- 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-lat2:95.28-95.36
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-07
Seneca compares the chaos of luxurious eating with the growing complexity of medicine and the decay of social morals, arguing that philosophy must also become more robust. He asserts that while specific precepts are helpful, fundamental dogmas defining good and bad are essential to lead people to a virtuous and happy life.
Sciant protinus hi, qui iactationem ex istis peti et gloriam aiebant, non ostendi ista, sed conscientiae dari.1 Pariter sint, quae disponi solent, uno iure perfusa. Nihil intersit: ostrea, echini, spondyli, mulli perturbati concoctique ponantur." Non esset confusior vomentium cibus.
”Let those who used to say that boasting is sought from these things and glory, know straightway that these things are not being shown off, but are given to conscience. Let the things which are accustomed to be arranged be equally drenched in one sauce. Let there be no difference: let oysters, sea-urchins, scallops, mullets be served confused and boiled together.” The food of those who vomit would not be more confused.
Quomodo ista perplexa sunt, sic ex istis non singulares morbi nascuntur, sed inexplicabiles, diversi, multiformes, adversus quos et medicina armare se coepit multis generibus, multis observationibus. Idem tibi de philosophia dico. Fuit aliquando simplicior inter minora peccantes et levi quoque cura remediabiles; adversus tantam morum eversionem omnia conanda sunt. Et utinam sic denique lues ista vindicetur!
Just as these things are complex, so from them arise not single diseases, but inexplicable, diverse, multiform ones, against which medicine also has begun to arm itself with many kinds, many observations. I say the same to you about philosophy. It was once simpler among those who sinned less and were curable by light care too; against such a great overthrow of morals, everything must be attempted. And would that this plague might thus at last be vanquished!
Non privatim solum, sed publice furimus. Homicidia compescimus et singulas caedes; quid bella et occisarum gentium gloriosum scelus? Non avaritia, non crudelitas modum novit. Et ista quamdiu furtim et a singulis fiunt, minus noxia minusque monstruosa sunt; ex senatus consultis plebisque scitis saeva exercentur et publice iubentur vetata privatim.
We are mad not only privately but publicly. We restrain homicides and individual killings; what of wars and the glorious crime of slaughtered nations? Neither avarice nor cruelty knows any limit. And as long as these things are done secretly and by individuals, they are less harmful and less monstrous; cruelties are practiced by decrees of the senate and plebiscites, and what is forbidden privately is ordered publicly.
Quae clam commissa capite luerent,2 tum quia paludati fecere, laudamus. Non pudet homines, mitissimum genus, gaudere sanguine alterno et bella gerere gerendaque liberis tradere, cum inter se etiam mutis ac feris pax sit.
What they would pay for with their lives if committed secretly, we praise because men in military cloaks have done it. Are men, the gentlest race, not ashamed to rejoice in mutual blood and to wage wars and hand them down to be waged by their children, when even among mute and wild beasts there is peace?
Adversus tam potentem explicitumque late furorem operosior philosophia facta est et tantum sibi virium sumpsit, quantum iis, adversus quae parabatur, accesserat. Expeditum erat obiurgare indulgentes mero et petentes delicatiorem cibum; non erat animus ad frugalitatem magna vi reducendus, a qua paullum discesserat:
Against so powerful and widely deployed a madness, philosophy has become more laborious and has taken to itself as much strength as had been added to those evils against which it was prepared. It was easy to rebuke those indulging in unmixed wine and seeking more delicate food; the mind did not have to be brought back with great force to frugality, from which it had departed only a little.
Nunc manibus rapidis opus est, nunc arte magistra, voluptas ex omni quaeritur. Nullum intra se manet vitium; in avaritiam luxuria praeceps est. Honesti oblivio invasit. Nihil turpest, cuius placet pretium. Homo, sacra res homini, iam per lusum ac iocum occiditur et quem erudiri ad inferenda accipiendaque vulnera nefas erat, is iam nudus inermisque producitur satisque spectaculi ex homine mors est.
Now there is need of swift hands, now of a master art; pleasure is sought from everything. No vice remains within itself; luxury is headlong into avarice. Oblivion of the honorable has invaded. Nothing is base whose price pleases. Man, a sacred thing to man, is now killed for play and jest, and he whom it was an impiety to train to inflict and receive wounds, is now led forth naked and unarmed, and a man’s death is a sufficient spectacle.
