Description:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE-65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in seven accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection restores Seneca--whose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emerson--to his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities.
Anger, Mercy, Revenge comprises three key writings: the moral essays On Anger and On Clemency--which were penned as advice for the then young emperor, Nero--and the Apocolocyntosis, a brilliant satire lampooning the end of the reign of Claudius. Friend and tutor, as well as philosopher, Seneca welcomed the age of Nero in tones alternately serious, poetic, and comic--making Anger, Mercy, Revenge a work just as complicated, astute, and ambitious as its author.
Brief description: Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4BCE-65CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, and advisor to the Emperor Nero.
Review Quotes:
"The translations are faithful and lively. . . . Although the translators take Seneca seriously as a moralizing philosopher, their introductions and annotations--though attentive to the literary and rhetorical qualities Seneca's writing displays--are not technical in terms of philosophy. Accordingly, they will be accessible to any intelligent reader."
-- "Choice"