{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "seneca.de_beneficiis",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-beneficiis/livre-5/passage-21/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "On Benefits",
    "author": "Seneca",
    "date": "c. 56-64 CE",
    "summary": "Seneca examines the art of giving, receiving, and returning a benefit in a society structured by obligation. Intention, gratitude, debt, and freedom distinguish moral exchange from commercial calculation and humiliating power.",
    "learning": "Distinguish benefit from the object given, analyze intention and gratitude, and examine how a free relationship can arise within systems of dependence.",
    "long_summary": "The books analyze choice of recipient, manner and timing of giving, recognition of intention, and conduct toward ingratitude. A benefit is not the object transferred; it lies in benevolent will, which return should continue without a fixed price.\n\nGenerosity claims to create a bond among moral equals but operates within Roman patronage and hierarchy. Seneca confronts that tension through cases, objections, and revisions rather than a simple code of reciprocity.",
    "historical_context": "The corpus manifests do not yet establish the precise place and circumstances of composition. The images below document the author’s world or the text’s transmission. They do not claim to show the exact scene of writing.",
    "material_world_label": "Roman world, 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE",
    "material_world": {
        "technology": "Paved roads, aqueducts, concrete, glassware, mills, and hypocaust heating equip some cities, but energy comes mainly from bodies, animals, water, and wood.",
        "science": "Astronomy, geometry, natural history, and engineering compile Greek, Egyptian, and Roman knowledge. Measurement exists without a modern laboratory.",
        "medicine": "Physicians, midwives, baths, plants, and rudimentary surgery can help; reliable anaesthesia, antisepsis, and antibiotics do not exist.",
        "transport": "On foot, horseback, cart, or ship, road and sea networks connect the Empire. Travel remains slow, costly, and risky.",
        "agriculture": "Grain, vines, olives, pulses, and livestock supply cities and armies; estates, slavery, and tenancy organize part of the labour.",
        "communication": "Imperial couriers, letters on papyrus or tablets, inscriptions, and oral proclamations spread information. Everything is copied by hand.",
        "clothing": "Tunics and cloaks are common to both sexes; the stola, toga, footwear, colours, and jewellery mark citizenship, office, wealth, and origin."
    },
    "material_world_scenes": [
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-01.webp",
            "title": "Technology, science, and care",
            "description": "Paved roads, aqueducts, concrete, glassware, mills, and hypocaust heating equip some cities, but energy comes mainly from bodies, animals, water, and wood. Astronomy, geometry, natural history, and engineering compile Greek, Egyptian, and Roman knowledge. Measurement exists without a modern laboratory. Physicians, midwives, baths, plants, and rudimentary surgery can help; reliable anaesthesia, antisepsis, and antibiotics do not exist."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-02.webp",
            "title": "Travel and communication",
            "description": "On foot, horseback, cart, or ship, road and sea networks connect the Empire. Travel remains slow, costly, and risky. Imperial couriers, letters on papyrus or tablets, inscriptions, and oral proclamations spread information. Everything is copied by hand."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-03.webp",
            "title": "Farming and food",
            "description": "Grain, vines, olives, pulses, and livestock supply cities and armies; estates, slavery, and tenancy organize part of the labour."
        },
        {
            "asset": "/assets/timeline/landmarks/09-54-ce/world-04.webp",
            "title": "Clothing, women and men",
            "description": "Tunics and cloaks are common to both sexes; the stola, toga, footwear, colours, and jewellery mark citizenship, office, wealth, and origin."
        }
    ],
    "intellectual_tradition": {
        "id": "stoicism",
        "label": "Stoicism"
    },
    "period": {
        "id": "ancient",
        "label": "Antiquity"
    },
    "languages": [
        "lat",
        "en",
        "fr"
    ],
    "manifestations": [
        {
            "annotation_file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-beneficiis/annotations/lat-perseus-editorial-notes.ndjson",
            "annotation_records": 91,
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-beneficiis/representations/lat-perseus-lat2.ndjson",
            "language": "lat",
            "records": 228,
            "role": "original",
            "source_id": "perseus.seneca.de_beneficiis.perseus_lat2"
        },
        {
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-beneficiis/representations/en-stewart.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 228,
            "source_id": "project-gutenberg.seneca.aubrey-stewart-de-beneficiis-1887",
            "translator": "Aubrey Stewart"
        },
        {
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-beneficiis/representations/fr-baillard.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 228,
            "source_id": "baillard-1914-wikisource-fr",
            "translator": "Joseph Baillard"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "anger",
            "label": "Anger"
        },
        {
            "id": "beneficence",
            "label": "Beneficence"
        },
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "faith",
            "label": "Faith"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "friendship",
            "label": "Friendship"
        },
        {
            "id": "judgment",
            "label": "Judgment"
        },
        {
            "id": "justice",
            "label": "Justice"
