Originally published 63 AD | ||
Similar Seneca the Younger books, Other books | ||
De Beneficiis is a first-century work by Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC – 65 AD). It forms part of a series of moral essays (or "Dialogues") composed by Seneca, whose other philosophical explorations included providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility, the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness, and treatises on natural phenomena.
Contents
Meaning of title
While the word De is invariably translated as On (the subject of), the meaning of the term Beneficiis is variously translated as; gifts and services (M.Griffin), Benefits (M.Griffin in Seneca on Society A Guide to De Beneficiis), the Award and Reception of Favors, Favours (TK Christov) and kind deeds or charity (Jean-Joseph Goux). Beneficiis is translated by the Perseus Tufts online dictionary, being from the word beneficium, as meaning a favor, benefit, service, or kindness.
Dating of the writing
It is considered that the work was very likely written between the years 56 and 62 AD.JM Cooper and JF Procopé provide one line of reasoning for the dating to this particular period for the writing. Mario Lentano provides a collation of a number of sources who posit different periods, of about these years, in Brill's Companion to Seneca: Philosopher and Dramatist. In Epistulae and Lucilium 81:3, Seneca writes that the work was finished by 64 (c.f. Conte – p. 412).
Earliest
Second century Christian church fathers and apologists appreciated Seneca to an extent which significantly contributed to the proliferation of his written production during the Carolingian renaissance of the 12th century (c.f. M.l. Colish – p. 17).
The oldest extant copy of the work is of the late 8th to early 9th century (WE Trevor et al.). After its founding, the monastery of Lorsch acquired the archetype of the work during sometime circa 850, this had been written somewhere in what is now Italy (probably within the area of Milan - c.f. Lentano p. 205 in ref.) about 800, part of a text known as the codex Nazarianus, (currently in the Palatine collection of the Vatican library ), and after numerous copies were made via monasteries in the Loire. The work was subsequently disseminated throughout Western Europe.
Later
Three translations were made into English during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. The first translation at all into English was made in 1569 by Nicolas Haward, of books one to three, while the first full translation into English was made in 1578 by Arthur Golding, and the second in 1614 by Thomas Lodge. Roger L'Estrange made a relevant work in 1678, he had been making efforts on Seneca's works since at least 1639. A partial Latin publication of books 1 to 3, being edited by M. Charpentier – F. Lemaistre, was made circa 1860, books 1 to 3 were translated into French by de Wailly, and a translation into English was made by JW. Basore circa 1928-1935.
Titles chosen by different translators
Nicholas Haward
The line of liberalitie duly directing the well bestowing of benefits and reprehending the common vice of ingratitude.
Arthur Golding
... Concerning Benefiting, that is to say the doing receiving and requyting of good turns.
Standard English after Lodge
The standard English form chosen after the Lodge translation of 1613 is On Benefits.
Contents
De Beneficiis comprises seven books. The first sentence of the work reads:
Among the many and diverse errors of those who live reckless and thoughtless lives, almost nothing that I can mention, excellent Liberalis, is more disgraceful than the fact that we do not know how either to give or to receive benefits.
Seneca's aim of the work was, through a discussion of benefits (to regulate a practice):
maxime humanam societatem alligat
which very much holds human society together, in that, the giving of beneficiis is the most important moral bind (alligat) to humans within society:
For it follows that if they are ill placed, they are ill acknowledged, and, when we complain, of their not being returned, it is too late, for they were lost at the time they were given.
Political
De Beneficiis deals with themes of an ethical nature, within a context pertaining to concerns with regards to political leadership. As such, the work is concerned with the lives of aristocrats, and the nature of their relationships. This concern is of the form of and etiquette of bond-formation between persons by the giving and exchanging of gifts or services (favors), and is prescriptive of the way in which the aristocrats might behave, for the good of ancient Roman society.
Amicitia is the Latin term for friendship in the context of Ancient Roman culture. It represents an ideal. Relationships of this kind would be between elite males of fairly equal social standing.
Lewis and Short lexicon shows, for amicitia:
a league of friendship, an alliance between different nations
Ethical
The subject of the writing in Seneca's milieu might be thought of as social ethics, specifically Stoic ethics. While in the contemporary mind might be early social customs. The prime concern of ethics is human well-being.
beneficiis
The work is considered as being about the nature of relative benefits to persons fulfilling the role in social exchange of either giver or receiver. By the following sources it is considered to be specifically about, benefit-exchange or benefactorism (S.Joubert), reciprocity (B.J.Malina), giving and receiving (G.W.Peterman) within society.
Influence on writing
The Greek language term for giving and receiving is δόσις και λῆ(μ)ψις.
Hecaton is thought to have been an earlier influence on Seneca.
Nero was in reign during the time of writing.
Impact on later thought
The ethics of Seneca's writing were readily assimilated by twelfth century Christian thinkers.
Michel de Montaigne was acquainted with the work.
The work is recognised as having been influential in the writing of the individual Marcel Mauss, specifically his work The Gift, published first in 1950. The subject of the gift, has become a centrally aligned factor of thinking within the discipline of anthropology since Mauss.