Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC - 65 AC), one of the most famous Stoic
philosophers, who lived in ancient Rome and participated in political life
as a senator.
According to Stoicism, existence should be based on exalting human virtues
at the expense of vices, which are considered negative, and to accept life
for what it is, assigning significant weight to the role of destiny, which
we can’t change.
Given his fame, he had been chosen as the personal teacher of the future
Emperor Nero, whom he took charge of from childhood, as his mother wished.
Despite the humble ideas he professed, Seneca had become extremely rich
by being a moneylender, hardly one of the most ethical professions.
Through his work, he had become one of the richest people in ancient Rome,
with an estimated wealth of 300 million sesterces.
Obviously it wasn’t a wealth made up of just coins, but it was all invested
in possessions such as houses, land, productive assets, loans, etc.
But how many are 300 million sesterces? Obviously there is no official
calculator and searching online I haven’t found a reliable source regarding
their value considering inflation, some sources say 30 billion, others 100.
I therefore decided to begin a rough calculation based on the gold value of the coin, since at the time the value of the coin was based entirely on the material of which it was made.
1 Sesterce corresponded to 1/100th of an Aureus,
and 1 Aureus, at the time of Emperor Nero, weighed ~7.3g gold.
Knowing this, we can calculate that the value of 1 Sesterce was:
7.3g/100 = 0.073g (gold)
So multiplied by 300 million sesterces, the gold value of his assets was
21,900 kg, 22 tons of gold.
At current prices (October 2024) of $88.63 per gram, we get $1,940,997,000,
basically Seneca was a multi-billionaire, not bad.
However, in Roman times the purchasing power of gold was significantly
greater, and therefore its real wealth was actually greater.
Here, for
example, I found a list of prices of some commonly used goods in Roman times,
and we can, for example, note how the annual salary of a soldier was,
comparing it to the present day, just 6600$ ($550 per month),
with a significantly lower cost of living that must be taken into account.
Although 2,000 years have already passed since his works were written,
I found the contents still tremendously relevant today, except for some small points
regarding the society in which he lived, such as the fact that he often
mentions slaves, who were very common in Roman times, and his continually
reiterating the uselessness of women and their thoughts, judged to be
troublesome and inferior to men, but he can’t be blamed for this, since
in his society it would have been strange if he had said the opposite.
I had enough time to read his best known philosophical dialogues,
written to his contemporaries in the form of letters containing advices.
After nearly 400 pages of read content, I decided to make a brief summary
of the most important and significant parts of each (2000 years later).
The language he used remains simple, earthy, anyone would be able
to understand the ideas he expresses, and that can be a great advantage,
almost as if he is showing himself as a humble person when writing the letters.
How to live a quiet life at peace with yourself?
First of all, Seneca argues that you must choose a job that suits your
characteristics, that doesn’t make you feel out of place, and that allows you
to be satisfied with your life.
We must be able to say no to superfluous things, which get us nowhere,
and instead focus on what can yield concrete results for the future.
When we see an injustice, we must be indifferent, cold-hearted:
if we worry about every disgrace that happens to people who don't
deserve it, we wouldn’t be able to live a peaceful life.
A special mention is made regarding people, according to which
there is nothing more important than a loyal friendship that leads to
conversations that provide relief from anxieties and bring fresh & valid opinions.
Absolutely avoid, on the other hand, a person who complains about everything,
as they will never give you peace of mind, or someone who doesn't value
the time we give them.
What happens to anyone can happen to anyone.
According to this principle, the true wise accepts everything that happens
to him, including disgraces and, indeed, he prepares himself in advance
for the worst.
Those who are rich are at a disadvantage in this point, because they could
lose everything at any moment, when they had become accustomed
to living a certain lifestyle.
In fact, according to Seneca, it doesn’t matter how rich you are, you still
have to live a normal, unluxurious life, so that if you lose your money,
your life wouldn’t be disrupted and you will remain equally happy.
In my opinion, this is a fundamental step that needs to be expanded.
There is no single way to reach a happy life, despite many people claim
otherwise.
What one truly desires is actually a personal choice, and following a path
set by others would only lead to unhappiness.
A truly happy life is that of someone who has made a definite choice that
never changes, no matter what happens.
The real goal is to live a virtuous life, but avoiding pleasures, which remain
only an illusion.
Seneca concludes with an argument related to the one in the previous text,
regarding the wealth he owns.
He was very rich and, because of this, people attacked him saying that
this opposed to his speeches about living a humble life.
In reply, he says that there is nothing wrong with having personal wealth
if it arrives and that, indeed, only a fool would give it up at all.
He reiterates, however, that what he possesses doesn't define his person,
and that if he were deprived of it and ended up on the street,
he would still find a way to live happily.
It isn’t true that life is short, but we waste time.
No one guarantees that we will reach old age: each day could be our last,
and we can’t know.
Time is a very limited resource that we don’t pay attention to.
We treat it as an unlimited good when there is plenty of it, only to be willing
to give up all our possessions in exchange for more time when we
are on the verge of death.
