Lucius Annaeus Seneca→Lucilius Junior|c. 64 AD|Seneca the Younger|From Southern Italy (regional)|To Sicily (regional)|AI-assisted
I complain, I bring suit, I am angry. Do you still desire the very thing your nurse, your tutor, or your mother desired for you? Do you not yet understand how much harm they were wishing on you? How hostile to us are the prayers of our own people! And they are all the more hostile the more successfully they have turned out. By now I am no longer surprised that troubles dog us, all of them, from earliest childhood: we grew up amid the curses of our parents. May the gods at last hear our own voice raised on our own behalf, a voice that asks no favor.
How long will we go on demanding something from the gods? As if even now we cannot feed ourselves? How long will we fill the fields of great cities with sowings? How long will a whole population reap the harvest for us? How long will many ships, and ships drawn from more than one sea at that, ferry in the furnishings of a single table? A bull is filled by the pasture of a very few acres; one forest suffices for a good number of elephants; but man feeds off both land and sea. What, then? Did nature give us so insatiable a belly, when she had given us such modest bodies, that we should outdo the greed of the most enormous and most ravenous of animals? Not at all. For how little it is that is granted to nature! She is dismissed with little: it is not the hunger of our belly that costs us dear, but ambition. And so let us count these men, who in Sallust's phrase are "slaves to the belly," among the animals rather than among human beings, and certain ones among the dead rather than even among the animals. He lives who is of use to many; he lives who makes use of himself; but those who lie hidden and lie torpid are in their house just as if they were in a tomb. Over the very threshold of such men you may inscribe their name on marble: they have outrun their own death. Farewell.
I file a complaint, I enter a suit, I am angry. Do you still desire what your nurse, your guardian, or your mother, have prayed for in your behalf? Do you not yet understand what evil they prayed for? Alas, how hostile to us are the wishes of our own folk! And they are all the more hostile in proportion as they are more completely fulfilled. It is no surprise to me, at my age, that nothing but evil attends us from our early youth; for we have grown up amid the curses invoked by our parents. And may the gods give ear to our cry also, uttered in our own behalf,—one which asks no favours!
How long shall we go on making demands upon the gods, as if we were still unable to support ourselves? How long shall we continue to fill with grain the market-places of our great cities? How long must the people gather it in for us? How long shall many ships convey the requisites for a single meal, bringing them from no single sea? The bull is filled when he feeds over a few acres; and one forest is large enough for a herd of elephants. Man, however, draws sustenance both from the earth and from the sea. What, then? Did nature give us bellies so insatiable, when she gave us these puny bodies, that we should outdo the hugest and most voracious animals in greed? Not at all. How small is the amount which will satisfy nature? A very little will send her away contented. It is not the natural hunger of our bellies that costs us dear, but our solicitous cravings. Therefore those who, as Sallust puts it, “hearken to their bellies,” should be numbered among the animals, and not among men; and certain men, indeed, should be numbered, not even among the animals, but among the dead. He really lives who is made use of by many; he really lives who makes use of himself. Those men, however, who creep into a hole and grow torpid are no better off in their homes than if they were in their tombs. Right there on the marble lintel of the house of such a man you may inscribe his name, for he has died before he is dead. Farewell.
