Customer Reviews

Seneca: Moral Essays, Volume I (Loeb Classical Library No. 214)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am a little surprised that most of these Loeb Classical Library books do not have reviews written about them. I have a few of them and will try to write a few reviews so potential buyers know a little more about these classic works. I originally purchased this particular volume to help me with my Latin classes in college. The red Loeb volumes are Latin and the green volumes are Greek. The english translation is on the right page and the original text is on the left which makes these volumes perfect for anyone studying the languages. A little about this book.... Seneca was a philosopher of the stoic school and wrote several books on his worldview. These moral essays are a combination of his thoughts and ideas written as a letter to his friend Lucilius. They include On Providence, On Firmness, On Anger, and On Mercy. They were most likely written for the emperor Nero who Seneca tutored and ended up becoming one of his closest advisors and some argue he actually ran the empire for awhile. Nero eventually turned on him and Seneca was forced to commit suicide in 65 CE. There are not many books on stoicism and even less on Seneca. One very good volume is Roman Stoicism by E.V. Arnold. Long out of print, but you still may be able to find it somewhere. Another good one is Seneca: The Life of a Stoic by Paul Veyne; this is really the best biography of Seneca. Both very good books if you want to learn more.

The surviving corpus of Seneca's Moral Essays are his earliest works, yet they contain many of his fully developed Stoic ideals. All the essays are generally short, with the exception of Seneca's treatise On Anger; and they are all moral exhortations written in a direct manner and in a style both convincing and charming. The contents of these Essays left their mark upon the writings of the Latin Church Fathers, of which many would have enjoyed seeing Seneca sainted; and they preceded the later burst of Plutarch's voluminous corpus of Moral Essays by just over a century and probably provided the great writer with an excellent model despite the disparity of language with Seneca. In this first volume the treatises included are (1) On Providence (2) On Firmness (3) On Anger (4) and On Mercy, which is addressed to the emperor Nero. These volumes are an important source for Roman Stoicism and they are recommended for students as a primer for the later philosophic finishes that they are destined to face.