Stoicism Rough Draft

Konnor Drewen

4/6/011

Stoicism

            Seneca was a different kind of person in his time, but he still followed similar beliefs as others. The beliefs that emotion holds you back and should not be expressed. That is that if someone has trouble in their life whether it be a death or another unhappy experience that they must push forward and not let anything get in their way. If they let any emotion into their life then they will not be able to accomplish what they want to in their life. Stoicism is a belief that when confronted with hardships you must not show emotion because it will hold you back; Seneca is a perfect illustration of this belief.  Seneca was not a perfect image of stoicism, for he showed fear in the final minutes of his death by begging for death.

            "When the tribune reported this answer in the presence of Poppaea and Tigellinus, the emperor's most confidential advisers in his moments of rage, he asked whether Seneca was meditating suicide. Upon this the tribune asserted that he saw no signs of fear, and perceived no sadness in his words or in his looks” (Tacitus). This is a good reason for Seneca a perfect example because in this quote it says that he showed no emotion. He had no signs of fear or sadness for saying that Natalis had been sent to him and had complained to him in Piso's name because of his refusal to see Piso. After the sentence of death was to be carried out Seneca still showed no emotion. He had no reason to give them the joy of seeing him afraid.

            "Seneca, quite unmoved, asked for tablets on which to inscribe his will, and, on the centurion's refusal, turned to his friends, protesting that as he was forbidden to requite them, he bequeathed to them the only, but still the noblest possession yet remaining to him, the pattern of his life, which, if they remembered, they would win a name for moral worth and steadfast friendship” (Tacitus). Even after Seneca is told of his death sentence he is still “quite unmoved.” He was even forbidden to write down his will so in this case his stoicism is un-refutable. He controlled himself so as to show the guards that he was not afraid. He would gladly accept death because he was dying with honour and stoicism.

            “Seneca, as his aged frame, attenuated by frugal diet, allowed the blood to escape but slowly, severed also the veins of his legs and knees. Worn out by cruel anguish, afraid too that his sufferings might break his wife's spirit, and that, as he looked on her tortures, he might himself sink into irresolution, he persuaded her to retire into another chamber” (Tacitus). The stoicism in this act is one of endurance and knowing what has to be done. He died and did not fight against the ruling of death against him. In the end taking his own life was what Seneca did not only cutting his arteries but drinking the poison the prisoners drank in Athens to be put to death.  He felt that if he was to die let it by his own hand.

            Seneca was an exceptional stoic in his life; not showing emotion and letting done what had to be done. Through the last days of his life he would have endured great troubles, but he faced them proudly. He did not show the people condemning him that he was afraid, if he was afraid at all. Even as he was told that he could not write down his will he stayed “quite unmoved.”  In the end he even took his life to complete the fullness of his impassiveness. The intellect and indifference in his time of death demonstrates how Seneca is the image of stoicism.