De brevitate vitae
- 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:
- ~10,900 words · 52 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). De brevitate vitae. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-brevitate-vitae
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. De brevitate vitae. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-brevitate-vitae.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. De brevitate vitae. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-brevitate-vitae.
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
Life is not short: we waste it. An essay on time as the only true possession, and on how we lose it serving ambitions, business and waitings that never end.
Context and history
Written around AD 49 and addressed to Paulinus, superintendent of Rome's grain supply — a man buried in other people's business, like the reader Seneca imagines. The author knew what he was talking about: his own life was the opposite of quiet retirement, spanning exile in Corsica, immense power as tutor and minister to Nero, and the suicide Nero ordered him to commit in AD 65. Perhaps that is why it is the essay of his that has aged best: twenty centuries later it reads as if written yesterday.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
Mirari soleo, cum video aliquos tempus petentes et eos, qui rogantur, facillimos. Illud uterque spectat, propter quod tempus petitum est, ipsum quidem neuter; quasi nihil petitur, quasi nihil datur. Re omnium pretiosissima luditur; fallit autem illos, quia res incorporalis est, quia sub oculos non venit, ideoque vilissima aestimatur, immo paene nullum eius pretium est. Annua, congiaria homines carissime accipiunt et illis aut laborem aut operam aut diligentiam suam locant. Nemo aestimat tempus; utuntur illo laxius quasi gratuito. At eosdem aegros vide, si mortis periculum propius admotum est, medicorum genua tangentes, si metuunt capitale supplicium, omnia sua, ut vivant, paratos impendere! Tanta in illis discordia adfectuum est. Quodsi posset quemadmodum praeteritorum annorum cuiusque numerus proponi, sic futurorum, quomodo illi, qui paucos viderent superesse, trepidarent, quomodo illis parcerent! Atqui facile est quamvis exiguum dispensare, quod certum est; id debet servari diligentius, quod nescias quando deficiat. Nec est tamen, quod putes illos ignorare, quam cara res sit; dicere solent eis, quos valdissime diligunt, paratos se partem annorum suorum dare. Dant nec intellegunt; dant autem ita, ut sine illorum incremento sibi detrahant. Sed hoc ipsum, an de trahant,ande traant A2: unde detrahant Madvig, Hermes. nesciunt; ideo tolerabilis est illis iactura detrimenti latentis. Nemo restituet annos, nemo iterum te tibi reddet. Ibit, qua coepit aetas, nec cursum suum aut revocabit aut supprimet; nihil tumultuabitur, nihil admonebit velocitatis suae. Tacita labetur; non illa se regis imperio, non favore populi longius proferet. Sicut missa est a primo die, curret; nusquam devertetur, nusquam remorabitur. Quid fiet? Tu occupatus es, vita festinat; mors interim aderit, cui, velis nolis, vacandum est.