Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CAIUS MAECENASThe battle of Actium had been fought and won.For the third time in Roman history the gates ofthe Temple of Janus were closed as a sign thatwar had ceased. After a century of civil war andconfusion the Romans accepted, some of themwith joy, others with a half-ashamed relief, othersagain with melancholy resignation, the reposeand security offered to them by the new government.The historian Livy, whom the emperorwas accustomed playfully to tax with his Pompeiansympathies, turned, as he tells us, to thecomposition of Roman history and the contemplationof the ancient glories of the State in orderto distract his mind from what seemed to himthe incurable degeneracy of the times. Horace,who had served as an officer under Brutus atPhilippi, took refuge in Epicurean philosophyand the cultivation of friendship, while he advisedhis friends to rid themselves of hopes and fears,to make the best of the passing hour, and not totrouble about the future. We must all die : sowhat, after all, does anything matter ? is theconstant burden of his song. ReconciUation and