De otio
- 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:
- ~2,740 words · 13 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). De otio. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-otio
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. De otio. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-otio.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. De otio. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-otio.
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
On the right to withdraw from public life. A Stoic was meant to serve the city; here Seneca argues when and how one may stop without betraying that duty.
Context and history
It survives incomplete — beginning and end are lost — and it is the text in which Seneca prepares his own withdrawal from Nero's court. It reads differently once you know that. 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.
1. Praeterea tria genera sunt uitae, inter quae quod sit optimum quaeri solet: unum uoluptati uacat, alterum contemplationi, tertium actioni. Primum deposita contentione depositoque odio quod inplacabile diuersa sequentibus indiximus, uideamus ut haec omnia ad idem sub alio atque alio titulo perueniant: nec ille qui uoluptatem probat sine contemplatione est, nec ille qui contemplationi inseruit sine uoluptate est, nec ille cuius uita actionibus destinata est sine contemplatione est. 2. 'Plurimum' inquis 'discriminis est utrum aliqua res propositum sit an propositi alterius accessio.' Sit sane grande discrimen, tamen alterum sine altero non est: nec ille sine actione contemplatur, nec hic sine contemplatione agit, nec ille tertius, de quo male existimare consensimus, uoluptatem inertem probat sed eam quam ratione efficit firmam sibi; ita et haec ipsa uoluptaria secta in actu est. 3. Quidni in actu sit, cum ipse dicat Epicurus aliquando se recessurum a uoluptate, dolorem etiam adpetiturum, si aut uoluptati imminebit paenitentia aut dolor minor pro grauiore sumetur? 4. Quo pertinet haec dicere? ut appareat contemplationem placere omnibus; alii petunt illam, nobis haec statio, non portus est. VIII. VIII. 1. Adice nunc [huc] quod e lege Chrysippi uiuere otioso licet: non dico ut otium patiatur, sed ut eligat. Negant nostri sapientem ad quamlibet rem publicam accessurum; quid autem interest quomodo sapiens ad otium ueniat, utrum quia res publica illi deest an quia ipse rei publicae, si omnibus defutura res publica est? Semper autem deerit fastidiose quaerentibus. 2. Interrogo ad quam rem publicam sapiens sit accessurus. Ad Atheniensium, in qua Socrates damnatur, Aristoteles ne damnetur fugit? in qua opprimit inuidia uirtutes? Negabis mihi accessurum ad hanc rem publicam sapientem.…