Letters to Lucilius

Continue to act thus, my dear Lucilius: set yourself free for your own sake; gather and save your time, which till lately has been forced from you, or filched away, or has merely slipped from your hands.

Seneca, Letters, 1, trans. Richard Mott Gummere

What it is

Seneca was the richest man in Rome and Nero’s tutor. In his last years he wrote to Lucilius, a procurator in Sicily, a series of letters on how to live: one subject per letter, drawn from whatever happened that week. The letters are literary rather than private, and were meant to be published, but they keep the tone of a friend talking.

Where to start

Letter 1, on time. Then read them in order and stop when you like; the first thirty are short and the best are among them. Letters 12 (old age), 28 (travel), 47 (slaves) and 63 (grief) are the ones people copy out.

Which translation

Richard Mott Gummere’s three volume Loeb translation (1917 to 1925) is public domain and still the most complete free text. Robin Campbell’s Penguin selection covers about a third and is the one to carry. Margaret Graver and A. A. Long (Chicago, 2015) translate all of them in modern English, with notes; that is the edition to own.

After this

On the Shortness of Life is the same argument as Letter 1 at essay length. The Meditations show what a reader of Seneca did with him.