Ad Helviam matrem, de Consolatione
- Language:
- Latin
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- No scanning noise detected (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand)
- Extent:
- ~11,800 words · 56 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Ad Helviam matrem, de Consolatione. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/ad-helviam-matrem-de-consolatione
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. Ad Helviam matrem, de Consolatione. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/ad-helviam-matrem-de-consolatione.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Ad Helviam matrem, de Consolatione. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/ad-helviam-matrem-de-consolatione.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Written from exile on Corsica to console his own mother for her son's disgrace: the piece comforts the one who stayed, not the one who left.
Context and history
An inversion of the genre and Seneca's most personal text. He argues that exile is no evil because the mind carries everything that matters with it — written from an island where he spent eight years. This entry is the Latin original; the catalogue also carries the English translation as a separate work. Cite the original.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
mentium error est, cum tam exiguum capias, cupere multum? Licet itaque augeatis census, promoueatis fines, numquam tamen corpora uestra laxabitis. Cum bene cesserit negotiatio, multum militia rettulerit, cum indagati undique cibi coierint, non habebitis ubi istos apparatus uestros conlocetis. Quid tam multa conquiritis? Scilicet maiores nostri, quorum uirtus etiamnunc uitia nostra sustentat, infelices erant, qui sibi manu sua parabant cibum, quibus terra cubile erat, quorum tecta nondum auro fulgebant, quorum templa nondum gemmis nitebant; itaque tunc per fictiles deos religiose iurabatur: qui illos inuocauerant, ad hostem morituri, ne fallerent, redibant. Scilicet minus beate uiuebat dictator noster qui Samnitium legatos audit cum uilissimum cibum in foco ipse manu sua uersaret -- illa qua iam saepe hostem percusserat laureamque in Capitolini Iouis gremio reposuerat -- quam Apicius nostra memoria uixit, qui in ea urbe ex qua aliquando philosophi uelut corruptores iuuentutis abire iussi sunt scientiam popinae professus disciplina sua saeculum infecit.' Cuius exitum nosse operae pretium est. Cum sestertium milliens in culinam coniecisset, cum tot congiaria principum et ingens Capitolii uectigal singulis comisationibus exsorpsisset, aere alieno oppressus rationes suas tunc primum coactus inspexit: superfuturum sibi sestertium centiens computauit et uelut in ultima fame uicturus si in sestertio centiens uixisset, ueneno uitam finiuit. Quanta luxuria erat cui centiens sestertium egestas fuit! i nunc et puta pecuniae modum ad rem pertinere, non animi. Sestertium centiens aliquis extimuit et quod alii uoto petunt ueneno fugit. Illi uero tam prauae mentis homini ultima potio saluberrima fuit: tunc uenena edebat bibebatque cum inmensis epulis non delectaretur tantum sed gloriaretur, cum uitia sua ostentaret, cum ciuitatem in luxuriam suam conuerteret, cum iuuentutem ad imitationem sui sollicitaret etiam sine malis exemplis per se docilem.…