Hardship and happiness chicago seneca review năm 2024

SENECA. Hardship and Happiness. Translated by Elaine Fantham, Harry M. Hine, James Ker, and Gareth D. Williams. In The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, edited by Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2014. xxix + 318 pp. Cloth, $55.00--This is the fourth in a set from the University of Chicago Press that purports to be a "fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations [of Seneca] in eight accessible volumes." Previous entries include Seneca's sole scientific work, Natural Questions (2010), Anger, Mercy, Revenge (2010), and On Benefits (2011). Since the release of the present work, the fifth, Lectures on Ethics (2015), has also appeared.

Those unfamiliar with Seneca (4 B.C.E.-65 C.E.) will find the introductory essay--which prefaces this and the other volumes--to be a brief yet thorough guide. A wealthy Spaniard by birth, Seneca received a stellar oratorical education at Rome. His genius for administration and political survival catapulted him to the post of Nero's tutor and shadow philosopher-king during the tranquil quinquennium. Later, as a member of the failed conspiracy to supplant the enfant terrible with C. Calpurnius Piso or Seneca himself, he enjoyed a front-row seat to the legendary Julio-Claudian dysfunctions. Seneca's life, like Socrates', ended dramatically: he slit his own...

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Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE–65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and advisor 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 eight accessible volumes. Edited by Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection helps restore 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.

Hardship and Happiness collects a range of essays intended to instruct, from consolations—works that offer comfort to someone who has suffered a personal loss—to pieces on how to achieve happiness or tranquility in the face of a difficult world. Expertly translated, the essays will be read and used by undergraduate philosophy students and experienced scholars alike.

Praise for Hardship and Happiness

“[The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca] brings together many preeminent anglophone scholars of Seneca as editors and translators and succeeds in its aim to reach a wider audience through readable, modern English translations. . . . The overall high quality of the translations and notes make this volume (and its respective series) highly desirable for scholars and libraries alike.” —Classical Journal

“A significant improvement over what has been available in English of the previous century. . . . The translations presented here admirably achieve the aim set out by the series’ editors: ‘to be faithful to the Latin while reading idiomatically in English.’ . . . Hardship and Happiness is a handsome volume, beautifully conceived and executed.” —Review of Metaphysics

“We owe a debt of gratitude to Chicago for this one-volume selection of essays from long ago, which still have the power to stimulate our minds today.” —Classics for All

BOOK REVIEWS 503 departure for exile and return to Rome. According to Luke, the Ciceronian theology, a more civic one since based on the notion of pater patriae, would have important ramifications in the future ideologyof the Principate. Caesar’s ovatio of 44BC isinterpretedbyLukeinrelationtoCicero’sthought.Inhiswords,“Caesar’s response to Cicero was to return to a gentilician theology rooted in the regal period and to assert thatCicero’s vision ofthe Republic asa gatheringof senators, while compelling, had a history that allowed him to propose for himself a continuingroleinthatsenatorialgathering,asanofficiatorinRome”(138).But,if, ontheonehand,Caesar’sperformancehasbeenassociatedwithmonarchy,onthe other hand, Augustus has succeed in mobilizing the precedent theological tradition to present himself as the true savior of the Republic. To make this point clear,LukeoffersanilluminatingreadingoftheResGestaeasan“arrivaltext”,inthe sense that it “implicates its reader into a cultural process that unfolds in a series of arrivals culminating in the full restoration of the Republic, the birth of a new age, and the apex of Augustus’ personal career” (197). Augustus’ self-presentation emerges asa new Numa, a monarch, butan electedone. Luke’s book deserves to be read for its detailed narrative of the interconnections between the theologies of arrival performed from Marius to Augustus. He convincingly shows how each one has appropriated and reframed the previous ones to build the public image of important members of the elite. Lukethusapproachesasubjectonlybrieflytreated,forexample,byGeoffreySumi in his Ceremonyand Power: Performing Politics in Rome Between RepublicandEmpire (2005). Finally, the book will also interest those who study the political culture of the Principate. Emperors after Augustus also sought to forge imperial theologies to justifytheirrising to supremepower,and,indoingso,theymaintained alive the competitive political environment of the Republic. FÁBIO D.JOLY Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto, [email protected] * * * * * * Lucius Annaeus Seneca: Hardship and Happiness. Translated by ELAINE FANTHAM, HARRYM.HINE,JAMESKERANDGARETH WILLIAMS.ChicagoandLondon:The University of Chicago Press, 2014. Pp. xxix + 318. Hardcover, $55.00. ISBN 9780 -226-74832-0. BOOK REVIEWS 504 Hardship and Happiness represents the fourth of a planned eight volume series of Seneca’s complete works in translation edited by Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum. Earlier volumes include Natural Questions May 2010; Anger, Mercy, Revenge July2010; and On BenefitsApril 2011. This series brings together many preeminent anglophone scholars of Seneca aseditorsandtranslatorsandsucceedsinitsaimtoreachawideraudiencethrough readable, modern English translations and to provide guidance for students and scholars of various disciplines through the scholarly apparatus that accompanies each work. This apparatus offers useful contextual information to a novice reader ofSenecaandofRomanimperialhistorywithhistorical,literary,andphilosophical references. Some translations certainly benefit from the translator's expertise of thatparticularwork,asseenintheintroductionandnotes.Theminorcriticismsof this volume that follow fall more in the category of missed opportunities than of major technical or scholarly flaws. This volume contains translations to the majority of Seneca’s essays on ethical topics, or the Dialogi, in chronological order (Griffin 1976: 396-98)1 : Consolation toMarcia byHarryM. Hine, Consolation toHelvia by Gareth Williams, Consolation to Polybius by Harry M. Hine, On the Shortness of Life by Gareth Williams, On the constancy of the wise person by James Ker, On Tranquility of Mind byElaineFantham,OnleisurebyGarethWilliams,OntheHappyLifebyJamesKer, and On Providence by James Ker. Although the series does not include the Latin text, this volume updates the Loeb translation of John Basore from (1928, 1932, respectively) of the Moral Essays in a way that it could be usefully used alongside Reynolds’ OCT (or Williams 2003 text and commentary of De otio and De brevitate vitae) for scholars familiar with the Latin text. In general, the notes include references to the Latin text and variations,especiallywhen there isambiguityor difficulty in translation. As a possible textbook, this volume offers the most extensive collection of Seneca’s dialogues in English. Other modern English translations of Seneca's dialogues, John Davie with Oxford Classics (2007), C.D.N. Costa with Penguin (1997), and John M. Cooper and J. F. Procopé with Cambridge Texts (1995), include only select essays and excerpts. Cooper and Procopé’s collection only overlaps with this volume in its inclusion of De otio, but it is perhaps the most 1 Miriam Griffin. 1976. Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics. Cambridge BOOK REVIEWS 505 similar in that its introductions and notes aim to satisfy a scholarly readership...

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What is the best version of Seneca on the shortness of life?

We recommend Penguin's On the Shortness of Life edition translated by C.D.N Costa which includes two other great short pieces of writing from Seneca. It is a beautifully designed edition and fits perfectly in your back pocket. You can also read the essay for free online here, a translation by John W. Basore.

How long is Seneca on the shortness of life?

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What is Seneca's advice?

Seneca Quotes “Let all your activity be directed to some object, let it have some end in view.” “Often a very old man has no other proof of his long life than his age.” “We say that nothing happens to the wise man against his expectation.”