Seneca rants against those who are always busy, those who devote their
entire lives to work while waiting for retirement, which will be the years of
well-deserved rest where their true themselves can finally be expressed.
t isn’t certain, however, that they will ever get there, if they die before.
Repeatedly the following is reiterated: do NOT dedicate your life to work.
You will hear many who say “At fifty I will retire to private life, at sixty I will leave all my duties”. But who guarantees you that your life will last longer? Who will make things go according to these plans of yours? Isn’t it too late to start living when it’s time to quit?
It used to be a vice of the Greeks to wonder how many oarsmen Odysseus had, whether the Iliad or the Odyssey was written first, then whether the two poems are by the same author, and so on. If you keep them to yourself, they don’t benefit your personal knowledge at all and, if you bring them out in public, they don’t make you look smarter, but more pedantic.
Seneca explicitly attacks those human sciences that bring no improvement
to humanity, by adding among those employed in useless professions
who study them.
This is opposed to the fact that today typically those who read Seneca
are precisely students of philosophy who wants to know the philosophers of the past.
However, Seneca attacks them in particular, who insist on interpreting
his writings as if he was telling them "don't annoy me".
What else can they do but teach others what they themselves have learned,
almost as if it was a pyramid scheme?
Seneca loves independent philosophers who manage to earn money
in other ways and who use their free time to create content, but nowadays,
most philosophers actually study only the history of philosophy, and fall
into the category that Seneca himself describes as useless.
No calamity has cost humanity more than the damages caused by anger:
poisonings, infamies, destruction of cities and massacres of entire populations, etc.
The desire for revenge immediately following an insult isn't rational, and
it’s comparable to a child getting angry for no reason.
According to Seneca, anger is never useful, it adds nothing to make you
recognized by others as powerful, for it will always cause evil, and even
if you try to control it, the result wouldn't change.
Nothing is less appropriate than anger in those who punish, because
the punishment would be exaggerated by the irrationality of the moment.
Anger is an instinctive reaction to an insult received, and therefore
even the wisest men are enslaved by it.
There is, however, a distinction to be made between anger and ferocity:
while the former is only a reaction, the latter is a feeling for which the
person enjoys causing pain, killing someone who has done no wrong,
and is caused by forgetting mercy after all the times anger has been triggered.
We should always grant a postponement when we find ourselves upset,
because only time will show the truth.
To suspect someone, one will always find good reasons, so we should
critically evaluate the facts in front of our eyes and blame ourselves
if what we suspected turns out to be unfounded.
No one is totally free from guilt: when something is done to us,
we should think of times in the past when we did the same, and weight
what you received from those who did it to you.
If, for example, it’s a child, one must forgive him since he is young
and doesn’t realize the mistake.
Is it a tort received from a villain? Don't be surprised.
No one should consider himself immune to anger, as even a calm and
quiet person can become violent unconsciously.
To reduce this risk, we must try not to take on too many commitments,
which make us irascible and, moreover, we have to ignore the received
provocations, considering the fact that we are also influenced by the
environment in which we live.
No ferocious animal retains its violence if it has cohabited with men for a long time
The excuses for triggering anger can be literally anywhere, even in failing
to grant what is impossible.
Julius Caesar had more friends than enemies among his murderers because
he hadn’t fulfilled their impossible desires: in fact, each of them wanted
his entire wealth, and in not being able to satisfy them, he had even
his closest friends against him.
Trying to calm a person’s first outburst at you with words is totally useless,
given the fury of the moment, and only a long-term strategy can help.
“But what should the wise man do when he receives a slap in the face?” What Cato did, when he was beaten on the face. He didn’t revenge the insult, nor did he forgive it: he said it hadn’t been done to him. Ignoring the insult, he was more magnanimous than if he had forgiven it.
The wise man knows how to accept all the offenses done to him
by more powerful people, and he won't do anything, making their
attacks look like a shower of arrows shot to try to hit the sun
(which will never be reached).
Example of what I said earlier about contemporary:
There are those who rant to the extent that they think offense by a woman is possible. What does it matter the rank of the woman they visit? She is a constantly unreflective being and moreover, if she has no culture, primitive and unable to control her instincts.
Troubles happen to good men not because they deserve them,
but to test them in the challenge that is life and strengthen their souls.
The gladiator thinks it’s shameful to be put into battle with a weaker opponent, because he knows there is no glory in winning those who let themselves be beaten without fighting.
God chooses worthy opponents, the strongest to be tested, and they
must be ready to accept difficulties because, if not, they would actually
be weak people pretending to be strong, and they would deserve the
ruin caused by the difficulties.
The exit is always open: if you don’t want to fight, you can escape. Life is not hidden deep inside and there is no need to extract it with iron, no need to sink the wound: death is at hand. You fear for so long a thing that is accomplished instantly.
At the age of 69, Seneca had to adopt the final solution when all was lost.
He had decided to participate in a conspiracy against Emperor Nero,
but it didn't go well, and the emperor desired revenge: he had no other choice.