Letters from a Stoic  (English, Paperback, Seneca)

Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium talks expansively on the ideologies of stoicism - a radical school of philosophy founded by Zeno in the fourth century B.C. This Penguin Classics edition is translated from Latin to English with an introduction by Robin Campbell.

Summary of the Book

Stoicism is the essential subject of Letters from a Stoic, and the author extensively speaks about the belief system that came into existence as early as the fourth century B.C. Stoicism suggests that those who intend to follow this belief must stop being bad-tempered about their difficulties or should stop reacting to them. They must learn to withstand all the adversity throughout life. The Stoic belief system wasn’t much popular until Seneca brought it to the forefront. Seneca was successful enough to bring about numerous radical transformations of this idea, which made it enormously widespread. Stoicism gained much momentum when Rome was under a painful shift from paganism to Christianity. The Stoics were also very openly communicative in their outlooks on the mistreatment of slaves, which made the belief system even more prevalent than ever before in history. One of the most significant aspects of the movement was that it facilitated in creating the self-worth of the mind of an individual, which was indeed brave and laudable. Robin Campbell's well-articulated translation arrests Seneca's incredible sense of humour and terse style. In the introduction, he deliberates on the tautness between Seneca's philosophy and his stormy career as the adviser to the autocratic ruler Nero.

About Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was an eminent Roman stoic philosopher, dramatist, and statesman. He was born in Cordoba, Hispania. He has written several other literary works including The Satyricon and Seneca the Apocolocyntosis, The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters, and Two Tragedies of Seneca, Medea and the Daughters of Troy. In all of his works, Seneca taught a great deal on Stoicism, along with several moral disputes, and tragedies. He served as a guide to the Emperor Nero. He committed suicide in AD 65 by damaging his veins, as Nero ordered Seneca to kill himself, following the Pisonian conspiracy – a plan to kill Nero.