Son of the P. Vinicius ridiculed in Letter XL, paragraph 6. He was husband of Julia, youngest daughter of Germanicus, and was poisoned by Messalina. ↩
I.e., is punishing his slaves for errors in the day’s work. ↩
I.e., balancing the custom of the ordinary Roman, whose dinner never continued beyond nightfall. ↩
“ ‘A liver by candlelight,’ with a play on the word λίχνος, ‘luxurious’ ” (Summers). ↩
I.e., a dinner given by an official when he entered upon (adeo) his office. ↩
For symphonia see Letter LI, paragraph 2 and endnote 231. Compare also the commissiones, orchestral exhibitions, composed of many voices, flutes, and brass instruments, Letter LXXXIV, paragraph 6. ↩
I.e., to live by Stoicism rather than by Epicureanism. ↩
Meaning, in line with the Stoic paradoxes, that only the sage knows how to be rightly in love. ↩
Virgil, Georgics I 176 f. ↩
I.e., the Epicureans. ↩
I.e., the advocate of the “touch” theory. ↩
According to the Stoics (and other schools also), the “innate notions,” or groundwork of knowledge, begin to be subject to reason after the attainment of a child’s seventh year. ↩
I.e., they are limited to “practical judgment.” ↩
Just as Academic and Peripatetic philosophers sometimes defined as “goods” what the Stoics called “advantages.” ↩
One of the most conspicuous Stoic paradoxes maintained that “the wise man is a God.” ↩
Colophon
Moral Letters to Lucilius
is compiled from letters written in CE by
Seneca.
It was translated from Latin between and by
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May you do good and not evil.
May you find forgiveness for yourself and forgive others.
May you share freely, never taking more than you give.
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