ONE I HAVE PARDONED FOR HIS HIGH POSITION, ANOTHER FOR HIS HUMBLE STATE
7. GREAT WAS THE HAZARD
Seneca means that Roman affairs had been in great jeopardy before Nero had established a sure way of life; in other words when he had not yet displayed any proof of natural disposition, from which one might infer an upright character. For that age is indeed changeable and slippery, which easily stumbles through inexperience and is also misled by others’ advice, and finally sinks from right and honorable discipline to ease and pleasure, says Herodian [1.3.1]. Yet in the morals of the prince it is a question of
public advantage or peril. No wonder if the hazard that the Roman people faced was great. Now indeed peril has flown; the foundations have been so laid, that the outcome cannot possibly differ from this happy beginning.
Dice, it is known, is a game subject to the vicissitudes of chance; from this original meaning is derived by similitude that which signifies each and every kind of hazard. Horace [C., 2.1.6]:
A task full of dangerous hazard...
Lucan [Phars., 6.7f]:
He chose the hazard of destiny That must destroy one head or the other.
The same word Seneca now uses was employed by Livy [1.23.9]: Not content with certain liberty, we are incurring the dubious hazard of sovereignty or slavery. Let us adopt some method, whereby, without loss, without much blood of either nation, it may be decided which shall rule the other. Julius Caesar’s saying is recalled by Suetonius [Jul., 32]: The die is cast, meaning: the whole future of the state has been given over into the hands and power of fortune. In Greek, according to Plutarch [Jul. Caes., 32.4]: errhiphthi kybos. [“The die is cast, the dice have been thrown.”]
TO WHAT COURSE THOSE NOBLE TALENTS OF YOURS WOULD GIVE THEMSELVES
That is, to what pursuits he would apply his mind, what method of life he would follow. This is a worthy expression. Cicero [Ep. Art. 13.23]: So give yourself to speaking, hack away at them, finish them, excite them, attack them, but speak. And Ep. Fam. [13.1.4]:... if your feelings have been ever so slightly hurt by the wrong-headedness of certain persons.., give yourself over to leniency, whether because of your own exceptional kindliness, of... for my sake.
So also here, TO WHAT COURSE THEY WOULD GIVE THEMSELVES, that is, to what state he would apply and direct his mind. These two words, “to apply” and “to give,” are used interchangeably in Cicero, Verr.
[2.2.70.169]: He very thoroughly gave himself over to intimacy with Verres. In his speech, Pro Cluentio [24.66]... he applied himself to gain the friendship of one who was penniless, brazen, and a past master in the art
of judicial corruption and, moreover, himself a juror at the time — namely Staienus. The same Cicero has used it in another context in Ep. Fam.
[13.10.2]: M. Varro gave himself to candidacy for office.
THE PUBLIC PRAYERS ARE ASSURED
Either he calls PUBLIC PRAYERS those accustomed to be promulgated in a solemn rite, first for the health of the prince, then for the prosperity of the state, as supplications, as Juvenal says [Sat., 10.284f]: But the public prayers of all those cities / Gained the day... Or PUBLIC PRAYERS are simply what each one frames out of affection for the fatherland. The first interpretation is more appropriate.
FOR THERE IS NO DANGER THAT YOU WILL BE SEIZED BY SUDDEN FORGETFULNESS OF YOURSELF
Now all hazard has been removed because it is sure FROM HIS TALENTS
what Nero’s character is to be like: just as there was concern about danger so long as his talents had not yet revealed themselves. Therefore an opposite effect follows an opposite cause [cf. Cic., T.D., 5.17.60]. Cicero expresses this notion in a letter to Dolabella [Ep. fram., 9.14.7]: So
splendid have been your achievements already, that you have not even the right to fall short oaf your own standard. SUBITA means not only “sudden”, but also “unpremeditated.” Indeed, things done extempore are almost unpremeditated. Accordingly, SUBITUM is used for “unadvised.” Q.
Cassius to Cicero [Ep. Faro., 12.13.1]: just as these most recent acts of mine were not indeed precipitate or inconsistent, but quite in keeping with those reflections to which you can testify... And Gellius [9.15.5] calls an extemporary oration subitaria dictio. We elegantly, moreover, describe inconstancy when we say that FORGETFULNESS of self has stolen upon someone. The expression is sometimes transferred to inanimate objects.
