Seneca's Moral Epistles Vol. 3 (Letters 93-124)

See page 20, section 11: The text continues the comparison of life to the annals of Tanusius.

12 This is the life of certain persons, and that is what follows the annals of Tanusius. Do you judge him more fortunate who is killed on the last day of the games than one who is killed in the middle? Do you think anyone is so foolishly covetous of life that he would rather have his throat cut in the dressing-room than in the arena? We precede one another by no greater space of time. Death goes through everyone; he who kills follows the slain. It is a minimal thing that is discussed so solicitously. And what does it matter for how long you avoid that which you cannot avoid? Farewell.

XCIV.

Seneca to his Lucilius, Greetings

1 Some have accepted that part of philosophy which gives precepts proper to each person, and does not compose man in the universal, but persuades a husband how to conduct himself towards his wife, a father how to educate his children, a master how to rule his slaves; they have left the rest as if wandering outside our utility, as if someone could give advice about a part if he has not first grasped the sum of the whole life.

2 But Aristo the Stoic, on the contrary, thinks this part is light, and that it does not descend into the heart.