascanius, at Dido’s hunt, longs for wilder game than the deer and the goats. ↩
For Seneca’s troubles in this regard see also Letters LIV and CIV. ↩
The arbiter was a judge appointed to try a case according to bona fides (equity), as contrasted with the iudex proper, whose duty was defined by the magistrate. ↩
See Zeller’s Stoics (translated by Reichel), pp. 139 ff. ↩
The statue figure is a frequent one in philosophy; cf. Letter
