Lucius Annaeus Seneca, auch Seneca der Ältere, Seneca Maior oder Seneca Rhetor genannt war ein römischer Rhetoriker und Schriftsteller. Er war Vater von Seneca dem Jüngeren und Lucius Iunius Gallio Annaeanus sowie Großvater des Dichters Lucan.
Seine Hauptwerke sind:
Controversiae , ein zehnbändiges Werk, das 74 von Rhetoren behandelte Rechtsfälle – meist in wörtlicher Rede – darstellt und eine der wichtigsten Informationsquellen über praktische Rhetorik zu dieser Zeit ist.
Suasoriae , zeigt in sieben Fällen die Erörterung mit Argumenten und Gegenargumenten.
Daneben sind noch einige Fragmente erhalten, die auf weitere Werke, u.a. eine Geschichte Roms, hinweisen.
„Einige Heilmittel sind gefährlicher als das Übel.“
(lat) Quaedam remedia graviora ipsis peniculis sunt.
Quelle: Gerichtsreden (Controversiae) VI, 7, oft Publilius Syrus zugeschrieben
„Durch das Menschliche entstehen Fehler.“
Original: (lat) Per humanos […] errores.
Quelle: Kontroversen Buch 4, 3; von diesem oder von einem Satz des Cicero soll das Sprichwort Irren ist menschlich ("Errare humanum est") abgeleitet sein
Original: (lat) Nihil infinitum est.
Quelle: Beratungsreden (Suasoriae) 1, 3
“Let us live – we must die.”
Vivamus, moriendum est.
Book II, Chapter VI; translation from Michael Winterbottom, Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 1 p. 349
Some editions of Seneca prefer the reading Bibamus, moriendum est (Let us drink – we must die).
Controversiae
“All things Death claims. To perish is not doom, but law.”
Omnia mors poscit. Lex est, non poena, perire.
From Epigrammata: De Qualitate Temporis 7, 7 as quoted in L. De Mauri, Angelo Paredi, Gabriele Nepi, 5000 proverbi e motti latini https://books.google.gr/books?id=hjiMpXCMCvsC&printsec=, Hoepli Editore, 1995, p. 384 and Hubertus Kudla, Lexikon der lateinischen Zitate https://books.google.gr/books?id=2Vtf_GVrdbgC&dq=, C. H. Beck, 2007, p. 416. The full text can be found in Anthologia Latina I, fasc. 1 (Walter de Gruyter, 1982) https://books.google.gr/books?id=PHWq0avQcGIC&pg=, ed. by D. R. Shackleton Bailey, p. 164. Harold Edgeworth Butler ( Post-Augustan Poetry: From Seneca to Juvenal https://books.google.gr/books?id=2gR48lrVJ-cC&dq=, Library of Alexandria, 1969, ch. 2, sec. 2) attributes De Qualitate Temporis to Seneca the Younger.
Misattributed
“It is wrong not to give a hand to the fallen; this law is universal to the whole human race.”
Iniquum est conlapsis manum non porrigere; commune hoc ius generis humani est.
Book I, Chapter I; slightly modified translation from Norman T. Pratt Seneca's Drama (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983) p. 140
Controversiae
“He that is a friend to himself, is a friend to all mankind.”
Derived from Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium; Epistle VI of Seneca the Younger:
"I shall tell you what pleased me today in the writings of Hecato; it is these words: 'What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.' That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind." ["Interim quoniam diurnam tibi mercedulam debeo, quid me hodie apud Hecatonem delectaverit dicam. 'Quaeris' inquit 'quid profecerim? amicus esse mihi coepi.' Multum profecit: numquam erit solus. Scito esse hunc amicum omnibus."]
Misattributed
“Some laws are not written, but are more decisive than any written law.”
Quædam iura non scripta, sed omnibus scriptis certiora sunt.
Book I, Chapter I; slightly modified translation from Norman T. Pratt Seneca's Drama (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983) p. 140
Controversiae
“The whole world would have been destroyed if compassion did not put an end to anger.”
Perierat totus orbis, nisi iram finiret misericordia.
Book I, Chapter I; slightly modified translation from Michael Winterbottom, Declamations of the Elder Seneca (London: Heinemann, 1974) vol. 1 p. 33
Controversiae
“Of a great spirit is moderation in prosperity.”
Magni pectoris est inter secunda moderatio.
Suasoriae; Chapter I
“What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.”
Quid enim refert, quantum habeas? multo illud plus est, quod non habes.
Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae, bk. 12, ch. 2, sect. 13; translation from Riad Aziz Kassis The Book of Proverbs and Arabic Proverbial Works (Leiden: Brill, 1999) p. 159.
Misattributed