        },
        {
            "id": "knowledge",
            "label": "Knowledge"
        },
        {
            "id": "law",
            "label": "Law"
        },
        {
            "id": "messiah",
            "label": "Messiah"
        },
        {
            "id": "mindfulness",
            "label": "Mindfulness"
        },
        {
            "id": "necessity",
            "label": "Necessity"
        },
        {
            "id": "prayer",
            "label": "Prayer"
        },
        {
            "id": "ressentiment",
            "label": "Ressentiment"
        },
        {
            "id": "roles",
            "label": "Roles and relationships"
        },
        {
            "id": "service",
            "label": "Service"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "wisdom",
            "label": "Wisdom"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "seneca.de_beneficiis"
    ],
    "passages": 228,
    "word_count": 81267,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 81267,
        "fr": 68574,
        "lat": 45461
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "seneca_treatise_book_chapter_v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "book",
                "label_fr": "Livre",
                "label_en": "Book"
            },
            {
                "key": "chapter",
                "label_fr": "Chapitre",
                "label_en": "Chapter"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Chapitre",
        "leaf_en": "Chapter"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:seneca.de_beneficiis:5.21",
    "canonical_ref": "5.21",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "\" Sed lex,\" inquit, \" non permittendo exigere vetuit.\" Multa legem non habent nec actionem, ad quae consuetudo vitae humanae omni lege valentior dat aditum. Nulla lex iubet amicorum secreta non eloqui; nulla lex iubet fidem etiam inimico praestare ; quae lex ad id praestandum nos, quod alicui promisimus, adligat ? Nulla. Querar tamen cum eo, qui arcanum sermonem non continuerit, et fidem datam nec servatam indignabor. \" Sed ex beneficio,\" inquit, \" creditum facis.\" Minime ; non enim exigo, sed repeto, et ne repeto quidem, sed admoneo. Num ultima quoque me necessitas in hoc aget, ut ad eum veniam, cum quo mihi diu luctandum sit ? Si quis tam ingratus est, ut illi non sit satis admoneri, eum transibo nec dignum iudicabo, qui gratus esse cogatur. Quomodo fenerator quosdam debitores non appellat, quos scit decoxisse et in quorum pudorem nihil superest, nisi quod pereat, sic ego quosdam ingratos palam ac pertinaciter praeteribo nec ab ullo beneficium repetam, nisi a quo non ablaturus ero, sed recepturus.",
            "edition": "Perseus canonical Latin TEI",
            "source_id": "perseus.seneca.de_beneficiis.perseus_lat2",
            "translation_type": "original"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "\"But,\" argues he, \"by not authorizing you, the law forbids you to exact repayment.\" There are many things which are not enforced by any law or process, but which the conventions of society, which are stronger than any law, compel us to observe. There is no law forbidding us to divulge our friend's secrets; there is no law which bids us keep faith even with an enemy; pray what law is there which binds us to stand by what we have promised? There is none. Nevertheless I should remonstrate with one who did not keep a secret, and I should be indignant with one who pledged his word and broke it. \"But,\" he argues, \"you are turning a benefit into a loan.\" By no means, for I do not insist upon repayment, but only demand it; nay, I do not even demand it, but remind my friend of it. Even the direst need will not bring me to apply for help to one with whom I should have to undergo a long struggle. If there be any one so ungrateful that it is not sufficient to remind him of his debt, I should pass him over, and think that he did not deserve to be made grateful by force. A money-lender does not demand repayment from his debtors if he knows they have become bankrupt, and, to their shame, have nothing but shame left to lose; and I, like him, should pass over those who are openly and obstinately ungrateful, and would demand repayment only from those who were likely to give it me, not from those from whom I should have to extort it by force.",
            "translator": "Aubrey Stewart",
            "edition": "On Benefits (1887)",
            "source_id": "project-gutenberg.seneca.aubrey-stewart-de-beneficiis-1887",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "« Mais la loi, en ne permettant pas ces répétitions, les prohibe. » Que de choses n'ont pour elles ni loi ni droit d'action, mais que l'usage social et humain, plus fort que toute loi a autorisées ! Aucune loi ne commande de garder les secrets de nos amis, aucune de tenir parole même à un ennemi. Quelle loi nous oblige à remplir une simple promesse? Et pourtant je poursuivrai de mes plaintes l'homme qui aura divulgué un propos confidentiel; je m'indignerai qu'un engagement ait été pris et méconnu. « Mais c'est changer en créance le bienfait ! » Non pas : je n'exige point, je redemande, et même je ne redemande pas : j'avertis. La plus extrême nécessité ne me fera point recourir à un homme avec qui j'aurais longtemps à lutter. S'il est assez ingrat pour qu'un avertissement ne lui suffise point, je passe outre et ne le juge pas digne d'être forcé à la reconnaissance. Le créancier n'assigne pas ceux de ses qu’il sait avoir failli et qui, en fait d’honneur, n’ont plus rien à perdre ; de même je laisserai là certaines ingratitudes sans pudeur, endurcies, et je ne redemanderai qu’à l’homme qui ne se laissera pas arracher, mais qui rendra de bonne grâce.",
            "translator": "Joseph Baillard",
            "edition": "Œuvres complètes de Sénèque le Philosophe (1914)",
            "source_id": "baillard-1914-wikisource-fr",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        }
    ],
    "content_checksum": "15a64137d61f533a3e573b4f81e1dcbaf91ade801e89caf08004781320e24277"
}