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New translation of Seneca illuminates Roman Stoicism
February 26, 2015
Seneca: Selected Dialogues and Consolations. Translated, with Introduction and Notes, by Peter J. Anderson. Hackett Publishing, 2015.
Seneca's dialogues—as his epistolary essays have traditionally been
known—offer an ideal path into the philosophical thought of
first-century Rome's most famous Stoic, whose compelled suicide in 65
CE (by order of his former pupil Emperor Nero) drew comparisons to the
death of Socrates.
Notable for, among other things, their portrait of a providential
universe and defense of the life of virtue, the nine dialogues
included in this volume illustrate the deeply intertwined cosmological
and moral arguments of ancient Rome’s chief philosophical alternative
to Epicureanism and Academic Skepticism.
Peter J. Anderson's new translation conveys the
distinctive character of Seneca's style, while striving for accuracy
and consistency in its renderings of key terms. His Introduction
discusses the dialogues as works of art and situates them in the
context of ancient Stoic philosophy as well as the wider philosophical
scene. Notes and a glossary are also included.