Sublime

Platon était un tel génie que même le mot « idée » vient de lui – eh oui, ce type a même inventé l’idée d’idée !26 Curieusement, bien qu’il soit le père de la civilisation occidentale, il a déclaré que la démocratie n’était pas la forme de gouvernement la plus souhaitable27. Il considérait qu’elle était par essence instable, qu’elle déchaînait inév

Nero’s theatrical performances with the strong opposition of another, somewhat younger Stoic contemporary: Epictetus.

The difficulty, my friends, is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death.

Seneca’s treatise is a strong statement that Stoicism did not necessarily imply hostility to one-man rule. The point needed making, since some of the most famous Stoics of earlier generations had also been defenders of the Republic: the best known is Cato the Younger (95–46 bce), who committed suicide by disemboweling himself rather than submit to

PLATO and Aristotle were the most influential of all philosophers, ancient, medieval, or modern; and of the two, it was Plato who had the greater effect upon subsequent ages. I say this for two reasons: first, that Aristotle himself is an outcome of Plato; second, that Christian theology and philosophy, at any rate until the thirteenth century, was

the life story of Thomas More, scholar, philosopher, writer, and advisor to Henry VIII, who was then beheaded by the king, has been well compared to that of Seneca. 13 Seneca as a historical character (rather than as a writer or philosopher) often did come across rather badly in early modern literature and drama