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SENECA - College of Stoic Philosophers

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EPISTLE XC1<br />

not cry out at any <strong>of</strong> these calamities. Into such a<br />

world have we entered, and under such laws do we<br />

live. If you like it, obey if not, depart whithersoever<br />

you wish. Cry out in anger if any unfair<br />

;<br />

measures are taken with reference to you individually<br />

but if this inevitable law is<br />

binding upon the<br />

;<br />

highest and the lowest alike, be reconciled to<br />

fate, by which all things are dissolved. You should<br />

not estimate our worth by our funeral mounds or<br />

by these monuments <strong>of</strong> unequal size which line the<br />

road ;<br />

their ashes level all men ! We are unequal<br />

at birth, but are equal in death. What I say<br />

about cities I<br />

say also about their inhabitants :<br />

Ardea was captured as well as Rome. a The great<br />

founder <strong>of</strong> human law has not made distinctions<br />

between us on the basis <strong>of</strong> high lineage or <strong>of</strong><br />

illustrious names, except while we live. When,<br />

however, we come to the end which awaits mortals,<br />

he<br />

" says<br />

:<br />

Depart, ambition ! To all creatures that<br />

burden the earth let one and the same b '<br />

law apply<br />

!<br />

For enduring all things, we are equal no one is<br />

;<br />

more frail than another, no one more certain <strong>of</strong> his<br />

on the morrow.<br />

own life<br />

Alexander, king <strong>of</strong> Macedon, began to study<br />

geometry c ; unhappy man, because he would thereby<br />

learn how puny was that earth <strong>of</strong> which he had seized<br />

but a fraction !<br />

Unhappy man, I repeat, because<br />

he was bound to understand that he was bearing a<br />

false title. For who can be " "<br />

great in that which<br />

is<br />

puny The ? lessons which were being taught<br />

him were intricate and could be learned only by<br />

assiduous application<br />

; they were not the kind to be<br />

legal term, is derived by Festus from similis re ipsa; but<br />

Corssen explains it as from sic rem pse.<br />

i.e., surveying. See Ep. Ixxxviii. 10.<br />

VOL. II

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