I

September   8th

DO  NOT BE  DECEIVED    BY  FORTUNE

“No one is  crushed by  Fortune,    unless  they    are first   deceived    by  her .   .   .   those   who aren’t

pompous in  good    times,  don’t   have    their   bubbles burst   with    change. Against either  circumstance,

the stable  person  keeps   their   rational    soul    invincible, for it’s    precisely   in  the good    times   they

prove   their   strength    against adversity.”

—SENECA,    ON  CONSOLATION TO  HELVIA, 5.4b,    5 b–6

n 41 AD, Seneca was exiled from Rome to Corsica—for what exactly, we are not sure, but the rumors
were that he had an affair with the sister of the emperor. Shortly afterward, he sent a letter to his
mother seeking to reassure her and comfort her in her grief. But in many ways, he must have been speaking
to himself as well—scolding himself a little for this unexpected twist he was taking pretty hard.
He’d managed to achieve some measure of political and social success. He might have chased some
pleasures of the flesh. Now he and his family were dealing with the consequences—as we all must bear
for our behavior and for the risks we take.
How would he respond? How would he deal with it? Well, at the very least, his instincts were to
comfort his mother instead of simply bemoaning his own suffering. Though some other letters show that
Seneca begged and lobbied for his return to Rome and power (a request eventually granted), he seems to
have borne the pain and disgrace of exile fairly well. The philosophy that he’d long studied prepared him
for this kind of adversity and gave him the determination and patience he needed to wait it out. When he
found his fortune restored as he returned to power, philosophy prevented him from taking it for granted or
becoming dependent on it. This was good because fortune had another turn in store for him. When the new
emperor turned his wrath on Seneca, philosophy found him ready and prepared once again.