- Source
- Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Ad Lucilium Epistulae Morales, Vol 1-3. Gummere, Richard Mott, editor. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1917-1925.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi1017.phi015.humanitext-lat2:14.1-14.9
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-02
Seneca argues that we should care for the body without becoming its slave, and advises that to protect oneself from the dangers of political power, one must act prudently like a cautious pilot, avoiding attention and avoiding direct confrontation.
Fateor insitam esse nobis corporis nostri caritatem; fateor nos huius gerere tutelam. Non nego indulgendum illi; serviendum nego. Multis enim serviet, qui corpori servit, qui pro illo nimium timet, qui ad illud omnia refert.
I admit that a love of our own body is implanted in us; I admit that we must keep guard over it. I do not deny that we should indulge it; I deny that we should be slaved to it. For he will serve many masters who serves his body, who fears too much for it, who refers everything to it.
Sic gerere nos debemus, non tamquam propter corpus vivere debeamus, sed tamquam non possimus sine corpore. Huius nos nimius amor timoribus inquietat, sollicitudinibus onerat, contumeliis obicit. Honestum ei vile est, cui corpus nimis carum est. Agatur eius diligentissime cura, ita tamen, ut cum exiget ratio, cum dignitas, cum fides, mittendum in ignes sit.1
We ought to conduct ourselves not as if we ought to live for the sake of the body, but as if we could not live without the body. Over-love of this body disquiets us with fears, burdens us with anxieties, and exposes us to insults. Virtue is cheap to him to whom the body is too dear. Let its care be conducted most diligently, yet in such a way that, when reason, dignity, and loyalty demand, it must be cast into the flames.
Nihilominus, quantum possumus, evitemus incommoda quoque, non tantum pericula, et in tutum nos reducamus excogitantes subinde, quibus possint timenda depelli. Quorum tria, nisi fallor, genera sunt: timetur inopia, timentur morbi, timentur quae per vim potentioris eveniunt.
Nevertheless, as far as we can, let us also avoid inconveniences, not only dangers, and bring ourselves back into safety, constantly thinking how feared things can be driven away. Of these, if I am not mistaken, there are three kinds: poverty is feared, diseases are feared, and those things which happen through the violence of a more powerful person are feared.
Ex his omnibus nihil nos magis concutit, quam quod ex aliena potentia inpendet. Magno enim strepitu et tumultu venit. Naturalia mala quae rettuli, inopia atque morbus, silentio subeunt nec oculis nec auribus quicquam terroris incutiunt. Ingens alterius mali pompa est. Ferrum circa se et ignes habet et catenas et turbam ferarum, quam in viscera inmittat humana.
Of all these, nothing shakes us more than what impends from another’s power. For it comes with a great noise and tumult. The natural evils which I mentioned, poverty and disease, steal upon us in silence and strike no terror into either eyes or ears. The display of the other evil is immense. It has around itself iron and fires and chains and a pack of wild beasts to be let loose into human entrails.
Cogita hoc loco carcerem et cruces et eculeos et uncum et adactum per medium hominem, qui per os emergeret, stipitem et distracta in diversum actis curribus membra, illam tunicam alimentis ignium et inlitam et textam, et quicquid aliud praeter haec commenta saevitia est.
Picture to yourself in this place the prison, the crosses, the racks, the hook, and the stake driven through the middle of a man so that it emerged from his mouth, and the limbs torn apart by chariots driven in opposite directions, and that tunic smeared and woven with fuel for fires, and whatever else cruelty has devised besides these.
Non est itaque mirum, si maximus huius rei timor est, cuius et varietas magna et apparatus terribilis est. Nam quemadmodum plus agit tortor, quo plura instrumenta doloris exposuit (specie enim vincuntur qui patientia restitissent);2 ita ex iis, quae animos nostros subigunt et domant, plus proficiunt, quae habent quod ostendant. Illae pestes non minus graves sunt, famem dico et sitim et praecordiorum subpurationes et febrem viscera ipsa torrentem. Sed latent, nihil habent quod intentent, quod praeferant; haec ut magna bella aspectu apparatuque vicerunt.