[1] Queror, litigo, irascor. Etiam nunc optas quod tibi optavit nutrix tua aut paedagogus aut mater? nondum intellegis quantum mali optaverint? O quam inimica nobis sunt vota nostrorum! eo quidem inimiciora quo cessere felicius. Iam non admiror si omnia nos a prima pueritia mala sequuntur: inter exsecrationes parentum crevimus. Exaudiant di quandoque nostram pro nobis vocem gratuitam. [2] Quousque poscemus aliquid deos? [quasi] ita nondum ipsi alere nos possumus? Quamdiu sationibus implebimus magnarum urbium campos? quamdiu nobis populus metet? quamdiu unius mensae instrumentum multa navigia et quidem non ex uno mari subvehent? Taurus paucissimorum iugerum pascuo impletur; una silva elephantis pluribus sufficit: homo et terra et mari pascitur. [3] Quid ergo? tam insatiabilem nobis natura alvum dedit, cum tam modica corpora dedisset, ut vastissimorum edacissimorumque animalium aviditatem vinceremus? Minime; quantulum est enim quod naturae datur! Parvo illa dimittitur: non fames nobis ventris nostri magno constat sed ambitio. [4] Hos itaque, ut ait Sallustius, 'ventri oboedientes' animalium loco numeremus, non hominum, quosdam vero ne animalium quidem, sed mortuorum. Vivit is qui multis usui est, vivit is qui se utitur; qui vero latitant et torpent sic in domo sunt quomodo in conditivo. Horum licet in limine ipso nomen marmori inscribas: mortem suam antecesserunt. Vale.
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I complain, I bring suit, I am angry. Do you still desire the very thing your nurse, your tutor, or your mother desired for you? Do you not yet understand how much harm they were wishing on you? How hostile to us are the prayers of our own people! And they are all the more hostile the more successfully they have turned out. By now I am no longer surprised that troubles dog us, all of them, from earliest childhood: we grew up amid the curses of our parents. May the gods at last hear our own voice raised on our own behalf, a voice that asks no favor.
How long will we go on demanding something from the gods? As if even now we cannot feed ourselves? How long will we fill the fields of great cities with sowings? How long will a whole population reap the harvest for us? How long will many ships, and ships drawn from more than one sea at that, ferry in the furnishings of a single table? A bull is filled by the pasture of a very few acres; one forest suffices for a good number of elephants; but man feeds off both land and sea. What, then? Did nature give us so insatiable a belly, when she had given us such modest bodies, that we should outdo the greed of the most enormous and most ravenous of animals? Not at all. For how little it is that is granted to nature! She is dismissed with little: it is not the hunger of our belly that costs us dear, but ambition. And so let us count these men, who in Sallust's phrase are "slaves to the belly," among the animals rather than among human beings, and certain ones among the dead rather than even among the animals. He lives who is of use to many; he lives who makes use of himself; but those who lie hidden and lie torpid are in their house just as if they were in a tomb. Over the very threshold of such men you may inscribe their name on marble: they have outrun their own death. Farewell.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
[1] Queror, litigo, irascor. Etiam nunc optas quod tibi optavit nutrix tua aut paedagogus aut mater? nondum intellegis quantum mali optaverint? O quam inimica nobis sunt vota nostrorum! eo quidem inimiciora quo cessere felicius. Iam non admiror si omnia nos a prima pueritia mala sequuntur: inter exsecrationes parentum crevimus. Exaudiant di quandoque nostram pro nobis vocem gratuitam. [2] Quousque poscemus aliquid deos? [quasi] ita nondum ipsi alere nos possumus? Quamdiu sationibus implebimus magnarum urbium campos? quamdiu nobis populus metet? quamdiu unius mensae instrumentum multa navigia et quidem non ex uno mari subvehent? Taurus paucissimorum iugerum pascuo impletur; una silva elephantis pluribus sufficit: homo et terra et mari pascitur. [3] Quid ergo? tam insatiabilem nobis natura alvum dedit, cum tam modica corpora dedisset, ut vastissimorum edacissimorumque animalium aviditatem vinceremus? Minime; quantulum est enim quod naturae datur! Parvo illa dimittitur: non fames nobis ventris nostri magno constat sed ambitio. [4] Hos itaque, ut ait Sallustius, 'ventri oboedientes' animalium loco numeremus, non hominum, quosdam vero ne animalium quidem, sed mortuorum. Vivit is qui multis usui est, vivit is qui se utitur; qui vero latitant et torpent sic in domo sunt quomodo in conditivo. Horum licet in limine ipso nomen marmori inscribas: mortem suam antecesserunt. Vale.