Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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" " Seneca: His Character and Environment had no public duty to perform, and wanted to have a good time"? There is abundant evidence within our reach to enable us to answer this question. He plunged headlong that into debaucheries so shameful the modern pen shrinks from describing them, and the mind from contemplating them. Fortunes were sometimes spent on a single banquet. The Roman baths ministered equally to luxury and li centiousness. In short, it seems as if all the in genuity of the empire had at times been exerted to the utmost to devise new methods of sensual grati fication. But he could not indulge incessantly in baccha nalian orgies; the jaded body needed some relaxative that could be found neither in sleep nor in such business that could not be delegated to a subordinate. There he regaled himself with the sight of blood- The huge structures erected for the gladiatorial com bats testify to the Roman passion for these cruel sports. Every living creature that could be induced to fight was exhibited in the arena where men and women took equal delight in the bloody spectacle. Lecky, in his History of European Morals, sets forth in graphic colors the pomp and circumstance with which these horrible exhibitions were given. I cannot do better than to transcribe his words: The gladiatorial games form, indeed, the one feature of Roman society which to a modern mind is almost in conceivable in its atrocity. That not only men, but women, in an advanced period of civilization men 42
" The Seneca: His Character and Environment and women who not only professed, but very fre quently acted upon, a high code of morals should have made the carnage of men their habitual amuse ment; that all this should have continued for cen turies, with scarcely a protest, is one of the most startling facts in moral history. It is, however, per fectly normal, and in no degree inconsistent with the doctrine of natural moral perceptions, while it opens out fields of ethical enquiry of a very deep, though painful interest." mere desire for novelty impelled the people to every excess or refinement of barbarity. The sim ple combat became at last insipid, and every variety of atrocity was devised to stimulate the flagging in terest. At one time a bear and a bull, chained to gether, rolled in fierce contest along the sand; at other, criminals dressed in the skins of wild beasts, were thrown to bulls, which were maddened by redhot irons, or by darts tipped with burning pitch. Four hundred bears were killed in a single day under Caligula; three hundred on another day under Clau dius. Under Nero, four hundred tigers fought with bulls and elephants; four hundred bears and three hundred lions were slaughtered by his soldiers. In a single day, at the dedication of the Colosseum by Titus, five thousand animals perished. Under Trajan, the games continued for one hundred and twenty* three successive days. Lions, tigers, elephants, rhi noceroses, hippopotami, giraffes, bulls, stags, even crocodiles and serpents, were employed to give novelty an
Page 2: THEQL STACK
Page 7 and 8: Between Heathenism and Christianity
Page 9 and 10: " PREFACE. It is admitted by s
Page 11 and 12: Preface In the following pages I ha
Page 13 and 14: CONTENTS, ....... PAGE. PBEFAOE ...
Page 15 and 16: SENECA: HIS CHARACTER AND ENVIRONME
Page 17 and 18: " " Seneca: His Character
Page 19 and 20: Seneca: His Character and Environme
Page 29 and 30: " No Seneca: His Character and
Page 33 and 34: " Seneca: His Character and En
Page 45: Seneca: His Character and Environme
Page 67 and 68: SELECTIONS FROM THE WRITINGS OF SEN
Page 69 and 70: Selections from the Writings of Sen
Page 83 and 84: De Providentia untouched, I shall u
Page 85 and 86: " Why De Providentia gence and
Page 87 and 88: De Providentia may gain real streng
Page 89 and 90: De Providentia enough for the immor
Page 91 and 92: De Providentia down his arms forthw
Page 93 and 94: De Providentia well-known exemplar
Page 95 and 96: De Providentia prove by these thing
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De Provldenda to thee when thou wer
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<J5 De Providentia ingly the
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De Providentia V. Add, now, that it
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De Providentia nor am I God s slave
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" " Good De Providentia I
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" " count what others lon
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" For De Providentia found in
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De Providentia "The first whic
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Plutarch and the Greece of His Age
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" Plutarch and the Greece of H
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eformer. Plutarch and the Greece of
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" " The Delay of the Deit
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" To The Delay of the Deity wi
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The Delay of the Deity vices, He ad
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The Delay of the Deity nature, to h
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The Delay of the Deity may turn to
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" " " The Delay of t
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The Delay of the Deity Sikyonians a
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" We The Delay of the Deity ag
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The Delay of the Deity are allowed
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The Delay of the Deity 11. If then
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The Delay of the Deity wished might
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The Delay of the Deity to what is p
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The Delay of the Deity son from his
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" You " Do " "
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The Delay of the Deity conjured up
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Pindar says? 197 The Delay of the D
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The Delay of the Deity to be a vill
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The Delay of the Deity distances fr
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The Delay of the Deity the souls of
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The Delay of the Deity cation and p
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The Delay of the Deity the white. H
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The Delay of the Deity offer suppli
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The Delay of the Deityfalling into
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The Delay of the Deity is intrinsic
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Appendix VOLUME III. De E apud Delp
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Appendix cited by their Latin title
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Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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