Dialogues and Letters

Dialogues and Letters

Dialogues and Letters

Dialogues and Letters

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Overview

Included in this volume are the dialogues On the Shortness of Life and On Tranquility of Mind, which are eloquent classic statements of Stoic ideals of fortitude and self-reliance. This selection also features extracts from Natural Questions, Seneca's exploration of such phenomena as the cataracts of the Nile and earthquakes, and the Consolation of Helvia, in which he tenderly tries to soothe his mother's pain at their separation.

For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780140446791
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date: 11/01/1997
Series: Penguin Classics Series
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 7.50(w) x 4.90(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Lucius Annaeus Seneca, statesman, philosopher, advocate and man of letters, was born at Cordoba in Spain around 4 BC. He rose to prominence in Rome, pursuing a career in the courts and political life, for which he had been trained, while also acquiring celebrity as an author of tragedies and essays. Falling foul of successive emperors (Caligula in AD 39 and Claudius in AD 41), he spent eight years in exile, allegedly for an affair with Caligula’s sister. Recalled in AD 49, he was made praetor and was appointed tutor to the boy who was to become, in AD 54, the emperor Nero. On Nero’s succession, Seneca acted for some eight years as an unofficial chief minister. The early part of this reign was remembered as a period of sound government, for which the main credit seems due to Seneca. His control over Nero declined as enemies turned the emperor against him with representations that his popularity made him a danger, or with accusations of immorality or excessive wealth. Retiring from public life he devoted his last three years to philosophy and writing, particularly the Letters to Lucilius. In AD 65 following the discovery of a plot against the emperor, in which he was thought to be implicated, he and many others were compelled by Nero to commit suicide. His fame as an essayist and dramatist lasted until two or three centuries ago, when he passed into literary oblivion, from which the twentieth century has seen a considerable recovery.

Table of Contents

Dialogues and Letters - Seneca Preface
Introduction
A Note on the Text
Further Reading
Dialogues
Consolation to Helvia
On Tranquillity of Mind
On the Shortness of Life
Letters
Letter 24
Letter 57
Letter 79
Letter 110
from Natural Questions
1. praef. 1-10 [Seneca urges Lucilius to enjoy the inspiration and benefits of philosophical study]
4A.2.4-6 [The Cataracts of the Nile]
6.1.4-7 [The terrors of earthquakes]
Notes
Index
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