The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.25 (565 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0199926646 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2018-01-14 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
But she is a persuasive extoller of his writing and the final chapter about his diverse legacy is breathtaking." --The Spectator"the most famous and poignant example of a philosopher trying and spectacularly failing to improve a ruler, is that of the Roman Stoic Seneca, whose life is wonderfully retold here by the classicist Emily Wilson." --The Sunday Times. "Wilson offers a carefully balanced narrative of Seneca's life that is derived, as it must be, from partial and often contradictory sources" --Christian Century"This is a riveting and complete picture of Seneca's complex and compromised life. B
Penetrating insight; slightly sloppy execution This is a really fascinating, well-done biography. Wilson treats the historical sources fairly, but focuses heavily on Seneca's own writings and the insight they offer into his psychology. In many parts, it reads more like literary analysis than history, but I don't think this is a bad thing: she does a great job highlighting the complexity and contradictions in his famously compartmentalized character.Four stars only because I . "This book is terrific, awesome" according to F. Bailey Norwood. This book is terrific, awesome, a masterpiece. Masterly written. It is a great addition to the standard books about Seneca's life, like the book Dying Every Day, because it goes way beyond just describing Seneca and his political adventures, but provides a lot of the details about philosophy, ancient history, and Seneca's family that is necessary to really understand the man (to the extent that he can be understood!). The book t. Wilson's work here does a good job of introducing Seneca and his times Emily Wilson gives a strong and smartly terse look at the life of Seneca, one of the most respected voices to come out of the Julio-Claudian era of the Roman empire.Wilson's work here does a good job of introducing Seneca and his times. Though biographies can often settle too much on a general sense of what that period was like, Wilson quickly cuts to Seneca pure and simple. While never excluding the broader view of the society
His writings are voluminous and diverse, ranging from satire to disturbing, violent tragedies, from metaphysical theory to moral and political discussions of virtue and anger. Seneca was suspected of plotting against Nero, condemned to die, and ultimately took his own life-an act that is one of the most iconic suicides in Western history.The life and works of Seneca pose a number of fascinating challenges. By any measure, Seneca (?4-65AD) is one of the most significant figures in both Roman literature and ancient philosophy. Seneca found himself at the turbulent center of Roman imperial power, making him thus an important witness to the Empire's first dynasty, the Julio-Claudians. Exiled by the emperor Claudius in the wake of a sex scandal, he was eventually brought back to Rome to become tutor and, later, speech-writer and advisor to Nero. How can we reconcile the bloody tragedies with the prose works advocating a life of Stoic tranquility? How are we to balance Seneca the man of principle, who counseled a life of calm and simplicity, with Seneca the man of the moment, who amassed a vast personal fortune in the service of an emperor seen by many, at the time and afterwards, as an insane tyrant? In this
Emily Wilson is Associate Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.