Anger, Mercy, Revenge

By (author) Seneca, Lucius Annaeus; By (author) Kaster, Robert A; By (author) Nussbaum, Martha C; By (author) Kaster Robert A.; By (author) Nussbaum, Martha C.
Short description/annotation:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. This title is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes.
Description:
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BCE - 65 CE) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and adviser to the emperor Nero, all during the Silver Age of Latin literature. The "Complete Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca" is a fresh and compelling series of new English-language translations of his works in eight accessible volumes. Edited by world-renowned classicists Elizabeth Asmis, Shadi Bartsch, and Martha C. Nussbaum, this engaging collection restores Seneca - whose works have been highly praised by modern authors from Desiderius Erasmus to Ralph Waldo Emerson - to his rightful place among the classical writers most widely studied in the humanities. "Anger, Mercy, Revenge" comprises three key writings: the moral essays "On Anger" and "On Clemency" - the latter penned as advice for the young emperor Nero - and the "Apocolocyntosis", a brilliant satire lampooning the end of the reign of Claudius. Friend and tutor, as well as philosopher, Seneca welcomed the end of Claudius'' sovereignty and the beginning of the age of Nero in tones alternately serious, poetic, and comic - making "Anger, Mercy, Revenge" a collection just as complicated, astute, and ambitious as its author.
Review quote:
"The translations strike that difficult balance between fidelity to the original and natural English idiom. Latinless readers will not be confused, philosophically minded readers will appreciate the citations, and classicists will find in the notes the discussion and arguments they may want to clarify the original.... An admirable effort to bring Seneca to a wider audience." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review)"
Biographical note:
Robert A. Kaster is professor of classics and the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Princeton University. He is the author of Emotion, Restraint, and Community in Ancient Rome, among other volumes. Martha C. Nussbaum is the Errist Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics at the University of Chicago and the author of Not for Profit: Why Democracy Needs the Humanities and Creating Capabilities: The Human Development Approach, among other volumes.