he was a very famous writer in his own time so famous that there is a line from one of senica's plays inomed in graffiti on a wall at Pompei so he wasn't this obscure unknown philosopher in fact he was known not just as Rome's greatest playright but he was Rome's most powerful political broker he'd had this long storyed complicated career at the top of Roman politics senica like all the great stoics was not a pen and ink guy he was a thinker but he is also a doer and he can teach us a lot his
interesting life can teach us a lot one of senica's famous essays is on the shortness of life and he says look life isn't too short it's that we waste a lot of it and he said even people who live a long time their big problem is that all they have to show for it is a number of years senica was in the room where it happened he was in the arena he wasn't always perfect some people thought he was a massive hypocrite but what you can't argue is that senica was wasn't involved in the Great
Moments of his time it's also interesting that think senica is born in a province of the Roman Empire he becomes a wildly popular philosopher in his own time and then is put to death at the hands of the Roman State this should be springing to mind to you the life of another famous philosopher who was born the exact same year as senica I'm talking here about Jesus and they both die tragically heroically magnificently you might say so senica has a lot to teach us first off about the shortness of life but he also writes a
series of letters that's senica's letters and he writes a series of essays he writes a fantastic essay on anger he writes a fascinating essay on tranquility and he writes a number of consolations these these notes to people who are grieving about how to work themselves through their grief my favorite essay from senica is his one about Tranquility he has this word that I think about all the time senica said the Greek word for the kind of Tranquility he's after is this word emia and he said emia is a sense of the path that you're on
in life and he said the ability the strength the confidence the self-awareness to not be distracted by the paths that Chris Cross yours he said especially from those who are hopelessly lost all we take from senica is this sense of emia a sense of why we're here what we're supposed to be doing what's important what's in our control I mean that is a massive philosophical contribution and a massive breakthrough I think about this as a writer I'm writing my books I'm in the Ryan holiday industry right what other people are doing the success they're having
the things they're saying about me the trends of the moment right none of this pertains to me none of it should change what I need to wake up and do today and this is true not just professionally but personally it's when we're keeping up with the Joneses it's when we're comparing ourselves to other people this is when we steal Joy from ourselves this is when we take our Eye Off the [Music] Ball I think what struck me so much about senica when I read him this is the first book I read senica's letters you have
a friend talking to to a friend and he defines philosophy so accessibly he says like how do I know I'm making progress as a philosopher he said I know it because I'm becoming a better friend to myself so if you think of stoicism as this Stern philosophy this philosophy that sucks the joy out of it that's hard that whips yourself that that is constantly taking stuff from you're missing it senica of all the stoics strikes me as the happiest he's the most epicurian I would think in fact that's something else we can take from senica
how liberally he quotes epicurus his ostensible rival senica say said I'll quote a bad author if the line is good he says I want to read like a spy in the enemy's Camp senica loved life he loved ideas he loved thinking he loved helping people he he would write to his friend lucilius he said look let's have this exchange I'll send you something every day you send me something every day let's try to find something every single day that makes us a little bit stronger a little bit wiser that fortifies us against death or adversity
says that's the path to wisdom and and that's kind of what I built the daily stoic around that's how I built my own philosophical practice I don't need magical enormous epiphanies I don't need to do these huge deep Dives of course I can also have those things if I can find one thing a day that's awesome and senica reminds us that we should Linger on the works of these Master thinkers go over them over and over and over again so my copy of senica is well read my copy of Marcus aelius is well read you
got to digest these works let them wash over you come to them time and time again Sonica reminds us that there are tempt ations out there and he he is I think corrupted by being in Nero's service he falls short of his ideals he's an embodiment of that up Sinclair line about it's hard to get someone to understand something that their salary depends on them not understanding other stoics who were more removed from neros service saw more clearly what a threat he was saw the corruptive power of itep epicus being one thasia being another senica
flattered himself he told himself he was making a positive difference that he was the adult in the room you know senica shows us how we can fall short of our ideal but he talks about this too it's good to have ideals it's good to fall short of them he said it's certainly better than the alternative of not aspiring not having high standards so senica the life teaches us something and senica the writer teaches us even more if you haven't availed yourself of senica you absolutely must this is just a very surface level uh hopefully tease
and you'll Deep dive into on the shortness of Life you'll read all of his letters this is just a short collection of them his many many essays and his consolations one of the greatest thinkers to ever and he's someone you need to be familiar with if you want more wisdom inspired from the stoics I send out one stoic themed email every single morning totally for free you can sign up at Daily stoic.com slail no spam you can unsubscribe at any time I think it's the best thing that I do and it's a community of hundreds
of thousands of stoics all over the world we'd love to have you at Daily stoic.com slil [Music]
