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SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

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THE EPISTLES OF <strong>SENECA</strong><br />

bitur ? Fortior, ut opinor, esses, si raulta milia tibi<br />

commorerentur ; atqui<br />

multa milia et hominum et<br />

animalium hoc ipso momento, quo tu mori dubitas,<br />

animam variis generibus emittunt. Tu autem non<br />

putabas te aliquando ad id perventurum, ad quod<br />

semper ibas Nullum ?<br />

sine exitu iter est.<br />

virorum me tibi iudicas<br />

14 Exempla mine magnorum<br />

relaturum ? Puerorum referam. Lacon ille memoriae<br />

traditur inpubis adhuc, qui captus clamabat " non<br />

serviam" sua ilia Dorica lingua, et verbis fidem<br />

inposuit ut primum iussus est servili fungi et con-<br />

;<br />

adferre enim vas obscenum<br />

tumelioso ministerio,<br />

15 iubebatur, inlisum parieti caput rupit. Tarn prope<br />

libertas est ;<br />

et servit aliquis<br />

? Ita non sic perire<br />

filium tuum malles quam per<br />

Quid ergo est, cur perturberis, si<br />

inertiam senem fieri ?<br />

mori fortiter etiam<br />

puerile est ? Puta nolle te sequi duceris. Fac tui<br />

;<br />

iuris, quod<br />

alieni est. Non sumes pueri spiritum, ut<br />

dicas "non servio " ? Infelix, servis hominibus,<br />

servis rebus, servis vitae. Nam vita, si moriendi<br />

virtus abest, servitus est.<br />

IQ Ecquid babes, propter quod expectes ? Voluptates<br />

ipsas, quae te morantur ac retinent, consumpsisti.<br />

Nulla tibi nova est, nulla non iam odiosa ipsa satiett<br />

See Plutarch, Mor. 234 b, for a similar act <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Spartan boy captured by King Antigonus. Hense (Rhein.<br />

Mus. xlvii. pp. 220 f.) thinks that this story may be taken<br />

from Bion, the third-century satirist and moral philosopher.<br />

176

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