Seneca was born in Corduba (Spain) around 1 BC and educated—in rhetoric and philosophy—in Rome.
Seneca had a highly successful, and quite dramatic, political career.
Even a brief and by necessity incomplete list of events in his life indicates that Seneca had ample occasion for reflection on violent emotions, the dangers of ambition, and the ways in which the life of politics differs from the life of philosophy—among the topics pursued in his writings.
He was accused of adultery with the Emperor Caligula’s sister and therefore exiled to Corsica in 41; having been Nero’s “tutor” in his adolescent years, he was among Nero’s advisers after his accession in 54; Seneca continued to be an adviser in times that became increasingly difficult for anyone in the close proximity of Nero, in spite of requests from his side to be granted permission to retire; he was charged with complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to murder Nero, and compelled to commit suicide in 65.
Greetings from Seneca to Lucilius
Continue to act this way , my dear Lucilius—set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which til lately has been forced from you, or stolen away, or has merely slipped from your hands.
Make yourself believe the truth of my words—that certain moments are torn from us, some are gently removed, and that others glide beyond our reach.
The most disgraceful kind of loss, however, is that due to carelessness.
Furthermore, if you will pay close heed to the problem, you will find that the largest portion of our life passes while we are doing ill, and many while we are doing nothing, and the while we are doing things with no purpose.
Show me anyone who places any value on his time, who calculates the worth of each day, and who understands that he is dying daily?
For we are mistaken when we look forward to death; and not understand a major portion of death has already passed.
Whatever years lie behind us, they are now in death’s hands.
Therefore, Lucilius, do as you write me, that you are doing: hold every hour in your grasp.
Lay hold of today’s task, and you will not need to depend so much upon tomorrow’s.
While we are postponing, life speeds by.
Nothing, Lucilius, is ours, except time.
We were entrusted by nature with the ownership of this single thing, so fleeting and slippery that anyone who will can oust us from possession.
What fools these mortals be!
They allow the cheapest and most useless things, which can easily be replaced, to be charged in the reckoning, after they have acquired them; but they never regard themselves as in debt when they have received some of that precious commodity—time!
And yet time is the one loan which even a grateful recipient cannot repay.
You may desire to know how I, who preach to you so freely, am practicing.
I confess frankly: my expense account balances, as you would expect from one who is free-handed but careful.
I cannot boast that I waste nothing, but I can at least tell you what I am wasting, and the cause and manner of the loss; I can give you the reasons why I am a poor man.
My situation, however, is the same as that of many who are reduced to slender means through no fault of their own: every one forgives them, but no one comes to their rescue.
What is the state of things, then?
It is this: I do not regard a man as poor, if the little which remains is enough for him.
I advise you, however, to keep what is really yours; and cannot begin too early. For, as our ancestors believed, it is too late to spare when you reach the dregs of the cask.
Of that which remains at the bottom, the amount is slight, and the quality is vile. Farewell.
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I’ve seen Seneca’s suicide several times in the opera “L’incoronazione di Poppea” by Claudio Monteverdi, from the year 1643.
Thank you so much, the true joy is that you have begun, I should hope to have the same pleasure then as well.
I loved reading this. Nothing is more interesting than history, and I think so much of it has fallen off the shelves in favor of Si-Fi, Romances, etc. sadly. Most young people today know nothing of these things and that is so sad. I have been in two universities and graduated, and yet I too have known very little about these readings. Not only did we not read these things in our classes, but we were not encouraged to read them. Today I am studying history, geography, philosophy, spirituality, and archaeology of the old ruins and parts of Britain, and it is the most satisfying study I have done in this lifetime. I just feel bad that I had to wait until I was 77 to begin. Thank you kindly for your good work.