Note on Essays and Their Sequence

This volume contains all of Seneca’s essays on ethical topics, with the exception of On Benefits (printed in a separate volume, On Benefits, trans. Miriam Griffin and Brad Inwood [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011]), and On Anger and On Clemency (contained in the volume Anger, Mercy, Revenge, trans. Robert A. Kaster and Martha C. Nussbaum [Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010]).

All translations, except On the Shortness of Life and On Leisure, are based on the Latin texts of L. D. Reynolds, ed., L. Annaei Senecae Dialogorum libri duodecim (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977). Departures from this edition are stated in the notes. On the Shortness of Life and On Leisure are based on Gareth D. Williams, ed., Seneca: “De Otio,” “De Brevitate Vitae” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).

The order of the essays in this volume is based on the chronological sequence proposed by Miriam Griffin, Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 396.