I dug further into ancient Stoicism with this biography of the Roman Seneca.
He's known as the tutor and advisor of the twisted emperor Nero. Seneca used his philosophy, rhetoric and wisdom in the attempt to lessen the cruelty and ineffective leadership of Nero. It's believed that Seneca's influence did help greatly in the early years of Nero's reign. But at a certain point no one, including Seneca, could do anything to blunt the lunacy of Nero.
Seneca profited greatly from his service to Nero, ultimately becoming one of the wealthiest men in Rome. As one of the great practitioners and promoters of Stoicism, this put him in an extraordinarily odd, conflicted situation.
Although Stoicism doesn't preclude wealth, it can make it more difficult to truly practice the philosophy. Practitioners are to not cling to their wealth, and to constantly remind themselves that it could easily disappear at any moment.
Even worse, Seneca's extraordinary wealth and privilege created the appearance of conflict. He struggled with this conflict mightily throughout his service to Nero.
But practice Stoicism he did, to an astonishing degree of success, even in the face of fame, fortune and privilege that make its practice so very difficult.
And he wrote extensively about Stoicism in philosophic works and by publishing his private letters that extoll its virtues and detail its practices.
Now with this background on his life I plan to soon dive deeply into those works to learn what I can from this ancient sage.
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