Between Heathenism and Christianity / Being a translation of Seneca's De Providentia, and Plutarch's De sera numinis vindicta, together with notes, additional extracts from these writers and two essays on Graeco-Roman life in the first century after Christ.

APPENDIX.

Plutarch

A list of Plutarch’s works in the order of Bernardakis’ edition. Lipsiae, 1888-96.

Volume I.

De liberis educandis, (On the education of children).

Quomodo adolescens poetas audire debeat, (How a young man ought to hear poems).

De recta ratione audiendi, (How one ought to hear lectures).

Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur, (How one may distinguish a flatterer from a friend).

Quomodo quis suos in virtute sentiat profectus, (How one may know whether he is making progress in virtue).

De capienda ex inimicis utilitate, (How one may profit by his enemies).

De amicorum multitudine, (On the abundance of friends).

De fortuna, (On good and ill fortune).

De virtute et vitio, (On virtue and vice).

Consolatio ad Apollonium, (Consolation for Apollonius).

De tuenda sanitate prÆcepta, (Precepts on the preservation of health).

Conjugalia prÆcepta, (Precepts on matrimony).

Septem sapientum convivium, (The banquet of the seven sages).

De superstitione, (On superstition).

Volume II.

Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata, (Memorable sayings of kings and commanders).

Apophthegmata Laconica, (Memorable sayings of Spartans).

Instituta Laconica, (The ancient customs of the Lacedaemonians).

LacÆnarum apophthegmata, (Memorable sayings of Spartan women).

Mulierum virtutes, (Heroic deeds of women).

Ætia Romana, (A list of topics, Roman).

Ætia GrÆca, (A list of topics, Greek).

Parallela GrÆca et Romana, (A collection of Greek and Roman historical parallels).

De fortuna Romanorum, (On the good fortune of the Romans).

De Alexandri magni fortuna aut virtute, oratio I et II, (On the good fortune or valor of Alexander the Great, discourses I and II).

Bellone an pace clariores fuerint Athenienses, (Were the Athenians more distinguished in war or in wisdom)?

De Iside et Osiride, (Concerning Isis and Osiris).

Volume III.

De E apud Delphos, (On the E at Delphi).

De Pythia oraculis, (On the cessation of the Pythian oracles in meter).

De defectu oraculorum, (On the cessation of oracles).

An virtus doceri possit, (Can virtue be taught)?

De virtute morali, (On moral virtue).

De cohibenda ira, (On the control of the temper).

De tranquillitate animi, (On peace of mind).

De fraterno amore, (On fraternal love).

De amore prolis, (On the love of offspring).

An vitiositas ad infelicitatem sufficiat, (Does vice of itself make men unhappy)?

Animine an corporis affectiones sint peiores, (Are the sufferings of the mind more grievous than those of the body)?

De garrulitate, (On talkativeness).

De curiositate, (On meddlesomness).

De cupiditate divitiarum, (On the love of riches).

De vitioso pudore, (On excess of modesty).

De invidia et odio, (Concerning envy and hatred).

De se ipsum citra invidiam laudando, (On praising one’s self without reproach).

De sera numinis vindicta, (Concerning those whom God is slow to punish).

De fato, (On fate).

De genio Socratis, (On the tutelary deity of Socrates).

De exilio, (On exile).

Consolatio ad uxorem, (A letter of condolence to his wife).

Volume IV.

Questionum convivialium libri IX, (Nine books of table-talk).

Amatorius, (A dialogue on love).

Amatoriae narrationes, (Love stories).

Volume V.

Maxime cum principibus philosopho esse disserendum, (On the proposition that the philosopher ought chiefly to converse with rulers).

Ad principem ineruditum, (To an uneducated ruler).

An seni res publica gerenda sit, (Should an old man hold a public office)?

Praecepta gerendae rei publicae, (Political precepts).

De unius in re publica dominatione, populari statu et paucorum imperio, (On monarchy, democracy, and oligarchy).

De vitando aere alieno, (On avoiding debts).

X oratorum vitae, (The lives of the ten orators).

De comparatione Aristophanis et Menandri epitome (Abstract of a comparison between Aristophanes and Menander).

