Seneca to Lucilius, 27: on the source of real joy

[image by Jill Wellington from Pexels]

Seneca was one of the great Roman Stoics (together with Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus) of which we have substantial writings surviving. Near the end of his life he famously wrote a series of philosophical letters to his friend Lucilius, which the classic scholar Liz Gloyn has interpreted as a sort of informal curriculum to study Stoic theory and practice. I have been writing an occasional series…