Product Description

Throughout history, some books have changed the world. They have transformed the way we see ourselves – and each other. They have inspired debate, dissent, war and revolution. They have enlightened, outraged, provoked and comforted. They have enriched lives – and destroyed them. Now Penguin brings you the works of the great thinkers, pioneers, radicals and visionaries whose ideas shook civilization, and helped make us who we are. The Stoic writings of the philosopher Seneca offer powerful insights into the art of living, the importance of reason and morality, and continue to provide profound guidance to many through their eloquence, lucidity and timeless wisdom.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #28844 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-02
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 112 pages

About the Author
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, statesman, philosopher, advocate and man of letters, was born in Spain around 4BC. He rose to prominence at Rome, pursuing a double career in the courts and political life, until Claudius sent him into exile exile on the island of Corsica for eight years. Recalled in AD49, he was appointed tutor to the boy who was to become, in AD54, the emperor Nero. Seneca acted for eight years as Nero's unofficial chief minister until Nero too turned against him and he retired from public life to devote himself to philosophy and writing. In AD65, following the discovery of a plot against the emperor, he and many others were compelled by Nero to commit suicide. C.D.N. Costa has spent most of his working life at Birmingham University, where he is Professor of Classics and Chairman of the School of Antiquity. Among other works, he has written commentaries on the works of Seneca, Letters, Dialogues and the tragedy Medea.

Customer Reviews

First in the set of Great Ideas
The first book in the Penguin set of 'Great Ideas' (one in a series of twenty; it's a shame that Amazon don't appear to sell the boxed set). You have to keep pinching yourself to remember that it was written some 2000 years ago. Rather long winded (writing style was much more formal back then), it can be quite hard to penetrate, but if you read it in the right mood the words really sink in and convey a wonderful sense of somebody struggling with understanding the world around them and how to behave in it. If only more people shared these feelings these days.
The main disappointment was the lack of contextual setting. Excuse my ignorance, but who was Seneca, what times did he live in, what were the ideas opposing his? A few pages would have sufficed, and would have added so much more, and it would have made a 5.
None-the-less, if you want to widen your reading this is a great place to start.

Seneca - Life and work
Lucius Annaeas Seneca was a Roman stoic philosopher who was born around the turn of the 1st century AD. Seneca became a statesman and politician in Rome, but riled the emperor Claudius in AD 38, and was only spared his life because Claudius believed that Seneca's life was soon to end. As it turned out, Claudius' life ended sooner, and with the succession of Caligula, Seneca was exiled to Corsica around 41 AD, and it wa here that Seneca wrote much of his philosophy. Seneca was recalled to the court of the Emperor Nero, by Nero's mother, Agrippina, in AD 54. Seneca and Burrus advised the young emperor, but in traditional style, as the boy king came of age, he began to listen to hiis advisors, and his mother, less and less. Nero had Agrippina killed in AD 59, and Burrus 'died' in 62. It was time for Seneca to leave the employ of the emperor, he retired to write more philosophy, but this only lasted 3 years, until Nero ordered Seneca to kill himself after having been accused of being part of a plot to kill Nero. Seneca slit his wrists, but did not die due to slow blood flow... he then drank poison, which did not succeed in finishing him off, so to top it he bathed, in order to increase the blood flow. After such Rasputin-esque torment, Seneca did indeed die in AD 65, but Nero followed him in 72, at the age of just 30.

The 3 texts bound together by Penguin exhibit a classical stoic account of the value of life, deifying the influence of fate on one's life, but displaying ways in which one can overcome the fear of fate's cruel hand attacking, in order that one may lead a fulfilled life. The first text is heavy, and Seneca tiresomely promotes the study of philosophy as the only way to live a good and happy life, although the experiences outlined in Seneca's biography will do little to persuade any reader of his doctrine here. However, with the second text, Seneca creates for himself a more accessible persona, in the role of son writing to his mother from exile... this tract is a great deal better than the first and is thankfully less rigorous in detailing Seneca's specific distaste at certain styles of life. The third text however, really soars... it is easily the best of the three in my opinion, and is the best expression of Seneca's stoicism within this collection. The premise is, that if one accepts that, in the words of Lucretius; 'to none life is given in freehold; to alll on a lease', then one sees that life is nature's gift to man, and viewing life in such a style is what is so attractive about the Latin stoic philosophy. Do not mistake this for an easy-going self-help book however, but if you like the sound of it, buy it.