Seneca was a friend of Nero, but was to be executed after being suspected of plotting against him. Seneca was stoic about his death, he showed little pain or care about dying. Stoicism is the ability to endure pain and hardship while retaining the ability to control one's emotions; Seneca at his death was a perfect example of a stoic.
Seneca was being condemned to death. According to the Ancient History Sourcebook, "Upon this the tribune asserted that he saw no signs of fear, and perceived no sadness in his words or in his looks."(Tacitus) He did not mind being put to death, and if h did he did not show it. He was also asked if he was meditating suicide. Seneca was asked to go and announce his death. He let no one mourn for him because he didn’t want the sympathy. Seneca seems like a somber person who never showed very much emotion about anything.
When Seneca was confronted about his death, this is how he was described, "Seneca, quite unmoved, asked for tablets on which to inscribe his will, and, on the centurion's refusal, turned to his friends, protesting that as he was forbidden to requite them, he bequeathed to them the only, but still the noblest possession yet remaining to him, the pattern of his life, which, if they remembered, they would win a name for moral worth and steadfast friendship."(Tacitus) It is interesting to know that when they decided to execute him, the only thing that he wanted or cared about was having a tablet to write his will on. He also was not as worried about his own pain as his wife's. When he was suffering, he wanted to look and seem strong so that he would not pain his wife too much. He was stoic in this example because he tried not to let the emotional pain of his wife affect him. Seneca also did not show any emotion about his death.
Seneca was very stoic in the example of pain. He did not let the pain get to him. According to the Ancient History Sourcebook, "Seneca, as his aged frame, attenuated by frugal diet, allowed the blood to escape but slowly, severed also the veins of his legs and knees."(Tacitus) He showed very little pain. He also asked for poison to drink instead to spare his wife the painful process of watching this horrible ordeal. He drank the poison and was taking to a bath and was suffocated. Seneca showed very little emotion, but inside he felt sorrow for his wife and pain for his suffering. Otherwise he would not have been so stoic about everything. Most of his stoicism was to 'pretend' that nothing was bothering him and spare his killers their satisfaction and his family their sadness.
Seneca was a man of very little emotion. He announced his own death and tortured himself until his suffocation. The only emotion he really showed was toward his wife. In conclusion, he was a stoic man. Stoicism is the ability to endure pain and hardship while retaining the ability to control one's emotions; Seneca at his death was a perfect example of a stoic because he showed little sadness about his death and little emotion about pain, even in the most horrible situations.
Works Cited
Church, A. J., & Brodribb, W. J. (n.d.). Ancient History Sourcebook: Tacitus: The Death of Seneca. FORDHAM.EDU. Retrieved April 5, 2011, from http://www.fordham.edu/HALSALL/ancient/tacitus-ann15a.html
1) your thesis and opinion was clear
ReplyDelete2)thesis is in the right place
3)you have good supporting evidence in each paragraph
4)your third body paragraph lacks thorough analysis
5)1st and last one is only 4 sentences
6)you did tie the whole thing together well, but i would have talked about each quote and how they tie together
7)no personal pronouns :) good job
8)in one paragraph you have an h instead of he, lots of punctuation errors
9)when doing an in text citation, have a comma after the quote then put the period after the parenthesis
10)good APA format
11)i found this interesting, but a little boring. I learned a lot from it though.
overall, well done, but in your conclusion paragraph you basically copy and paste the thesis in, that is a hugee no no. Great job emily!
Love, Amanda