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09/26/08(Fri)01:59 No.1324521>>1324506 Seneca
was a Roman philosopher of the first century AD, he's usually brought
up as the example of what is the best way to behave when in the moral
quandry of having to serve a bad boss/leader, in this case that
'leader' was the Emperor Nero. An example for the ages of
self-indulgence gone to extremes. Seneca served Nero well (during the
first four years of his reign he was generally considered to be a good
Emperor), until he lost favour and retired to the country. He was
eventually implicated in a plot against Nero and forced to commit
suicide together with his wife. He was one of the most foremost stoic
philosophers.
>Seneca, quite unmoved,
asked for tablets on which to inscribe his will, and, on the
centurion's refusal, turned to his friends, protesting that as he was
forbidden to requite them, he bequeathed to them the only, but still
the noblest possession yet remaining to him, the pattern of his life,
which, if they remembered, they would win a name for moral worth and
steadfast friendship. At the same time he called them back from their
tears to manly resolution, now with friendly talk, and now with the
sterner language of rebuke. "Where," he asked again and again, "are
your maxims of philosophy, or the preparation of so many years' study
against evils to come? Who knew not Nero's cruelty? After a mother's
and a brother's murder, nothing remains but to add the destruction of a
guardian and a tutor."
Now that's a real man. |