In hac ergo morum perversitate desideratur solito vehementius aliquid, quod mala inveterata discutiat; decretis agendum est, ut revellatur penitus falsorum recepta persuasio. His si adiunxerimus praecepta, consolationes, adhortationes, poterunt valere; per se inefficaces sunt.
In this perversity of morals, therefore, there is needed something more vehement than usual to shatter deep-seated evils; we must act by decrees, so that the accepted conviction of false things may be torn out thoroughly. If to these we join precepts, consolations, exhortations, they will be able to be effective; by themselves they are useless.
Si volumus habere obligatos et malis, quibus iam tenentur, avellere, discant, quid malum, quid bonum sit. Sciant omnia praeter virtutem mutare nomen, modo mala fieri, modo bona. Quemadmodum primum militiae vinculum est religio et signorum amor et deserendi nefas, tunc deinde facile cetera exiguntur mandanturque iusiurandum adactis,3 ita in iis, quos velis ad beatam vitam perducere: prima fundamenta iacienda sunt et insinuanda virtus. Huius quadam superstitione teneantur; hanc ament; cum hac vivere velint, sine hac nolint.
If we wish to hold them bound and tear them away from the evils by which they are already held, let them learn what is bad, what is good. Let them know that all things except virtue change their name, becoming now bad, now good. Just as the first bond of military service is reverence and love of the standards and the impiety of desertion, and then after that the other things are easily demanded and commanded of those bound by oath, so in those whom you wish to lead to a happy life: the first foundations must be laid and virtue instilled. Let them be held by a certain reverence for this; let them love this; let them wish to live with this, and not wish to live without this.
" Quid ergo? Non quidam sine institutione subtili evaserunt probi magnosque profectus adsecuti sunt, dum nudis tantum praeceptis obsecuntur? "Fateor, sed felix illis ingenium fuit et salutaria in transitu rapuit. Nam ut di inmortales nullam didicere virtutem cum omni editi4 et pars naturae eorum est bonos esse, ita quidam ex hominibus egregiam sortiti indolem in ea, quae tradi solent, perveniunt sine longo magisterio et honesta complexi sunt, cum primum audiere; unde ista tam rapacia virtutis ingenia vel ex se fertilia. Illis autem hebetibus et optusis aut mala consuetudine obsessis diu robigo animorum effricanda est.
”What then? Have not some turned out honest without subtle instruction and attained great progress, while they comply only with naked precepts?” I admit it, but they had a fortunate disposition and snatched wholesome things in passing. For just as the immortal gods have learned no virtue, being brought forth with every virtue, and it is part of their nature to be good, so some of men, having obtained an excellent disposition, arrive at those things which are accustomed to be handed down without long teaching, and embraced honorable things as soon as they heard them; whence those minds so grasping of virtue are fertile even of themselves. But for those who are dull and obtuse, or beset by bad habit, the rust of their minds must be rubbed off for a long time.
- 95.28conscientiae dari
The dative conscientiae functions as a dative of purpose or indirect object, meaning "to be given/presented to one's own conscience (private satisfaction)" in contrast to "being shown off" (ostendi). This contrastive structure highlights that this behavior serves inner awareness rather than seeking external boasting (iactatio) or glory (gloria).
- 95.31Quae clam commissa capite luerent
A relative clause with an omitted antecedent ([ea] quae...), functioning as the direct object of the main verb laudamus. The verb luerent within the clause is in the imperfect subjunctive, expressing a contrary-to-fact conditional ("acts which, if they had been committed secretly, they would pay for with their lives"). The perfect participle commissa carries a conditional force equivalent to "si commissa essent."
- 95.35iusiurandum adactis
adactis is the perfect passive participle (dative plural) of adigo used substantively as the dative object of exiguntur mandanturque. The accusative iusiurandum (oath) is retained from the active double accusative construction (aliquem iusiurandum adigere: to bind someone by an oath). Thus, the phrase means "from those who have been bound by an oath (the other things are demanded)."
- 95.36cum omni editi
omni is an ablative singular, with the feminine noun virtute understood from the preceding nullam didicere virtutem (learned no virtue). editi (brought forth/born) combined with the preposition cum means "born with every (virtue)," denoting that the gods possess all virtue by nature without having had to learn it.