"Did he feel his mind and morals were mildewed by the miasma of Nero's, and Rome's, mania?"
— Hughes, Bettany (b. 1967)
Author
Work Title
Date
July 11, 2014
Metaphor
"Did he feel his mind and morals were mildewed by the miasma of Nero's, and Rome's, mania?"
Metaphor in Context
Seneca, we must remember, lived through the horrors as well as the glories of antiquity, when bullies and psychopaths held both the living of your life and the manner of your dying in their hands. Whereas Socrates had only once been crucially involved in the political apparatus of fifth-century--B.C. Athens, Seneca was there at Rome's dark heart. So did he detest himself toward the end of his life? Did he feel his mind and morals were mildewed by the miasma of Nero's, and Rome's, mania? He certainly favored a Stoical solution. In his "De Ira" Seneca writes: "You ask what is the path to freedom? Any vein in your body."
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Hughes, Bettany, "School for a Scoundrel," The New York Times (July 11, 2014). [Review of Dying Every Day, by James Romm.] <Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
07/16/2014
