{
    "schema": "prokopton42-public-passage-v1",
    "id": "seneca.de_constantia_sapientis",
    "canonical_url": "https://prokopton42.com/en/works/seneca/de-constantia-sapientis/reference-15/",
    "language": "en",
    "title": "On the Firmness of the Wise Person",
    "author": "Seneca",
    "date": "50s or early 60s CE",
    "summary": "In an exchange with Serenus, Seneca defends the Stoic paradox that the wise person can suffer neither moral injury nor true insult. External attacks reach property, body, or reputation but not a virtue independent of them.",
    "learning": "Distinguish moral harm, pain, and insult, understand the Stoic definition of goods, and test the social reach of the wise person’s invulnerability.",
    "long_summary": "The text distinguishes injury intending harm from insult seeking humiliation. Examples of philosophers, military comparisons, and definitions of goods sustain the image of a moral citadel inaccessible to fortune.\n\nSuch invulnerability does not describe physical insensibility or absence of an initial reaction. It depends on a strict definition of harm as loss of virtue. The thesis gains coherence through that definition but requires attention to what it excludes from social experience of humiliation.",
    "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-constantia-sapientis/annotations/lat-perseus-editorial-notes.ndjson",
            "annotation_records": 11,
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-constantia-sapientis/representations/lat-perseus-lat2.ndjson",
            "language": "lat",
            "records": 19,
            "role": "original",
            "source_id": "perseus.seneca.de_constantia_sapientis.perseus_lat2"
        },
        {
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-constantia-sapientis/representations/en-stewart.ndjson",
            "language": "en",
            "records": 19,
            "source_id": "project-gutenberg.seneca.aubrey-stewart-minor-dialogues-1889",
            "translator": "Aubrey Stewart"
        },
        {
            "file": "data/corpus/normalized/seneca/de-constantia-sapientis/representations/fr-baillard.ndjson",
            "language": "fr",
            "records": 19,
            "source_id": "baillard-1914-wikisource-fr",
            "translator": "Joseph Baillard"
        }
    ],
    "concepts": [
        {
            "id": "affects",
            "label": "Affects"
        },
        {
            "id": "anger",
            "label": "Anger"
        },
        {
            "id": "care_of_soul",
            "label": "Care of the soul"
        },
        {
            "id": "civic_duty",
            "label": "Civic duty"
        },
        {
            "id": "dukkha",
            "label": "Dukkha"
        },
        {
            "id": "duty",
            "label": "Duty"
        },
        {
            "id": "ether_field",
            "label": "Ether and field"
        },
        {
            "id": "family",
            "label": "Family"
        },
        {
            "id": "fortune",
            "label": "Fortune"
        },
        {
            "id": "justice",
            "label": "Justice"
        },
        {
            "id": "law",
            "label": "Law"
        },
        {
            "id": "messiah",
            "label": "Messiah"
        },
        {
            "id": "nature",
            "label": "Nature"
        },
        {
            "id": "patience",
            "label": "Steadfast patience"
        },
        {
            "id": "pleasure",
            "label": "Pleasure"
        },
        {
            "id": "poverty_wealth",
            "label": "Poverty and wealth"
        },
        {
            "id": "ressentiment",
            "label": "Ressentiment"
        },
        {
            "id": "roles",
            "label": "Roles and relationships"
        },
        {
            "id": "self_governance",
            "label": "Self-governance"
        },
        {
            "id": "sin",
            "label": "Sin"
        },
        {
            "id": "slavery",
            "label": "Slavery"
        },
        {
            "id": "spirit",
            "label": "Spirit"
        },
        {
            "id": "suffering",
            "label": "Suffering"
        },
        {
            "id": "time",
            "label": "Time"
        },
        {
            "id": "virtue",
            "label": "Virtue"
        },
        {
            "id": "wisdom",
            "label": "Wisdom"
        }
    ],
    "source_work_ids": [
        "seneca.de_constantia_sapientis"
    ],
    "passages": 19,
    "word_count": 8903,
    "word_counts_by_language": {
        "en": 8903,
        "fr": 7911,
        "lat": 5285
    },
    "editorial_status": "gpt_5_6_semantic_draft_v1",
    "structure": {
        "citation_scheme": "seneca_dialogue_chapter_v1",
        "kind": "native",
        "levels": [
            {
                "key": "chapter",
                "label_fr": "Chapitre",
                "label_en": "Chapter"
            }
        ],
        "leaf_fr": "Chapitre",
        "leaf_en": "Chapter"
    },
    "canonical_passage_id": "passage:seneca.de_constantia_sapientis:15",
    "canonical_ref": "15",
    "canonical_parent_ref": null,
    "canonical_parent_id": null,
    "representations": [
        {
            "language": "lat",
