Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~150,000 words · 696 passages
Cite this work
- APALucius Annaeus Seneca. (n.d.). Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/minor-dialogues-together-with-the-dialogue-on-clemency
- MLALucius Annaeus Seneca. "Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/minor-dialogues-together-with-the-dialogue-on-clemency.
- ChicagoLucius Annaeus Seneca. Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/seneca/minor-dialogues-together-with-the-dialogue-on-clemency.
What it is about
The collection of Seneca's short treatises — on anger, on the shortness of life, on tranquillity, on providence, on the wise man, on the happy life, on leisure — together with the 'De clementia', addressed to Nero.
Context and history
'Dialogues' is the traditional name, but they are not dialogues: they are essays with an implied interlocutor, and they are the form in which Roman Stoicism becomes practical. 'On Anger' is a treatise of moral psychology and is still read as one; 'On the Shortness of Life' argues that we do not lack time but waste it. The 'De clementia' is the uncomfortable one and the most revealing: written around AD 55, when Seneca was tutor and adviser to the young emperor, it explains to power why it is in power's interest to be merciful. It is a document of how a philosopher tries to influence a prince from within, and what happened afterwards — Nero eventually ordered his death — is part of what makes it worth reading.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
_TRANSLATED BY_ AUBREY STEWART, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE LONDON — GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET COVENT GARDEN 1889 CHISWICK PRESS :—C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE PREFACE. I can say little by way of preface to Seneca’s “Minor Dialogues” which I have not already expressed in my preface to “De Beneficiis,” except that the “Minor Dialogues” seem to me to be composed in a gloomier key than either the “De Beneficiis” or “De Clementia,” and probably were written at a time when the author had already begun to experience the ingratitude of his imperial pupil. Some of the Dialogues are dated from Corsica, Seneca’s place of exile, which he seems to have found peculiarly uncomfortable, although he remarks that there are people who live there from choice. Nevertheless, mournful as they are in tone, these Dialogues have a certain value, because they teach us what was meant by Stoic philosophy in the time of the Twelve Caesars. I have only to add that the value of my work has been materially enhanced by the kindness of the Rev. Professor J. E. B. Mayor, who has been good enough to read and correct almost all the proof sheets of this volume. AUBREY STEWART. _London,_ 1889. CONTENTS. PAGE Of Providence 1 On the Firmness of the Wise Man 22 Of Anger. I. 48 " II. 76 " III. 115 Of Consolation. To Marcia 162 Of a Happy Life 204 Of Leisure 240 Of Peace of Mind 250 Of the Shortness of Life 288 Of Consolation. To Helvia 320 " To Polybius 353 Of Clemency. I. 380 " II. 415 {1} THE FIRST BOOK OF THE DIALOGUES OF L. ANNAEUS SENECA, ADDRESSED TO L