It is human nature to have feelings about certain events in a person’s life. Sometimes people’s emotions can get in the way of things. Through it all, people have to carry on even through the worst times. In late ancient Roman philosophy, there was the study of Stoicism. There were certain events in history that prove that Stoicism was present in the minds of people. Stoicism is the belief that one controls his emotions while confronted with hardships; the events of the death of Seneca are the best examples of Stoicism.
A Stoic is someone who will deliberately block out their emotions in order to make an effective decision and finish the task. This philosophy was practiced in ancient Rome and had positive and negative outcomes. The sole purpose was to carry out a deed or assignment without any other input from human emotion. The problem with this is that humans are meant to feel and know that it okay to have mixed feelings about certain situations. This wasn’t the case for Seneca—he lost the will to live and wanted to take his own life.
A Stoic would never let their emotions change their mind when they want to do something. When Seneca announced that he wanted to die, no one was going to stop him, not even his wife. Nero was certain that Seneca was plotting against him. If both of the men were friends, then why did he suspect him of betrayal? Seneca’s wife wanted to kill herself as well but Nero forbade it to happen. There were proper preparations before Seneca died. “Seneca, quite unmoved, asked for tablets on which to inscribe his will, and, on the centurion's refusal, turned to his friends, protesting that as he was forbidden to requite them, he bequeathed to them the only, but still the noblest possession yet remaining to him, the pattern of his life, which, if they remembered, they would win a name for moral worth and steadfast friendship. At the same time he called them back from their tears to manly resolution, now with friendly talk, and now with the sterner language of rebuke.” (Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, 1998) He made sure that there was a will in his name and told his friends that no one could change his mind about killing himself. This is an example of the philosophy that kept Seneca stuck on the thought of death.
"I have shown you ways of smoothing life; you prefer the glory of dying. I will not grudge you such a noble example. Let the fortitude of so courageous an end be alike in both of us, but let there be more in your decease to win fame." (Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, 1998) Seneca’s wife said those words before he died. This was her way of expressing to him that he was a Stoic because she could not even change his mind. Seneca’s mind was set on going down into the grave and leaving his enemy behind. His wife expressed her opinion about his way to die. She knew there could have been a way to settle the conflict between Nero and Seneca but the deed was already done. Seneca wanted to get himself out of the way because he thought it would be better for the people.
Seneca’s pain tolerance was high because he was stabbed, poisoned, and boiled to death before he finally took his last breath. It was quite a way to die, to have a lot of physical pain inflicted that way. "Seneca meantime, as the tedious process of death still lingered on, begged Statius Annaeus, whom he had long esteemed for his faithful friendship and medical skill, to produce a poison with which he had some time before provided himself, same drug which extinguished the life of those who were condemned by a public sentence of the people of Athens. It was brought to him and he drank it in vain, chilled as he was throughout his limbs, and his frame closed against the efficacy of the poison." (Internet Ancient History Sourcebook, 1998) Seneca was going to do everything he could to die a very painful death. He must have felt physical pain but mentally he was telling himself that it was the only effective way to die. The Greeks used to poison the people who were guilty of crime and Seneca shared that pain as well. His life meant nothing to him, there was only one solution to resolve the conflict of being called a traitor.
Stoics are the people who want to carry on and not let anything painful bring them down, even if it is put upon themselves. Seneca’s friends and wife must have been surprised, upset, and confused by the way he wanted to end his life. That was the way Seneca wanted to do things his way and go down in history in some shape or form. Not many people would have the courage to kill themselves by using the most painful things they could think of, but Seneca did. Stoics could have been brilliant or insane depending on the way they handled certain situations.
Source: Ancient History Sourcebook: Tacitus: The Death of Seneca, 65 CE
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