Cf. Letter I, paragraph 4 ratio constat inpensae (referring to his attempt to employ his time profitably). ↩
See Letter XII, paragraph 1 for a similar witticism. ↩
Hieran (coronam), as Lipsius thinks, when the result was doubtful, the garland was offered to the gods. From the Greek ἰερός, sacred. ↩
Constructed by Marcus Agrippa; now the fountain of Trevi. ↩
The same word is used by Seneca in De Tranquillitate Animi XVII 7 quidam medio die interiunxerunt et in postmeridianas horas aliquid levioris operae distulerunt. ↩
Cf. Letter LVI, paragraph 2 istum fremitum non magis curo quam fluctum aut deiectum aquae. ↩
Zeno, Frag. 229 von Arnim—quoting also Philo’s εἰ τῷ μεθύοντι οὐκ ἄν τις εὐλόγως λόγον ἀπόρρητον παρακατάθοιτο … οὐκ ἄρα μεθύει ὸ ἀστεῖος. ↩
Cf. Letter XLIX, paragraph 6 quod non perdidisti, habes; cornua autem non perdidisti; cornua ergo habes—and the syllogisms given in Letter XLVIII. ↩
In 11 BC, when the Thracians were attacking Macedonia. The campaign lasted for three years, and Piso was rewarded with a triumph at its close. ↩
Like anger, which was interpreted by the ancients as “short-lived madness.” ↩
For a dramatic account of the murder see Plutarch’s Alexander, ch. 51. ↩
This is the firm conviction of Seneca, himself a most temperate man. Paragraph 6 admits that natural genius may triumph over drunkenness; paragraph 7 may allow (with Chrysippus) a certain amount of hilarity; but the general conclusion is obvious. ↩
Lipsius quotes Athenaeus as saying that Boeotian silver cups of large size were so called because the Boeotian Hercules drank from them; Servius, however, on Virgil Aeneid VIII 278, declared that the name was derived from the large wooden bowl brought by Hercules to Italy and used for sacrificial purposes. ↩
“Antony gave orders to those that were to kill Cicero, to cut off his head and right hand … ; and, when they were brought before him, he regarded them joyfully, actually bursting out more than once into laughter, and when he had satiated himself with the sight of them, ordered them to be hung up … in the forum” (Clough’s translation of Plutarch’s Antony, p. 172). ↩
A plant which possessed cathartic properties and was widely used by the ancients. It was also applied in cases of mental derangement. The native Latin term is veratrum. ↩
A considerable part of this letter is found in the preface to the Saturnalia of Macrobius, without any acknowledgement of indebtedness. ↩
Aeneid, I 432 f. ↩
Cf. mel in harundinibus collectum (from India) in Pliny, Natural History XII 32 (Summers). ↩
The same figure is used in reference to reading, in Letter II, paragraph 1 f., non prodest cibus nec corpori accedit, qui statim sumptus emittitur, etc. ↩
Commissio means an entertainment, or a concert; cf. Pliny, Panegyric 54, ludis et commissionibus. ↩
For such treatment cf. Juvenal III 152 f.—
Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se
Quam quod ridiculos homines facit, etc.
Such as that in Letter LXXXIII, paragraph 4 (constructed, however, by Seneca himself) dormienti nemo secretum sermonem committit, etc. See ad loc. and n. ↩
Cf. Letter LXXXII, paragraph 17 subula leonem excipis? ↩
E. V. Arnold (Roman Stoicism, p. 333) calls attention to the passion of anger, for example, which the Peripatetics believed should be kept under control, but not stamped out. ↩
Virgil, Aeneid, VII 808 ff. The lines describe Camilla, the Volscian warrior-huntress. ↩
Seneca uses suffusio of jaundice in Letter XCV, paragraph 9. Celsus, VII 7. 14, explains the cause of cataracts, vel ex morbo vel ex ictu concrescit humor, and outlines the treatment. ↩
Another reply to the Peripatetic claim of paragraph 3. ↩
For this topic of emotions as possible sources of the vices cf. Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes IV 10 ex perturbationibus autem primum morbi conficiuntur. … Hoc loco nimium operae consumitur a Stoicis. ↩
Representing the views of the Academic school. ↩
Representing the views of the Academic school. ↩
Frag. 508 Usener. ↩
The happy life constitutes virtue; and virtue, as Seneca says so often, is absolute, permitting neither increase nor diminution. ↩
I.e., thereby allowing the aforesaid increase or diminution in virtue. ↩
For the argument compare Letter LXXXII, paragraph 4 ff.—the topic, contra mortem te praeparare. ↩
Besides this definition (a standard Stoic one) of the third cardinal virtue, we also find “a knowledge of what to choose and what to avoid,” “knowing to endure things,” and finally “the will to undertake great enterprises.” ↩
Cf. Diogenes Laertius, II 79 τοὺς τῶν ἐγκυκλίων παιδευμάτων μετασχόντας, φιλοσοφίας δὲ ἀπολειφθέντας, ὁμοίους ἔλεγεν εἶναι τοῖς τῆς Πηνελόπης μνηστῆρσιν. ↩
The figure of the pilot is a frequent one in philosophy, from Plato down. See Seneca, Letter VIII, paragraph 2. The same argument, as applied to the musician, is found in Letter LXXXVII, paragraph 8 ff. ↩
Cf. De Beneficiis I 5 leonum ora a magistris inpune tractantur. ↩
Cf.
