Dying slowly, but well. Seneca, Epistles 4.30.1-4
Seneca
discusses the death of Aufidius Bassus, which exemplifies for him the
best Stoic approach to mortal senility (death by creeping old age, as
opposed to sudden accident).
Bassum
Aufidium, virum optimum, vidi quassum, aetati obluctantem. Sed iam
plus illum degravat quam quod possit attolli; magno senectus et
universo pondere incubuit. Scis illum semper infirmi corporis et
exsucti fuisse; diu illud continuit et, ut verius dicam, concinnavit:
subito defecit. Quemadmodum in nave quae sentinam trahit uni rimae
aut alteri obsistitur, ubi plurimis locis laxari coepit et cedere,
succurri non potest navigio dehiscenti, ita in senili corpore
aliquatenus imbecillitas sustineri et fulciri potest. Ubi tamquam in
putri aedificio omnis iunctura diducitur, et dum alia excipitur, alia
discinditur, circumspiciendum est quomodo exeas. Bassus tamen noster
alacer animo est: hoc philosophia praestat, in conspectu mortis
hilarem et in quocumque corporis habitu fortem laetumque nec
deficientem quamvis deficiatur. Magnus gubernator et scisso navigat
velo et, si exarmavit, tamen reliquias navigii aptat ad cursum. Hoc
facit Bassus noster et eo animo vultuque finem suum spectat quo
alienum spectare nimis securi putares.
Magna
res est, Lucili, haec et diu discenda, cum adventat hora illa
inevitabilis, aequo animo abire. Alia genera mortis spei mixta sunt:
desinit morbus, incendium exstinguitur, ruina quos videbatur
oppressura deposuit; mare quos hauserat eadem vi qua sorbebat eiecit
incolumes; gladium miles ab ipsa perituri cervice re vocavit: nil
habet quod speret quem senectus ducit ad mortem; huic uni intercedi
non potest. Nullo genere homines mollius moriuntur sed nec diutius.
I
saw Bassus Aufidius (†) once, that great man, when he was worn and
shaken, struggling with old age. Already the weight of many years was
more than he could bear, and it bent him over. Of course you remember
that he was always weak, his body shrunken and dry. Nevertheless, he
kept those withered bones together a long time—put them in proper
order, so to speak. His demise, when it came, was swift. For the old
body resembles a ship that has taken on water: her hull cracks here
and there, and many planks begin to loosen and give way, until there
is no hope of keeping the vessel from going to pieces. Like that
ship, the ancient body can keep its weakness drifting along some
time, propped against the waves of life that beat it down. When at
last every joint is failing, and parts of the vessel begin to
separate and fall apart, then you must consider how to jump ship. Our
Bassus kept a cheerful mind, all the same. He was an outstanding
philosopher, showing by example what it means to be cheerful in the
face of death, to remain steadfast and happy regardless of one's
bodily state, to avoid failure even as you fall apart. A great pilot
can rule his vessel even with a torn sail, and after that too is
taken from him, still he guides the remnants of his ruined ship along
their last course. Bassus did this, putting such a bold face on his
end, watching it with such a firm mind, that you would think he was
looking at a doom much less certain than his own.
This
is a great feat, Lucilius: to succeed in departing life with a calm
mind even when our inevitable final hour refuses to strike swiftly.
Other forms of death come mixed with hope. Diseases go into
remission. Fires find themselves extinguished. A sudden fall spares
those it threatens to undo. The whirling sea occasionally spits up
safe the unfortunate sailors it just swallowed. A soldier decides at
the last minute to remove his blade from the neck of a victim about
to perish. But the man brought to death by old age has nothing to
hope for. To him alone there is given no chance of being spared. No
other form of death is softer than his, or more agonizingly drawn
out.
---
(†)
A Roman historian from the reign of Tiberius whose account of the
Republican civil wars was continued to the reign of Nero by Pliny the
Elder (Naturalis Historia,
praefatio §20). Seneca's father, Seneca the Elder, quotes his account of Cicero's death (Suasoriae 6).
He also wrote a history of Germany, like the later historian Tacitus
(Quintilian, Institutio 10.1.103).