De Beneficiis is a long work, Seneca’s longest treatment of a single topic. It weaves in and out of many themes, some of them touching closely on the author’s own circumstances—though the relevance, as always, remains implicit. One problem Seneca deals with is that of gifts given by kings and tyrants, which cannot be refused, yet cannot be recompensed. He recalls that Socrates was invited to join the court of a Macedonian king but declined on the grounds that had he accepted, he would not have been able to return the royal largesse. Seneca admires Socrates for avoiding what he calls a life of
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