OF L. ANNAEUS SENECA

ON PROVIDENCE,

WHY MISFORTUNES HAPPEN TO GOOD MEN, THOUGH PROVIDENCE EXISTS,

ONE BOOK.

1

Cap. I. You have asked me, Lucilius ^1, why it is ^2 that, if the world were governed by Providence ^3, many misfortunes happen to good men.

1. Arg. He warns that he will not bring forth and examine everything that can be said about the providence of the gods, but [only] what may suffice for reconciling Lucilius with the gods who are the most loving of good men.

1. Lucilius. See what we have briefly written above in the Argument and toward the end.

2. Why it is (quid ita). Do not believe that the expression there is the same as adeo, so, so often, or other things of that kind. For something must be supplied, e.g., as we see, as no one is ignorant that it happens: which is nearly how it is among our people, if a conversation arises about those things concerning which there cannot exist even the slightest doubt, pro ainsi que nous le voyons, ainsi qu'il arrive, it is written more briefly as ainsi.

3. If Providence. Christian sciolists had interpolated divine here, so that in certain copies it read if divine providence, which also flowed into the inscription of the work itself; which, as Pincianus warned, and with the ancient text also dissenting, recent editors have omitted, elegantly and truly; for both the Greeks said Providence (Πρόνοιαν) and the Roman Stoics said Providence (Providentiam), with additions implied, as Cicero testifies, who [wrote] in De Natura Deorum, lib. II, cap. 72: "Just as if one were to say that the republic of the Athenians is governed by counsel, that [word] of the Areopagus is missing; so when we say the world is administered by Providence, I believe of the gods is missing." But consider that it is said fully and perfectly thus: The world is administered by the Providence of the gods. Since, however, we have just spoken a word about the title, let us warn that neither that On Providence, nor that On Divine Providence, is from the hand of Annaeus, but rather the Why do many evils happen to good men, etc., which Muretus testifies is written with the same letters in the best Sicilian book.