Seneca's life, which was very close to the centers of power, is well known to us thanks to the accounts of authoritative Roman historians of the time, such as Tacitus, Suetonius, and Dio Cassius. To fully understand Seneca's relationship with power, we must first analyze the historical period in which he lives.
Nero's reign was a very difficult period, filled with tension and terror, although all this didn't happen immediately. In fact, as soon as he ascended the throne, Nero, thanks also to the firm support of men like Seneca and Afranius Burrus, managed to maintain a balance within the Roman Empire. This period of prosperity was called by historians five-year period Neronis o quinquennium felix, precisely because they were five years of peace and serenity.
Power, politics and morality
Unfortunately, this five-year period was followed by a period dominated by Nero's fear and madness, who imposed an autocratic turn on the principate, replacing the two figures who had previously flanked it. Burrus was replaced by Tigellinus, while no one occupied Seneca's former position. Seneca did not renounce personal exposure and did not shrink from the commitments imposed by participation in political life, but he often paid dearly for his fame and accumulated wealth, until he was forced to commit suicide.
Chronologically, in AD 39, he risks his life under the orders of Caligula and two years later is forced into exile in Corsica by Claudius, towards whom he goes from assuming a flattering attitude to obtain his pardon by writing the Consolatio ad Polybium, to taking revenge for his death. death. death, expressing all her hatred towards him in the Apocolocyntosis, work in which he ferociously mocks him. Becoming Nero's preceptor, he tried to base his government on the principles of rex iustus, theorizing the figure of the illustrated prince in the of clementia, but the authoritarian and ruthless character of the young emperor soon took over.
Seneca and politics
Seneca, unlike other contemporary writers, feels the duty to participate for most of his life in political activity. for him is . important the relationship between active life and contemplative life, public life and private life, negotium and otium, individual and society. It remains intimately linked to a principle: "man's task is to be useful to other men." To be useful, Seneca affirms that the virtuous man must not shirk his human and civil responsibilities. Seneca's morality is in fact an active morality, founded on the principle of the common good.
Seneca's relationship with the principate is thus problematic. Initially content with Nero's principate, he would write a work for the new emperor Nero, entitled From Clementia. In this work Seneca praises the moderation and indulgence of princeps, also giving a model of behavior that it should follow. The merciful ruler, says the author, should behave toward his subjects as a father does toward his children. The best method for educating subjects is always persuasion and admonition, never threats and terror.
power is power
Seneca does not question the absolute power of the emperor and, in fact, legitimizes it as a power of divine origin. Fate has assigned Nero the task of governing his subjects, and he must carry out this task without making them feel the weight of power, and he must also be the guarantor of proportion. universal. He proposes a single rule in dealing with slaves: "Live with your inferior as you would like your superior to live with you."
The king is the head of the state, the subjects are its members, and therefore the latter are willing to obey the king as the members obey the head, and are willing to endure death for him: "He, indeed, is the bond by which the state holds together, the vital spirit that all these thousands of men breathe. They, in themselves, would be nothing but a burden and a prey to the others, were this soul of the Empire lacking."
De Beneficis de Seneca
Having noticed the failure of Nero's moral education, Seneca writes De Benefits, a seven-book treatise that deals with the issue of knowing how to give and receive a benefit, understood as the concrete donation of a good, and also touches on the conception according to which only luck can determine the condition of freedom or slavery. Every man must, therefore, know how to build his own glory with work and effort, without counting on what his ancestors left him..
Seneca, precisely because of his "inconsistencies" in the face of power, has managed to maintain a considerable reputation over the centuries for a double reason: totalitarian and despotic regimes appreciate his behavior as a subject, while intellectuals share his way of opposing the rulers.
Seneca was fascinated by Stoic morality and used it to satisfy the demands of practical life. However, with his suicide, he managed to leave his image in history, redeeming a truly contradictory life. Perhaps this was what gave him greater fame, and, with his own suicide, he wrote an important chapter in his life.
freedom above all
Seneca in his tragedies will focus on an almost unknown side of his personality, namely that of vir sapiens and bonuses, who will commit suicide for the just cause of freedom. Freedom, for Seneca, is within us and no one can compress it: in wisdom, in contempt for our ephemeral body, freedom is saferIf we know how to turn toward things greater than the slavery of the body, we will conquer inner freedom; we will become the masters of ourselves. "Are you asking me what the path to freedom is? Any vein in your body."
