âA welcome addition to the existing English translations of Senecaâs works [and] one of the best...for students or non-specialists.â âMouseion: Journal of the Classical Association of Canada
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCEâ65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection restores Senecaâwhose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emersonâto his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities.
Anger, Mercy, Revenge comprises three key writings: the moral essays âOn Angerâ and âOn Clemencyââwhich were penned as advice for the then young emperor, Neroâand the Apocolocyntosis, a brilliant satire lampooning the end of the reign of Claudius. Friend and tutor, as well as philosopher, Seneca welcomed the age of Nero in tones alternately serious, poetic, and comicâmaking Anger, Mercy, Revenge a work just as complicated, astute, and ambitious as its author.
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âThe translations strike that difficult balance between fidelity to the original and natural English idiom.....An admirable effort to bring Seneca to a wider audience.â âBryn Mawr Classical Review
âFaithful and lively.â âChoice