Seneca

Virtue, Reason, the Good Life

Seneca's philosophy is best known from his letters to Lucilius and his dialogues.

In accordance with the philosophy of the Stoics, Virtue (virtus) and Reason are the basis of a good life, and a good life should be lived simply and in accordance with Nature. But whereas the philosophical treatises of an Epictetus might inspire you to lofty goals you know you'll never meet, Seneca's philosophy is more practical. [See Stoic-Based resolutions.] Seneca's philosophy is not strictly Stoic, but contains ideas thrown in from other philosophies. He even coaxes and cajoles, as in the case of his advice to his mother to cease her grieving. "You are beautiful," he says (paraphrased) "with an age-defying appeal that needs no make-up, so stop acting like the worst kind of vain woman."

You never polluted yourself with make-up, and you never wore a dress that covered about as much on as it did off. Your only ornament, the kind of beauty that time does not tarnish, is the great honour of modesty.

So you cannot use your sex to justify your sorrow when with your virtue you have transcended it. Keep as far away from women's tears as from their faults.
(www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/wlgr/wlgr-privatelife261.html) 261. Seneca to his mother. Corsica, A.D. 41/9.

Another famous example of his pragmatic philosophy comes from a line in Hercules Furens: "Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue."

Parody and Burlesque in the Writing of Seneca
Menippean Satire

The Apocolocyntosis (The Pumpkinification of Claudius), a Menippean Satire, is a parody of the fashion of deifying emperors and a burlesque of the buffoonish emperor Claudius. Classical scholar Michael Coffey says the term "apocolocyntosis" is meant to suggest the conventional term "apotheosis" whereby a man, usually someone at the head of government, like a Roman emperor, was turned into a god (by order of the Roman Senate). Apocolocyntosis contains a word for some type of gourd -- probably not a pumpkin, but "Pumpkinification" caught on. The much ridiculed Emperor Claudius was not going to be made into a normal god, who would be expected to be better and brighter than mere mortals.

Seneca's Social Consciousness

On the serious side, because Seneca compared man's being enslaved by emotions and vices with physical slavery, many have thought he held a forward-looking view on the oppressive institution of slavery, even though his attitude towards women (see quotation above) was less enlightened.

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