Books by Seneca

On the Happy Life is a dialogue written by Seneca the Younger around the year 58 AD, intended for his older brother Gallio. 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 i reason meant not only using logic, but also understanding the processes of nature.
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Seneca composed the Consolations while in exile on Corsica during 40-44 AD and used each opportunity to show off in writing his trendy Stoic ideas about life and the universe. His three letters of condolences De Consolatione ad Marciam, De Consolatione ad Polybium and De Consolat...ione ad Helviam caused a sensation in Rome when they were circulated and before long the disgraced aristocrat was recalled from banishment and given the plum appointment of tutor to the young future emperor Nero. In each work Seneca employs many of the rhetorical devices common to the consolatio tradition while incorporating his unique philosophy. His seemingly positive outlook on his own exile follows the Stoic principle that one should not be upset by uncontrollable events.
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Seneca (ca. AD 4-65) authored verse tragedies that strongly influenced Shakespeare and other Renaissance dramatists. Plots are based on myth, but themes reflect imperial Roman politics. John G. Fitch has thoroughly revised his two-volume edition to take account of scholarship tha...t has appeared since its initial publication.
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Seneca's dialogues--as his epistolary essays have traditionally been known--offer an ideal path into the philosophical thought of first-century Rome's most famous Stoic, whose compelled suicide in 65 CE (by order of his former pupil Emperor Nero) drew comparisons to the death of ...Socrates. Notable for, among other things, their portrait of a providential universe and defense of the life of virtue, the nine dialogues included in this volume illustrate the deeply intertwined cosmological and moral arguments of ancient Rome's chief philosophical alternative to Epicureanism and Academic Skepticism. Peter J. Anderson's new translation conveys the distinctive character of Seneca's style, while striving for accuracy and consistency in its renderings of key terms. His Introduction discusses the dialogues as works of art and situates them in the context of ancient Stoic philosophy as well as the wider philosophical scene. Notes and a glossary are also included.
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De Vita Beata or 'On 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 tho...ughts 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. This new edition of De Vita Beata from Enhanced Media includes an introduction by William Smith.
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