Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
Seneca: His Character <strong>and</strong> Environment<br />
than many pages <strong>of</strong> theory. A prefect <strong>of</strong> the city,<br />
Pedanius Secundus by name, was murdered by one<br />
<strong>of</strong> his slaves <strong>and</strong> the criminal could not be appre<br />
hended. According to law, all the bondmen <strong>of</strong> the<br />
murdered man, four hundred in<br />
put to death. The populace,<br />
number, were to be<br />
to their honor be it<br />
said, more humane than the senators, raised a tumult<br />
<strong>of</strong> protest against the execution <strong>of</strong> the sentence.<br />
Their sympathy availed nothing; the unhappy vic<br />
tims were led away to die. One <strong>of</strong> the senators even<br />
proposed a decree that all the freedmen belonging to<br />
the household <strong>of</strong> the late prefect should be trans<br />
ported beyond the confines <strong>of</strong> Italy. But the em<br />
peror, <strong>and</strong> that emperor was Xero, more humane than<br />
the optimates, alleged that the laws were already<br />
severe enough, <strong>and</strong> that it would be cruel to add to<br />
their severity by fresh enactments. The decree <strong>of</strong><br />
Yet Tacitus, from whom<br />
expulsion was not passed.<br />
this narrative is taken, a writer who never tires <strong>of</strong><br />
lamenting the degeneracy <strong>of</strong> his age, has not a word<br />
<strong>of</strong> compassion for the unfortunate sufferers, nor a<br />
syllable <strong>of</strong> condemnation for an atrocious law.<br />
Still it must be said that some <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Roman phi<br />
losophers, especially Cicero <strong>and</strong> Seneca, lay stress in<br />
their writings, upon the universal brotherhood <strong>of</strong><br />
about the intrinsic<br />
man. They have much to say<br />
worth <strong>of</strong> the human soul. While these ideas are<br />
largely borrowed from the Greeks, or at least sug<br />
gested by Greek philosophers, the Romans are singu<br />
larly eloquent in proclaiming them. But slavery is<br />
57