Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

ii6SENECAplant an old plantation. This is the sort of thing weveterans should learn, we are all of us planting oliveyards for the benefit of those who come after us.^In another letter he describes how, whenattacked by fever, he escaped from Rome toNomentum, disregarding the anxious remonstrancesof Paullina, his second wife, who thoughthim too ill to move, and how quickly the sightof his vines and meadows, and the enjoymentof pure air after the fetid atmosphere of thecity, restored him to health. In this letter, too,he dwells with gratitude on the devoted affectionof Paullina, and says that it was this thatreconciled him to life. His health had becomea matter of concern to himself, because it was amatter of concern to her.For since I know that I am to her as the breath oflife, I begin to be careful of myself that I may be carefulof her, and I give up that indifference to fate whichis the chief boon brought by old age. This old man,I tell myself, has youth in his keeping and must thereforespare himself. ... It is sweet, moreover, to be sodear to a wife that a man becomes dearer to himself.''Another villa owned by Seneca in the neighbourhoodof Rome was in the Alban district,where many rich Romans possessed houses andwhither the emperors themselves used to resort totheir magnificent villa first occupied by Pompey,large remains of which are still visible at Albano.Seneca gives in one of his letters a characteristicaccount of a surprise visit he paid to his Albanvilla about this time. He relates how he arrived'Ep. 86.=»Ep. 104.