De Herodoti malignitate, (On the malice of Herodotus).

De placitis philosophorum libri V, (Five books of maxims of the philosophers).

Aetia physica, (Problems in physics).

De facie quae in orbe lunae apparet, (Concerning the face that appears on the moon’s disk).

De primo frigido, (On the origin of cold).

Volume VI.

Aquane an ignis sit utilior, (Is fire or water the more useful)?

Terrestriane an aquatilia animalia sint callidiora, (Are water or land animals the more cunning)?

Bruta animalia ratione uti, (On the use of reason by brutes).

De esu carnium, orationes duo, (On the eating of flesh, two discourses).

Platonicae quaestiones, (Platonic questions).

De animae procreatione in Timaeo, (On the origin of the soul in the Timaeus).

Epitome libri de animae procreatione in Timaeo, (Abstract of the book on the origin of the soul in the Timaeus).

De Stoicorum repugnantiis, (On contradictions of the Stoics).

Compendium libri cui argumentum fuit, Stoicos absurdiora poetis dicere, (Synopsis of the book the argument of which was, The Stoics utter greater absurdities than the poets).

De communibus notitiis adversus Stoicos, (Concerning the common conceptions against the Stoics).

Non posse suaviter vivi secundum Epicurum, (That it is not possible to live pleasurably according to Epicurus).

Adversus Coloten, (Against Colotes).

An recte dictum sit latenter vivendum esse, (Is it a true saying that one ought to live in seclusion)?

De musica, (On music).

Volume VII.

De fluviorum et montium nominibus et de iis quÆ in illis inveniuntur, (On the names of rivers and mountains and those things that are found in them).

De vita et poesi Homeri, Lib. I et II, (On the life and poetry of Homer).

The two treatises last named fill more than one-third of the volume, the remainder being chiefly taken up with fragments, some of them only a few lines in length. It also contains the so-called catalogue of Lamprias which, including the Parallel lives, assigns 227 different works to Plutarch. Volume seven concludes with an index of names. As these treatises are usually cited by their Latin titles, they only are given above. A complete edition of Plutarch’s Morals, with an introduction by R. W. Emerson was published in Boston about twenty-five years ago, under the editorial supervision of Professor Goodwin of Harvard University. The translations were made by a number of English scholars near the close of the seventeenth century. In their revised form they are in the main correct and some of them are vigorous and readable.

Footnotes

1.It is a noteworthy fact that many of Rome’s great men were Spaniards, while many others were not natives of the city. Among the former were the emperors Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus and Marcus Aurelius. The two Senecas, Lucan, Martial and Quintillian were also Spaniards. Vespasian was born at Reate; Livy, in Padua; Horace, at Venusia; Virgil, in Mantua; Cicero, at Arpinum; the emperor Claudius, at Lugdunum; the two Plinys, at Comum, etc.

2.Seneca is generally regarded as the first Roman writer who used caro, flesh, as distinct from, and opposed to, spirit.

3.Students of German literature are reminded of a certain moral and intellectual similarity between Plutarch and Gellert. The latter, though a man of much less natural ability, had all of Plutarch’s kindliness, moral and religious earnestness, sympathy for those in distress, and the same popularity among all classes from prince to peasant. Both were equally religious, though one was a heathen and the other a Christian; both preserved the same serenity of mind and cheerfulness of heart in a time of national degradation and immorality.

4.“When Plutarch, after the death of his daughter; was writing a letter of consolation to his wife, we find him turning away from all the commonplaces of the stoics as the recollection of one simple trait of his little child rushed upon his mind:—‘She desired her nurse to press even her dolls to her breast. She was so loving that she wished everything that gave her pleasure to share in the best she had.’” The statement that Seneca is all man will be questioned by those who know that two of his Letters of Condolence are addressed to women. These are almost the only writings in Roman literature so addressed.

Transcriber’s Notes:
- Missing or obscured punctuation was silently corrected.
- Typographical errors were silently corrected.
- Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a predominant form was found in this book.
- Footnotes have been collected at the end of the text, and are linked for ease of reference.

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