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    The Happy Life (Illustrated)
    The Happy Life (Illustrated)
    The Happy Life (Illustrated)
    Ebook88 pages1 hour

    The Happy Life (Illustrated)

    By Seneca

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    About this ebook

    The Happy Life is a dialogue written by Seneca the Younger around the year 58 AD. It was intended for his older brother Gallio, to whom Seneca also dedicated his dialogue entitled De Ira ('On Anger'). It is divided into 28 chapters that present the moral thoughts of Seneca at their most mature. Seneca explains that the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of reason – reason meant not only using logic, but also understanding the processes of nature. 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEnhanced Media Publishing
    Release dateNov 4, 2016
    ISBN9781365508325
    The Happy Life (Illustrated)
    Author

    Seneca

    The writer and politician Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BCE–65 CE) was one of the most influential figures in the philosophical school of thought known as Stoicism. He was notoriously condemned to death by enforced suicide by the Emperor Nero.

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      The Happy Life (Illustrated) - Seneca

      GALLERY

      Introduction

      Seneca, L. Annaeus, the philosopher, the son of the rhetorician M. Annaeus, was born at Corduba, probably a few years B.C., and brought to Rome by his parents when he was a child. Though he was naturally of a weak body, he was a hard student from his youth, and he devoted himself with great ardor to rhetoric and philosophy. He also soon gained distinction as a pleader of causes, and he excited the jealousy and hatred of Caligula by the ability with which he conducted a case in the senate before the emperor. In the first year of the reign of Claudius (A.D. 41), Seneca was banished to Corsica on account of his intimacy with Julia, the niece of Claudius, of whom Messalina was jealous. After eight years' residence in Corsica, Seneca was recalled (59) by the influence of Agrippina, who had just married her uncle the Emperor Claudius. He now obtained a praetorship, and was made the tutor of the young Domitius, afterward the Emperor Nero, who was the son of Agrippina by a former husband.

      On the accession of his pupil to the imperial throne (54) after the death of Claudius, Seneca became one of the chief advisers of the young emperor. He exerted his influence to check Nero's vicious propensities, but at the same time he profited from his position to amass an immense fortune. He supported Nero in his contests with his mother Agrippina, and was not only a party to the death of the latter (60), but he wrote the letter which Nero addressed to the senate in justification of the murder. After the death of his mother Nero abandoned himself without any restraint to his vicious propensities; and the presence of Seneca soon became irksome to him, while the wealth of the philosopher excited the emperor's cupidity. Burrus, the praefect of the praetorian guards, who had always been a firm supporter of Seneca, died in 63. His death broke the power of Seneca; and Nero now fell into the hands of persons who were exactly suited to his taste.

      Tigellinus and Fennius Rufus, who succeeded Burrus in the command of the praetorians, began an attack on Seneca. His enormous wealth, his gardens and villas, more magnificent than those of the emperor, his exclusive claims to eloquence, and his disparagement of Nero's skill in driving and singing, were all urged against him; and it was time, they said, for Nero to get rid of a teacher. Seneca heard of the charges against him: he was rich, and he knew that Nero wanted money. He asked the emperor for permission to retire, and offered to surrender all that he had. Nero affected to be grateful for his past services, refused the proffered gift, and sent him away with perfidious assurances of his respect and affection. Seneca now altered his mode of life, saw little company, and seldom visited the city, on the ground of feeble health, or being occupied with his philosophical studies. The conspiracy of Piso (65) gave the emperor a pretext for putting his teacher to death, though there was not complete evidence of Seneca being a party to the conspiracy. Seneca was at the time returning from Campania, and had rested at a villa four miles from the city. Nero sent a tribune to him with the order of death. Without showing any sign of alarm, Seneca cheered his weeping friends by reminding them of the lessons of philosophy.

      Embracing his wife Pompeia Paulina, he prayed her to moderate her grief, and to console herself for the loss of her husband by the reflection that he had lived an honorable life. But as Paulina protested that she would die with him, Seneca consented, and the same blow opened the veins in the arms of both. Seneca's body was attenuated by age and meagre diet; the blood would not flow easily, and he opened the veins in his legs. His torture was excessive; and, to save himself and his wife the pain of seeing one another suffer, he bade her retire to her chamber. His last words were taken down in writing by persons who were called in for the purpose, and were afterward published. Seneca's torments being still prolonged, he took hemlock from his friend and physician, Statius Annseus, but it had no effect. At last he entered a warm bath, and as he sprinkled some of the water on the slaves nearest to him, he said that he made a libation to Jupiter the Liberator. He was then taken into a vapor stove, where he was quickly suffocated. Seneca died, as was

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