De vita beata
- 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:
- ~11,600 words · 55 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). De vita beata. Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-vita-beata
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. De vita beata. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-vita-beata.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. De vita beata. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/de-vita-beata.
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
What it is to live happily, and why that is not the same as living pleasurably. It contains Seneca's defence against the charge made against him in his lifetime: that he preached poverty from one of the largest fortunes in Rome.
Context and history
The charge was true and the book does not deny it: it argues that the wise man does not despise wealth but holds it without depending on it. Whether that works or is an elegant excuse has been argued for nineteen centuries. 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.
et maleuolentiae quod morderet ostendi? 4. Vides istos qui eloquentiam laudant, qui opes sequuntur, qui gratiae adulantur, qui potentiam extollunt? omnes aut sunt hostes aut, quod in aequo est, esse possunt; quam magnus mirantium tam magnus inuidentium populus est. Quin potius quaero aliquod usu bonum, quod sentiam, non quod ostendam? ista quae spectantur, ad quae consistitur, quae alter alteri stupens monstrat, foris nitent, introrsus misera sunt.' III. 1. Quaeramus aliquod non in speciem bonum, sed solidum et aequale et a secretiore parte formosius; hoc eruamus. Nec longe positum est: inuenietur, scire tantum opus est quo manum porrigas; nunc uelut in tenebris uicina transimus, offensantes ea ipsa quae desideramus. 2. Sed ne te per circumitus traham, aliorum quidem opiniones praeteribo -- nam et enumerare illas longum est et coarguere: nostram accipe. Nostram autem cum dico, non alligo me ad unum aliquem ex Stoicis proceribus: est et mihi censendi ius. Itaque aliquem sequar, aliquem iubebo sententiam diuidere, fortasse et post omnes citatus nihil inprobabo ex iis quae priores decreuerint et dicam 'hoc amplius censeo'. 3. Interim, quod inter omnis Stoicos conuenit, rerum naturae adsentior; ab illa non deerrare et ad illius legem exemplumque formari sapientia est.