Keep away from the Games!
The wise old philosopher had learnt that popular entertainments rot the soul.
65
The wise old philosopher had learnt that popular entertainments rot the soul.
65
Seneca knew something about cruelty: he was tutor and counsellor to the Emperor Nero. Here, he writes to Lucilius, Procurator of Sicily, about the moral effect of mass entertainments such as the brutal gladiator contests of Rome.
by Seneca the Younger (c. AD 65)
I HAPPENED to drop in at the midday games, expecting a bit of fun and wit and something relaxing for eyes that needed a break from human cruelty. What I got was the opposite.
The fighting that went before was miserable enough; now they dropped all sporting pretence, and it was straightforward murder.
Then there was an intermission: ‘And now folks, some guys get their throats cut!’ - just so there's always something going on.
You have to ape them or hate them. But actually, it’s better not to do either.
Don’t be like them in evil just because they are the majority, and don’t be openly hostile to so many people just because they aren’t like you.
Withdraw into yourself as much as you can; spend your time with the sort of company that is improving, make friends with people you can improve. That way people help each other: we learn as we teach.
by Seneca the Younger (c. AD 65)
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.