What really matters is only knowing how to distinguish good from evil, because only those who achieve it will be truly free, because freedom does not come from being born in a certain class, be it poor or noble.. For the writer, the battle for the conquest of freedom can only be fought with the weapon of philosophy, so much so that he affirmed that only the wise are free.
Seneca's philosophical thought
Seneca is neither a philosopher nor a systematic thinker: his main intention is to convey a concept of life and certain moral values. In fact, his work is very different from that of other ancient thinkers such as Plato or Aristotle. He does not wish to offer a philosophical system, but rather to point out to his followers and readers the moral virtues of Stoicism. Although most of his literary works are grouped under the generic title of "dialogues," they are clearly distinguished from Plato's, taking the form of real monologues, in which Seneca addresses anyone interested in his thought.
The unsystematic nature of Seneca's thought and his proclaimed independence of sources are a constant throughout the philosopher's work. From his entire output emerges a personal reinterpretation of the knowledge transmitted to him by the masters, which coexists with the clear predominance of Stoicism. The two basic principles of Seneca's philosophy derive precisely from Stoicism: nature and reason.. According to Seneca, man must above all conform to nature and, likewise, obey reason, seen as ratio, greek Logos, divine principle that governs the world.
The wise are not inhuman, one of Lucio's ideas
A note of particular detachment from the Stoic doctrine underlies the figure of the sapiens, the wise man. Seneca's pragmatic Latin spirit leads him to eliminate the inhuman traits attributed to the wise man. Wisdom thus takes the form of rational mastery of passions, not apathy and immunity to feelings.
The spiritual asceticism of the sage consists of five fundamental stages: the triumph over passions, such as fear, pain and superstition; he soul searching, common practice in the Pythagorean doctrine; the awareness of being part of the logos and therefore realizing that we are reasonable creatures, part of the providential project of reason; self-acceptance and recognition, in fact the wise man recognizes what is part of reason and what is not, realizing that he is part of it; and finally the achievement of you free her interior: through reason man can live happily.
Wisdom is thus seen as a means, not an end. It is seen as the means by which man achieves inner freedom, not knowledge for its own sake.
Aristotle and Seneca
Seneca's philosophical perspective also reflects the philosophical conception of science inspired by Aristotle. The study of natural phenomena, in fact, allows humans to understand the proportion to which they all belong and, through them, to assimilate themselves to it.
Seneca also defines four fundamental practical aspects of wisdom: Temperance that helps to control the passions; strength, useful to counteract fears; prudence, thanks to which the actions to be carried out can be foreseen in advance; justice,With this, you can assign to each person what corresponds to them. When a human being achieves virtue, they are freed from the fears and anxieties inherent in their mortal and physical condition and can finally claim to be truly happy, because their full realization consists in virtue and their own improvement, and they are not subject to the whims of fortune, nor do they depend on wealth or health, which are beyond our control or dominion and therefore not within our power.
Philosophy and literature coexist perfectly with power
Seneca is certainly a philosopher and a man of letters who knew how to collaborate authentically with power, leaving a positive mark during the years of activity with the young emperor, actively collaborating for the public good, but who also knows how to distance himself. from her when he no longer represents a positive role model, relinquishing privileges and favors without regret, as stated in De blessed life: "able to enjoy riches when they exist, but able to do without them if they cease."
On the other hand, his withdrawal from public life had disastrous consequences for Nero who, left alone to govern, in the last five years of his power, generated so much disapproval from the citizens that he was sentenced, after his death, to " damnation memoriae», la worst sentence that a Roman could suffer, while the memory of Seneca will remain throughout the centuries for his profound wisdom and his public commitment.
In a situation of irremediable political and social instability in the Caput Mundic of the time, Seneca expresses all the ambiguities, limits and aspirations of an intellectual class, which remained the only one to oppose despotic political power, after the submission of the senatorial class.With Seneca, the possibility of the intellectual class fulfilling an organic function within political power collapsed. After him, the "prince's advisors" became freedmen and courtiers, and intellectuals could only report on what was happening.
you can also read Lucius Anneo Seneca (Part 2)