Letters from a Stoic

Latin manuscript, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence - Image: Public Domain. 

If you walk around and randomly ask who Seneca was, I bet most people will have no idea. But how to blame them for not knowing about a guy from the times before the phones, the web, and Netflix. At the end, what can Seneca teach us about life in this era of high technology and disinformation? And, by the way, who the hell was Seneca? 

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

History calls him Seneca the Younger. Not because he looked young and cool, it was just not to confuse him with his father who, in a very "original" way, was called Seneca the Elder - he was an expert in rhetorical matters. 

Seneca the Younger was born in Hispania and raised in Rome, but because he suffered some breathing issues - probably asthma -, also spent some time chilling out in the faraway lands of Egypt. 

Being part of a family of writers and politicians, our man couldn't avoid getting involved with Imperial powers and politics. 

The turbulence of these circles didn't bring him any good. The promiscuous and dangerous empress Messalina accused Seneca of adultery with Julia Livilla, the youngest great-granddaughter of the famous Emperor Augustus and sister of Caligula. Emperor Claudius - the one who limped and had some deafness - kicked both out of Rome commuting the death sentence issued for Seneca. 

Later, after Messalina was dead - I mean, killed -, Claudio brought him back from Corsica to teach his adopted son Nero.

No doubt that Seneca failed in teaching stoic virtues to the twelve years old lad. Doing justice, this was probably because the new empress, Agrippina, didn't allow him to teach philosophy to her son.  

When Nero became emperor, Seneca worked as his adviser, and even had the honor of writing his first speech to the Senate. If we believe to the Roman historian Tacitus, Nero was "the first emperor to need someone else's eloquence."

Eventually, Seneca lost grace with the emperor. Accused of being part of the Pisonian conspiracy to kill Nero, he was commanded to commit suicide. Seneca cut his veins and bled to death. Tacitus recounted later the tragic event and many painters got inspired by it.

The lessons of Seneca

Seneca's lessons came in the form of epistles, 124 letters to a friend with suggestions on how to live a better life using a healthy dose of Stoic philosophy. 

The letters were for Lucilius Junior, procurator of Sicily under the reign of Nero. Known in English as Letters from a Stoic or Moral Epistles, the text is a mix of reality and fiction that condenses the philosophical ideas of Seneca - the original name is Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium, but who give a damn about reading Latin nowadays. 

The short lessons on how to confront daily life issues transcend space and time and still have some use in our "modernity". 

Seneca pushes that time is priceless because we die every day - don't you agree? Also warns about wasting our finite lives doing nothing - does this implies to avoid procrastination? And because Stoics always had a lovely relation with death, he goes on explaining that what everybody fear is not death, it's the thought of death. 

But how to deal with the undesirable prospectus of dying? His secret is simple: don't cling to life. He affirms that not clinging to life helps in keeping our inner peace. He also suggests worrying only about the present and to limit the number of future goals - more focus and less distractions, please! 

The ancient man preaches on being selective with the books we read and choose quality over quantity. Seneca separates the act of remembering stuff from knowing stuff - obvious that they are different things. His idea is to keep focus in acquiring the knowledge we need. 

On the social world, Seneca observes that it's always easier to side with the majority. But he also advises to get away from the crowds, because the bigger the mob, the bigger the danger. 

In relation to our quest for success, he thought that ambition needs some degree of control. His idea here was that "only the fools want everything", and living simply was a good thing as a path of voluntary poverty. 

Another important command that applies well today: prove your words by your deeds. 

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