Transcript SENECA AD LUCILIUM EPISTULAE - linguae

SENECA
EPISTULAE MORĀLĒS
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (`Seneca the Younger’) was born in 4 B.C. at Corduba in
southern Spain, which was the chief city of the province. His father, `Seneca the Elder’,
who had also been born in Corduba, was a prominent lawyer and writer on public
speaking. In contrast to Virgil, Nepos and Livy, all of whom were friends with men in
power but took little or no part in public affairs themselves, Seneca the Younger played a
prominent role in politics, which lead eventually to his death in 65 A.D. on the orders of
the emperor Nero.
Seneca’s elder brother was adopted into another family and took the
name Lucius Iunius Gallio. He was appointed by the emperor Claudius
as proconsul (governor) of southern Greece (`Achaea’), whose capital
was Corinth.
Gallio is mentioned in the new testament because in 53 A.D. the
Jewish community in Corinth asked him to take action against St
Paul who had come to Greece to make converts to Christianity.
• 12 Gallione autem proconsule Achaiæ, insurrexerunt uno
animo Judæi in Paulum, et adduxerunt eum ad tribunal,
• 13 dicentes: Quia contra legem hic persuadet hominibus
colere Deum.
• 14 Incipiente autem Paulo aperire os, dixit Gallio ad
Judæos: Si quidem esset iniquum aliquid aut facinus
pessimum, o viri Judæi, recte vos sustinerem.
• 15 Si vero quæstiones sunt de verbo, et nominibus, et
lege vestra, vos ipsi videritis: judex ego horum nolo esse.
• 16 Et minavit eos a tribunali.
• 17 Apprehendentes autem omnes Sosthenem principem
synagogæ, percutiebant eum ante tribunal: et nihil
eorum Gallioni curæ erat.
Gallio refused to become involved in this religious dispute, which is described
above in the Acts of the Apostles (chap. 18, v.12-17).Try to read this account
(from the Vulgate, St.Jerome’s 4th century Latin translation of the original
Greek), then check with the English version on the next slide. videritis in verse
15 is perfect subjunctive used as an imperative, and minavit in 16 means
`drove away’
GALLIO AND ST. PAUL
• 12 [And] when Gallio was proconsul of Achaea, the Jews
rose up with one accord against Paul and brought him to
the court.
• 13 saying: [this is] Because he is persuading people to
worship God against the law.
• 14 But when Paul was beginning to open his mouth,
Gallio said to the Jews: If indeed there were some wrong
doing or dreadful crime, Jewish men, I would give you
proper support.
• 15 If in fact the questions are only about words, names
and your own law, I do not want to be a judge of these
matters.
• 16 And he drove them from the court (literally: the
platform)
• 17 Then they all (presumably the Greek Christians)
seized Sosthenes, the head of the synagogue and
began to beat him in front of the court: but Gallio was
not bothered about this.
Seneca was educated both at Rome and at Alexandria in Egypt, home of the
ancient world’s greatest library. As well as the normal training in language,
literature and public speaking. He also studied the peoples and culture of Egypt
and India.
After the completion of his education Seneca was appointed quaestor (an official
concerned with financial administration)and rapidly made a name for himself as a
public speaker. After the accession of Caligula in 37 B.C. he might have become a
victim of that emperor’s jealousy and cruelty had it not been pointed out that as a
sufferer from chronic asthma, Seneca would probably die soon enough anyway.
In 41 A.D., Caligula was assassinated by the palace guard and the
throne offered to his uncle, Claudius, who was allegedly found hiding
behind a curtain. It is also possible, however, that Claudius himself had
been involved in the conspiracy.
Probably because of the influence of Claudius’s wife, Messalina, who may have seen
him as a rival for power at court, Seneca was exiled later the same year to the island
of Corsica. Although far from happy with his new circumstances, he was able to devote
most of his time to writing and his output during these years established his literary
reputation.
Probably most important among Seneca’s writings at this period were nine plays on
Greek mythological themes, including Medea, the story of the sorceress who befriended
and then married Jason, leader of the Argonauts, but killed their children when he
decided to take another wife. The plays were probably all intended to be read rather than
performed but they had great influence on later dramatists, including Shakespeare (see
Brian Arkin’s article at http://phoenixandturtle.net/excerptmill/arkins.htm)
In 48 A.D. Messalina was executed for conspiring with her lover against Claudius. The following year
the new empress, Agrippina, had Seneca recalled and appointed as tutor to her 12 year-old son, the
future emperor Nero, whom she persuaded Claudius to make his heir in preference to his own son.
When Claudius died in 54, possibly poisoned by Agrippina, Nero was declared emperor and Seneca
wrote his speech for the occasion. Agrippina’s plan was to rule herself through her son: the statue from
Asia Minor shows her placing the imperial crown on Nero’s head and the coin on the right shows
mother and son’s facing heads with her name more prominent than his: AGRIPP[INA] AUGUSTA DIVI
CLAUD[II UXOR] NERONIS CAES[ARIS] MATER
• `..ille quidem animam ēbulliit, et ex eō dēsiit vīvere vidērī.
exspīrāvit autem dum comoedōs audit, ut sciās mē nōn
sine causā illōs timēre. ultima vōx eius haec inter
hominēs audīta est, cum maiōrem sonitum ēmisīsset illā
parte quā facilius loquēbātur: ``vae mē, putō, concacāvī.’
quod an fēcerit, nesciō – omnia certē concacāvit!’
• `…he breathed his last and from that moment seemed to
cease to live. He actually expired when he was listening
to comic actors – so you know I’ve good reason to be
afraid of those people. These were the last words that
people heard from him, when he’d produced a rather
loud sound from the part of his anatomy he spoke with
more easily: `Oh no, I think I’ve shit myself!’ Whether he
actually did this or not I don’t know ‘but he certainly shit
over everything!
Seneca is believed to have been the author of the Apocolocyntōsis Claudiī [`The
Pumpkinification of Claudius’] a very unkind satire on the life and death of the
emperor Claudius, written after he had been declared a god by the senate. This
description of an undignified death is followed by an account of the annoyance in
Heaven when Claudius arrived to join its inhabitants
In the early years of Nero’s reign, although Agrippina’s picture was on the coins, actual
administration was probably managed jointly by Seneca (left) and Burrus, the
commander of the Praetorian Guard. Seneca’s influence on the emperor was waning by
58 B.C. but after Agrippina’s assassination on Nero’s orders in 59 B.C. Seneca helped
persuade the senate that she had been killed to forestall a plot of her own against her
son. However, after Burrus’s death in 62, Seneca’s advice was no longer listened to by
the emperor and he obtained permission to go into retirement.