Minor Dialogues, Together With the Dialogue on Clemency

About the book

These prose works explore how a person might maintain judgment when circumstances encourage rage, fear, distraction, or despair. Seneca addresses questions of providence and happiness, the firmness of the wise person, leisure, peace of mind, and the shortness of life. Consolations to Marcia, Helvia, and Polybius bring philosophical arguments into contact with particular losses and separations. The treatise on clemency turns from personal conduct toward the restraint expected of a ruler. Although grouped as minor dialogues, the pieces use several forms of address rather than one continuous conversation. Their examples, objections, and urgent advice reveal a Roman Stoic effort to make philosophy act upon ordinary habits and upon the dangerous temptations of authority.

• Self-command
• Grief and time
• Power and restraint

Why read it

See Stoic reasoning applied to sharply different situations, from bereavement to the exercise of rule.

English translation by Aubrey Stewart, including On Clemency