THE MORAL EPISTLES 124 Letters to Lucillius
By Seneca the Younger
Read by James Cameron Stewart
23 hours 18 minutes
Towards the end of his life, Seneca the Younger (c4 BCE- 65 CE) began a correspondence with a friend in Sicily, later collected under the title The Moral Epistles. In these 124 letters, Seneca expresses, in a wise, steady and calm manner, the philosophy by which he lived – derived essentially from the Stoics. The letters deal with a variety of specific topics – often eminently practical – such as ‘On Saving Time’, ‘On the Terrors of Death’, ‘On True and False Friendships’, ‘On Brawn and Brains’ and ‘On Old Age and Death’. His views are as relevant to us today as in his own time. He remarks on how we waste our time through lack of clarity of purpose, how we jump from one attraction to another, how fleeting is life. But these are letters to a friend, so the tone is not grandly didactic but friendly, personal, direct and speak to us across the centuries. Though not so well-known as Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations, The Moral Epistles are approachable, memorable, and immensely rich in content – and especially so in this sympathetic reading by James Cameron Stewart.
Translation: Richard Gummere
Available on audible: audible.co.uk, audible.com, audible.de, audible.fr, audible.com.au: £37 or on subscription.
The narrator is absolutely outstanding! Seneca has these awesome one-liners, and it is easy to miss the punch line if the text is not read properly. James Cameron Stewart does a masterful job of helping me “get” it, even if I’m not paying 100% attention. For more reviews click here…