Cicero [Ep. Faro., 9.12.1]:... unless they are fond of you, they flatter you, and just so long as you are present, have forgotten their former tricks...
That is, they have degenerated from their inborn disposition. But Pliny [H.N., 7.24.90] has used a construction different from Seneca’s: One who fell from a very high roof forgot (lit: ‘incurred forgetfulness of) his mother and his relatives and friends...
OVERMUCH PROSPERITY, IT IS TRUE, MAKES MEN GREEDY A universal saying. For the sake of amplification, he sets it forth in advance in order to subjoin, in lieu of a miracle, the fact that the Roman people are contented with their prosperity. Livy has elegantly expressed this thought in his preface [11f]: The less wealth there was, the less desire vas there. Of late, riches have introduced avarice; and excessive
pleasures, a passion for ruining ourselves and destroying everything else.
And Curtius [7.8.20] in the Scythians’ speech to Alexander: What need have you for riches, which compel you to hunger for them? First of all men, you by a surfeit have produced a hunger so that the more you have, the keener is your desire for what you have not. Ovid’s lines in his Fasti [1.211f, 215f] are well known:
Both wealth increased, and insane lust for wealth:
Possessing overmuch, men would possess still more;...
As he who in his thirst has over-drunk himself:
The more he has inside, the more it’s thirsted for.
Juvenal, Sat. [14.139]: As much as wealth itself increases, increases love of gain...
AND DESIRES ARE NEVER SO WELL CONTROLLED The term “desire” [CUPIDITAS] is variously understood; here it is to be referred to the higher sense. So do the philosophers call the seat of concupiscence, which contains all the passions of the mind, and those inner dispositions not subject to the rule of reason. To make it clearer, let us set forth Epicurus’s division to which Cicero refers [Fin., 1.13.45]:
D
ESIRENatural and necessary easily attainable
Natural but not necessary content with moderate expense Neither natural nor necessary insatiable
Since, therefore, there are three kinds of desires, we may understand this passage to be concerned with the third sort or the third member, namely,
desire insatiable. Of this, as Cicero says, neither measure nor limit can be found. And Seneca, in many passages, for example Ep. Mor. [39.5]: Desire which overleaps natural measure must develop into measureness.
THE ASCENT IS FROM GREAT
Seneca expresses the same thought in his Consolation to Albina [11.4]:...
every appetite which arises not from real want but from vice is of the same nature: however much you lavish on it, it will not cease, but will only increase further.
YET TODAY YOUR SUBJECTS ONE AND ALL The meaning is: Although no person of good and equable disposition reflects upon his lot, still the Roman people cannot now conceal their prosperity. Nor are they endowed with such great shamelessness as not to impose a limit upon their desires. This indeed all to a man confess, and with a single voice unanimously proclaim, that they have attained the very pinnacle of fortune.
ARE FORCED TO CONFESS
Seneca’s usage here is very significant. For as Donatus on Terence’s Adelphi [prol. 4] says, Confession implies unwillingness. And EXPRIMERE
is “to draw forth under pressure.” Terence [Eun., 1.1.22f. 67f]:... one tiny sham tear, by Hercules, yes; / Which grievous rubbing of the eyes has hardly forced with vigor out of her... In this passage Donatus interprets the position of the word as for the sake of amplification. I should like to subjoin other examples which better show the elegance of the word. Livy [3.28.10]: But that the confession may be forced out, that their nation was defeated and subdued, that they should pass under the yoke. And [21.18.5]:
Now both a confession of wrong is forced from us, and, as though we had confessed, restitution is immediately demanded. Pliny, Panegyric [2.2]: Let those words... which fear forced out… be far from us. Suetonius [Tib., 19]:... who mixing with those about him, and being discovered by his trepidation, was tortured, and a confession of his intended crime forced out. Latinus Pacatus has said [Panegyr., 43.5]: exact a confession. The equivalent among the Greeks is ekbiazesthai.
NOTHING FURTHER CAN BE ADDED TO THEIR BLESSINGS EXCEPT THAT THEY MAY ENDURE
“No good thing on earth is lasting, much less eternal.” And, as they say,
“Cheerless is the aftermath of every stroke of luck.” Hence one must ponder the retaining as much as the obtaining. Doubtless the Roman people can rightly desire this addition to their happiness, namely that it may not perish before its time.