The following is a list of Seneca’s extant works:
De Providentia, (On Providence).
De Constantia Sapientis, (On the Constancy of the Sage).
De Ira, (On Anger).
De Vita beata, (On a happy life).
De Otio, (On Leisure).
De Tranquillitate Animi, (On Peace of Mind).
De Brevitate Vitae, (On the Shortness of Life).
De Beneficiis, (On Beneficence).
De Clementia, (On Clemency).
Ad Marciam de Consolatione, (A Letter of Condolence to Marcia).
Ad Polybium de Consolatione, (A Letter of Condolence to Polybius).
Ad Helviam matrem de Consolatione.(A Letter of Condolence to his mother Helvia).
Apocolocynthosis, (Pumpkinfication, as it may be translated by a parody on Deification; or we may call it Pumpkinosis to correspond with Apotheosis).
Epistolae Morales ad Lucilium, (Letters to Lucilius on the Conduct of Life).
Quaestiones Naturales, (Questions relating to Physical Phenomena). This is the only work of the kind belonging to Latin literature. During the Middle Ages it was much used as a text-book.
In the Charpentier-Lemaistre edition the letters to Lucilius fill the first volume and a little more than half of the second. The first Book on Beneficence is in the third volume; the remainder with the Problems in Physics fill the fourth and last. The smaller treatises occupy the rest of the four volumes. A number of Tragedies with Greek titles are also attributed to our Seneca, probably with justice.
Note:—To translate Seneca adequately is not an easy task. While his meaning is usually plain, the modern reader is not in all cases certain that he clearly apprehends the exact signification of his words when taken separately. He is thus in danger of reading into them ideas that savor more of modern theology than the author intended,—a common fault of interpreters. It has been demonstrated that Seneca knew nothing of the Gospels directly, yet he has often been claimed as a Christian. Evidently, then, there must be a good deal in his writings that can be used to support such a claim. Attention has already been called to his use ofcaro. He seems also to be the first Roman who uses Providentia to designate an intelligent guide and guardian of the affairs of the world. There are other terms to which he gives a signification not found in the profane writers of ancient Rome.
But the chief obstacle the translator has to contend against is his diction. This is highly rhetorical and very difficult to transfer into another language, unless the translator has at command all the resources of his mother tongue. Such a wealth of resources, I do not hesitate to confess, is not within my reach. If a translation is to make the same impression on the reader or hearer that is made by the original, it is as important to preserve the peculiarities of a writer’s style as to render accurately the meaning of the separate words. While I flatter myself that I have been fairly successful in the interpretation of Seneca’s words, I am not equally sanguine as to his diction. I believe, however, that I have in no case strayed very far afield and that the reading of the following pages will convey not only a fairly correct idea of what Seneca thought on many important problems, but also of the manner in which he expressed himself. I hope at some future time, if life and health are vouchsafed to me, to prepare a complete translation of Seneca’s moral writings.