De brevitate vitae

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De brevitate vitae (Latin for the brevity of life ) is a work from the dialogues of the Roman philosopher and statesman Seneca , which deals with the correct use of life.

background

The tenth book from Seneca's Dialogi is entitled De brevitate vitae . Seneca wrote it around 49 AD. The text shows that the Aventine is still outside the Pomerium . Emperor Claudius included the Aventine in the city district in 49 AD. Since Seneca had already returned from exile when the work was being written, and this happened in the first months of AD 49, he wrote the book between these two events. Seneca addressed the text to his friend Paulinus, a high official in the Empire, whose office as praefectus annonae included the grain supply of Rome. It is believed that Paulinus was either the father or the brother of Seneca's second wife, Paulina.

Time is running out

content

The book has 20 chapters.

  • 1-3
Many people complain about the brevity of life, even a philosopher like Aristotle . One false lawsuit, life is long enough if used. People waste their lifetimes because of greed, ambition, envy, lust and impermanence. This applies not only to people with a bad reputation, but also to famous and honored people. They give their time to others, their lives do not belong to them, but they carefully guard their property. Even from an old age they are of little use and die unprepared.
  • 4-6
Many forget that every day can be the last, the finiteness of life and the uncertainty of its duration. They live as if they were immortal, and move on to the uncertain future of living for themselves. Mighty and successful people like Augustus , Cicero and Livius Drusus wanted, if it were possible without danger, to exchange their position for leisure. Outwardly they seem happy, but they always threaten chance and danger. They complain about their lives; this does not change them or others, they always stick to their passions. Those devoted to alcohol, food and lust squander the fleeing time. This also applies to those loaded with shops.
  • 7-9
Philosophy alone teaches us to live and die properly. For many, their hard-won successes become burdensome as soon as they have achieved them. They wish different things for the future and are disgusted with the present. If you use every day as if it were life, you don't fear or long for the future. Since time is something immaterial, it doesn't seem to cost people anything, they don't count on it. They are getting closer and closer to death for which they must have time; if death threatens imminently, they first recognize the value of time and beg for a delay. You lose a lot of life if you plan and postpone with the indefinite future.
  • 10-15
    Nobody escapes death
Life is divided into the fleeting present, the unchangeable past and the uncertain future. The busy people have no time to remember the past, and if they did, their past would be unpleasant for them. They are wasting the present. A life without business, spent collecting objects, contemplating competitions, personal hygiene, games, sports, insignificant art, senseless research, accumulating useless knowledge, orgies or being dull, is no leisure. Only those who devote themselves to wisdom can enjoy this. Everything that was excellent and good from the past is always available to him. One can deal with all sages of the past by studying their teachings and lives, and in this way attain immortality, as wisdom never dies.
  • 16.17
The busy people sometimes want to die because they are bored with the uneventful time between their occupations and pleasures. They fearfully enjoy their superficial pleasures because their duration is uncertain.
  • 18-20
Paulinus should withdraw into private life. Do not lapse into idle idleness, but rather concern yourself with philosophy, which is more worthy for a gifted mind like him than the management of the grain stores. The busy lose their lives in unsatisfactory jobs. Because they had lived little, these were to be buried at night (in Rome the corpses of children were buried in this way).

interpretation

According to Seneca, life is not short, bad use makes it. The busy people lose their lives in pursuit of the satisfaction of sensual desires or in greed and ambition. The indolent anticipates death in his inaction. Those who philosophize at leisure live. That real life, whatever its length of time, is long enough.

To prove this, Seneca cites many examples from his time in strong language of how people waste their lives, for which the decline of morals offered ample material. He contrasts this with the fulfilled life of the wise as worth striving for.

Even his contemporaries saw Seneca's life and teaching as contradicting one another. In the first years of Nero's reign (54–62 AD), Seneca, as one of the richest and most powerful men, led the politics of the Roman Empire together with Sextus Afranius Burrus . No leisure, but busy life in extreme prosperity. Seneca's circumstances led Theodor Mommsen to comment: "He preached himself above all". Seneca repeatedly comments on this contradiction in his writings, he sees himself as someone who strives for wisdom and is distant from this goal. “What we have left to do is more than what we have already done; but it is a great step forward to have the will to progress. I can boast of this consciousness: I want and want with all my soul. ”“ Anyone who [I say] undertakes to act like this, is determined and tries to do so, makes his way to the gods, and truly, even if he does not remains on it, but glorious venture fails him . ”The divergence between teaching and life of Seneca does not change the accuracy of his warnings. It just proves how hard it is good to live.

See also

Remarks

  1. ^ Otto Rossbach , Annaeus 17: L. Annaeus Seneca , Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswwissenschaft, Vol. I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2246
  2. ^ Josef Feix, L. Annaeus Seneca, De brevitate vitae, Stuttgart 1977, pp. 74f
  3. ^ Otto Hirschfeld , The Grain Administration of the Roman Empire, Philologus XXIX 1870, p. 95; John W. Basore, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, On the Shortness of Life, London 1932, footnote 1
  4. ↑ Otto Apelt , Seneca, Philosophische Schriften, Second Volume, Hamburg 1993, p. 111.
  5. ↑ Lucius Annäus Seneca, of the brevity of life, translated by J. Moser, Stuttgart 1829, p. 595, footnote p. 551 - 595 (pdf: p. 11 - 55) p. 551 - 595 (pdf: p. 5 - 49)
  6. ^ Ernst Günther Schmidt , Seneca. 2., Der Kleine Pauly, Volume 5, Munich 1979, Sp. 111
  7. ↑ Otto Rossbach, Annaeus 17, Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Antiquity Science, Vol. I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2242; Ernst Günther Schmidt, Seneca. 2., Der Kleine Pauly, Volume 5, Munich 1979, Sp. 111
  8. ↑ Theodor Mommsen : Roman History, Eighth Book, Chapter 12. Egypt in the Gutenberg-DE project
  9. ↑ Seneca, Philosophische Schriften, Vol. III, Letters to Lucilius 71, translated by Otto Apelt, Hamburg 1993, p. 283
  10. ↑ Seneca: Selected Writings, From the blissful life XXI. (1.), translated by Albert Forbiger , Stuttgart 1867

literature

expenditure

  • L. Annaeus Seneca: De brevitate vitae: Latin / German, From the brevity of life . Translated and edited by Marion Giebel. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-018545-2 .
  • Seneca: On the brevity of life . From the Latin by Otto Apelt . With an afterword by Christoph Horn . Munich 2005, ISBN 3-423-34251-X .
  • L. Annaeus Seneca: De brevitate vitae, On the brevity of life, Latin / German . Translated and edited by Josef Feix. Stuttgart 1977.
  • Lucius Annäus Seneca: On the brevity of life . Translated by J. Moser. Stuttgart 1829. Online version pp. 551-595 (pdf: pp. 11-55) , pp. 551-595 (pdf: pp. 5-49) .

Secondary literature

Web links

Wikisource: de brevitate vitae  - Sources and full texts (Latin)