More Roman Quotes

Seneca, born around 8 B.C., is shown here in this Italian painting from 1684, dying. He was ordered by the Roman emperor Nero to kill himself. Seneca died a slow death; he bled himself. This is what is happening in this painting: Seneca is speaking his last words of wisdom as the blood is slowly draining from the open veins in his legs and arms. Notice the vessel under his leg collecting the blood, and the scribes writing down this famous philosopher's last words. This was a long slow death: after the bleeding didn't seem to be working, Seneca attempted to die by poisoning himself, this didn't work either. He eventually died after placing himself in a hot pool of water in order to open the veins and help encourage the flow of blood. It is written that he finally died from the steam off the water.

You can tell by the look on Seneca's face that he is not a philosopher to be worried much by his imminent death. He appears to be more concerned with getting his point across. Seneca died according to his own stoic philosophy, which taught controlling your emotions. Look into it if you are interested. In the meantime here's a few Senecan quotes:

"All art is but imitation of nature."
"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

Everyone knows that, but pay special attention to these:

"A great fortune is a great slavery."
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."

And my favorite:

"It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing."

True, right?