THE FOLIO SOCIETY

Elegant, pithy, intimate in tone, Seneca’s writings have rightly earned him a reputation as one of the finest essayists of all time. His great contribution to philosophy was his ability to spiritualise and humanise the seemingly cold and unrealistic tenets of Stoicism. Seneca’s own experience as witness to one of the most colourful periods in Roman history – earthquakes, fire, the destruction of cities, and the appalling excesses of the emperors Caligula and Nero – taught him that wealth and power could disappear as quickly as it was acquired. Whether it is the tender letter written in exile to comfort his mother or his biting reflections on material excess – ‘we think ourselves poorly off . . . unless the water pours from silver taps’ – this selection reveals Seneca’s main philosophical themes: man’s attitude to change, time, death; the relationship between the individual and society, and how to live wisely, happily and in harmony with nature.

‘Life is the gift of the immortal gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy’