Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

i62SENECAhad conspired to avenge. But he spared his own eyesand tongue, sending in one of the centurions to announceto Seneca that his last hour was come.Seneca, undismayed, asked for his will ;but this thecenturion refused. Then turning to his friends, hecalled them to witness that, Being forbidden to requitethem for their services, he was leaving to them the sole,and yet the noblest,—possession that remained to himthe pattern of his life. If they bore that in mind, theywould win for themselves a name for virtue as the rewardof their devoted friendship.' At one moment he wouldcheck their tears with conversation ;at another hewould brace up their courage by high-strung languageof rebuke, asking, ' Where was now their philosophy ?Where was that attitude towards the future whichthey had rehearsed for so many years? To whom wasNero's cruelty unknown ? What was left for one whohad murdered his mother and his brother but to slayhis guardian and teacher also ?'Having discoursed thus as if to the whole company,he embraced his wife, and abating somewhat of histone of high courage, he implored her to moderate hergrief, and not 'cling to it for ever : Let the contemplationof her husband's hfe of virtue afford her noble solacein her bereavement.'She, however, announced her resolve to die withhim ;and called on the operator to do his part. Senecawould not thwart her noble ambition ;and he lovedher too dearly to expose her to insult after he was gone.1 have pointed out to thee,' he said,'how thou mayest'soothe thy life ;but if thou prefer a noble death, I willnot begrudge thee the example. Let us both share thefortitude of thus :nobly dying but thine shall be thenobler end.'A single incision with the knife opened the arm ofeach, but as Seneca's aged body, reduced by spareliving, would scarcely let the blood escape, he openedthe veins of his knees and ankles also. Worn out at'last by the pain, and fearing to break down his wife's