It is therefore no wonder if the greatest fear is of this thing, of which both the variety is great and the apparatus is terrible. For just as the torturer accomplishes more the more instruments of pain he has displayed (for by the appearance those are overcome who would have resisted with endurance); so of those things which subdue and tame our minds, those which have something to show accomplish more. Those plagues are no less grave—I mean hunger and thirst and suppurations of the viscera and fever burning the very entrails. But they are hidden, they have nothing to threaten, nothing to display; these, like great wars, have conquered by their appearance and preparation.
Demus itaque operam, abstineamus offensis. Interdum populus est, quem timere debeamus; interdum si ea civitatis disciplina est, ut plurima per senatum transigantur, gratiosi in eo viri; interdum singuli, quibus potestas populi et in populum data est. Hos omnes amicos habere operosum est, satis est inimicos non habere. Itaque sapiens numquam potentium iras provocabit, immo declinabit, non aliter quam in navigando procellam.
Therefore, let us take care to abstain from giving offense. Sometimes it is the people whom we ought to fear; sometimes, if such is the constitution of the State that most things are transacted through the senate, the influential men in it; sometimes individuals to whom the power of the people and over the people has been given. To have all these as friends is a laborious task; it is enough not to have them as enemies. Therefore, the wise man will never provoke the anger of the powerful; rather, he will turn away from it, not otherwise than from a storm in navigation.
Cum peteres Siciliam, traiecisti fretum. Temerarius gubernator contempsit austri minas, ille est enim, qui Siculum pelagus exasperet et in vertices cogat; non sinistrum petit litus, sed id, a quo propior Charybdis maria convolvit.3 At ille cautior peritos locorum rogat, quis aestus sit, quae signa dent nubes; longe ab illa regione verticibus infami cursum tenet. Idem facit sapiens; nocituram potentiam vitat, hoc primum cavens, ne vitare videatur. Pars enim securitatis et in hoc est, non ex professo eam petere, quia, quae quis fugit, damnat.
When you were seeking Sicily, you crossed the strait. The reckless pilot despised the threats of the south wind—for it is that wind which roughens the Sicilian sea and forces it into whirlpools; he did not seek the left shore, but that side from which closer Charybdis convolves the seas. But that more cautious pilot asks those who know the places what the tide is, what signs the clouds give; he holds his course far from that region infamous for whirlpools. The wise man does the same; he avoids a power that will do harm, taking care first of this, that he does not seem to avoid it. For part of security lies also in this: not to seek it openly, because what a person flees, he condemns.
Circumspiciendum ergo nobis est, quomodo a vulgo tuti esse possimus. Primum nihil idem concupiscamus; rixa est inter competitores. Deinde nihil habeamus, quod cum magno emolumento insidiantis eripi possit. Quam minimum sit in corpore tuo spoliorum. Nemo ad humanum sanguinem propter ipsum venit, aut admodum pauci. Plures computant quam oderunt. Nudum latro transmittit; etiam in obsessa via pauperi pax est.
Therefore we must look around to see how we can be safe from the crowd. First, let us desire nothing of the same things; there is strife among competitors. Next, let us possess nothing that can be snatched away with great profit to an ambusher. Let there be as little spoil on your body as possible. No one comes for human blood for its own sake, or very few do. More people calculate than hate. A robber passes by a naked man; even on a beset road, there is peace for a poor man.
- 14.2ita tamen, ut cum exiget ratio, cum dignitas, cum fides, mittendum in ignes sit
Within the consecutive clause introduced by "ita tamen, ut..." (with the restrictive meaning "provided that..."), cum-clauses expressing condition are juxtaposed. The main clause of the ut-clause is an impersonal gerundive construction of obligation, "mittendum [nobis] in ignes sit" (it must be cast into the fires [by us]), where the dative of agent (nobis) is implied.
- 14.6restitissent
Pluperfect subjunctive. Used in the relative clause "qui... restitissent" to express a past counterfactual condition ("those who would have resisted with endurance [had they been put to the test]"). It contrasts with the main verb "vincuntur" (are overcome), describing how people's minds surrender at the mere sight of torture instruments before any physical pain is inflicted.
- 14.8id, a quo propior Charybdis maria convolvit
"id" is the antecedent referring back to "litus" (shore). "a quo" is an ablative of origin ("from which"). "propior" is a comparative adjective in the nominative feminine singular modifying "Charybdis," meaning "Charybdis, being closer" or adverbially "Charybdis closer by." It describes the reckless pilot's choice of the dangerous side where Charybdis was active, instead of the safe "left shore" (on the Italian side).