Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero

by James Romm

Seneca’s letter to Polybius repeats Stoic remedies for grief that he earlier preached to Marcia. But he has added a new one, tailored to the needs of a courtier. “When you wish to forget all your cares, think of Caesar,” he wrote, referring to Claudius. “So long as he is safe, your family is well and you are in no way harmed.… He is your everything.” A courtier’s joy flows from the princeps he serves; and this particular princeps, Seneca goes on to say, brings joy supreme. “Whenever tears well up in your eyes, turn them toward Caesar; they will be dried by the sight of his greatest, most glorious godhead. His radiance will dull them so that they can behold nothing else, but will keep them fixed on himself.” Repugnant though this flattery might be, one can still be impressed by the ingenious way it is framed. Seneca could have fawned like Ovid, but instead he cleverly wove his plea into a high-minded work of philosophy. He measured out his obsequies with an expert eye. The right amount might do the trick yet not destroy his image or his self-esteem, should Claudius turn a deaf ear. Literary art, that supremely supple tool of which he was a supremely subtle master, could advance him in two ways at once, both as a political player and as a moral thinker.