A good death. Seneca, Epistles 2.13.14-15
In
the end, we must all face death, the last fear. There is no avoiding
or solving it, for Seneca. The way beyond its power is through it.
Instead of encouraging avoidance, he admonishes us to face it.
Pudet
me ibi sic
(†)
tecum loqui et tam lenibus te remediis focilare. Alius dicat
fortasse non veniet: tu
dic
quid porro, si veniet? videbimus uter vincat; fortasse pro me venit,
et mors ista vitam honestabit. Cicuta
magnum Socratem fecit. Catoni gladium assertorem libertatis extorque:
magnam partem detraxeris gloriae.
Nimium diu te cohortor, cum tibi admonitione magis quam exhortatione
opus sit. Non in diversum te a natura tua ducimus: natus es ad ista
quae dicimus; eo magis bonum tuum auge et exorna.
I
am ashamed to speak with you about such serious problems
and offer only meager solutions. Another fellow might tell
you, "It is possible that the worst won't come." You tell
him, "But
what if it does?
We shall then see who conquers, death or myself. Perhaps my time has come,
and death shall put an honorable end to my life here and now."
Hemlock made Socrates great. Take
from Cato the sword that set him free, and you shall remove a great
part of his glory (‡).
I
am wasting your time with exhortation, when what we really need is
admonition. We are not leading you toward a fate out
of keeping
with
your nature: you were born to the
troubles we discuss. Whatever is good in your part of them, make it
greater, and more beautiful.
---
(†)
Capps replaces the MSS reading ibi
sic with
et
triste,
but I prefer to take the ibi
as
referring generally to fear and specifically to Lucilius' letter(s)
to Seneca, which presumably discuss fear and other matters.
(‡)
Socrates was convicted of impiety (ἀσέβεια)
and corrupting the youth in 399 BCE.
The Athenians condemned him to death, with the possibility of exile.
He chose death, and perished after drinking a lethal dose of hemlock.
Cato the Younger committed suicide in 46 BCE, after Julius Caesar
defeated his ally Metellus Scipio in the battle of Thapsus. Caesar
wanted to spare Cato and the other defeated republicans, but his
soldiers had no mercy on the troops of Scipio, and Cato had none for
himself.
Both he and Socrates were remembered in Seneca's time as examples of noble, honorable
death.