            "text": "Desinite itaque dicere : \" Non accipiet ergo sapiens iniuriam, si caedetur, si oculus illi eruetur ? Non accipiet contumeliam, si obscenorum vocibus improbis per forum agetur ? Si in convivio regis recumbere infra mensam vescique cum servis ignominiosa officia sortitis iubebitur ? Si quid aliud ferre cogetur eorum quae excogitari pudori ingenuo molesta possunt ? \" In quantumcumque ista vel numero vel magnitudine creverint, eiusdem naturae erunt. Si non tangent illum parva, ne maiora qui- dem ; si non tangent pauca, ne plura quidem. Sed ex imbecillitate vestra coniecturam capitis ingentis animi, et cum cogitastis quantum putetis vos pati posse, sapientis patientiae paulo ulteriorem terminum poni tis. At illum in aliis mundi finibus sua virtus collocavit nihil vobiscum commune habentem. Quaere et aspera et quaecumque toleratu gravia sunt audituque et visu refugienda. Non obruetur eorum coetu et qualis singulis, talis universis obsistet. Qui dicit illud tolerabile sapienti, illud intolerabile, et animi magnitudinem intra certos fines tenet, male agit ; vincit nos fortuna, nisi tota vincitur. Ne putes istam Stoicam esse duritiam, Epicurus, quem vos patronum inertiae vestrae assumitis putatisque mollia ac desidiosa praecipere et ad voluptates ducentia, \" Raro,\" inquit, \" sapienti fortuna intervenit.\" Quam paene emisit viri vocem ! Vis tu fortius loqui et illam ex toto summovere ! Domus haec sapientis angusta, sine cultu, sine strepitu, sine apparatu, nullis adservatur ianitoribus turbam venali fastidio digerentibus, sed per hoc limen vacuum et ab ostiaris liberum fortuna non transit. Scit non esse illic sibi locum, ubi sui nihil est.",
            "edition": "Perseus canonical Latin TEI",
            "source_id": "perseus.seneca.de_constantia_sapientis.perseus_lat2",
            "translation_type": "original"
        },
        {
            "language": "en",
            "text": "Cease then to say, “Will not the wise man, then, receive an injury if he be beaten, if his eye be knocked out? will he not receive an insult if he be hooted through the Forum by the foul voices of ruffians? if at a court banquet he be bidden to leave the table and eat with slaves appointed to degrading duties? if he be forced to endure anything else that can be thought of that would gall a high spirit?” However many or however severe these crosses may be, they will all be of the same kind; and if small ones do not affect him, neither will greater ones; if a few do not affect him, neither will more. It is from your own weakness that you form your idea of his colossal mind, and when you have thought how much you yourselves could endure to suffer, you place the limit of the wise man’s endurance a little way beyond that. But his virtue has placed him in another region of the universe which has nothing in common with you. Seek out sufferings and all things hard to be borne, repulsive to be heard or seen; he will not be overwhelmed by their combination, and will bear all just as he bears each one of them. He who says that the wise man can bear this and cannot bear that, and restrains his magnanimity within certain limits, does wrong; for Fortune overcomes us unless she is entirely overcome. Think not that this is mere Stoic austerity. Epicurus, whom you adopt as the patron of your laziness, and who, you imagine, always taught what was soft and slothful and conducive to pleasure, said, “Fortune seldom stands in a wise man’s way.” How near he came to a manly sentiment! Do thou dare to speak more boldly, and clear her out of the way altogether! This is the house of the wise man—narrow, unadorned, without bustle and splendour, the threshold guarded by no porters who marshal the crowd of visitors with a haughtiness proportionate to their bribes—but For tune cannot cross this open and unguarded threshold. She knows that there is no room for her where there is nothing of hers.",
            "translator": "Aubrey Stewart",
            "edition": "Minor Dialogues Together with the Dialogue on Clemency (1889)",
            "source_id": "project-gutenberg.seneca.aubrey-stewart-minor-dialogues-1889",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        },
        {
            "language": "fr",
            "text": "Cessez donc de dire : « Le sage ne recevra-t-il pas d’injure, s’il est meurtri de coups, si on lui arrache un œil ? Ne recevra-t-il pas d’offense, s’il est poursuivi sur le forum des grossiers propos d’hommes impurs ; si au festin d’un riche on le condamne à se placer au bas bout de la table et à manger avec les valets chargés des plus vils emplois ; s’il est contraint d’essuyer ce qu’on peut imaginer de plus révoltant pour une âme bien née ? » Quelque répétés, quelque graves que deviennent de tels procédés , ils ne changeront pas de nature. Si de minces offenses ne le touchent pas, de plus grandes échoueront de même ; s’il n’est pas ému pour peu, il ne le sera pas pour beaucoup. Mais, la mesurant sur votre faiblesse, vous jugez au hasard une grande âme, et calculant jusqu’où vous pensez qu’irait votre patience, vous placez quelque peu plus loin le terme de celle du sage ; or lui, sa vertu l’a établi sur les confins d’un autre monde : il n’a rien de commun avec vous. Aussi quelque durs, quelque lourds à endurer, quelque repoussants que soient de nom ou d’aspect tous vos fléaux, leur masse ne saurait l’accabler : tel il résisterait à chacun, tel il résiste à tous. Dire que le sage supportera ceci et qu’il ne supporterait pas cela, emprisonner une telle grandeur dans vos arbitraires limites, mauvaise logique : la Fortune triomphe de nous, si nous ne triomphons complètement d’elle. Et ne crois pas que ce soit ici de l’insensibilité stoïque. Épicure, que vous adoptez comme patron de votre lâcheté, qui ne prêche, selon vous, que mollesse, indolence et tout ce qui mène aux voluptés, Épicure a dit : « Rarement la fortune trouve le sage en défaut. » Que voilà presque parler en homme ! Ah ! dis d’un ton plus ferme encore, qu’elle n’a nul accès près de lui ! Voici la maison du sage, petite, sans ornements, sans fracas, sans appareil, sans portiers qui en surveillent l’entrée, qui vont classant la foule avec un dédain de mercenaires ; mais ce seuil vide de sentinelles, libre de concierges, la Fortune ne le franchit point ; elle sait que pour elle il n’y a point place où rien ne vient d’elle. Que si Épicure même, qui a tant accordé aux sens, porte à l’injure ce fier défi, quel effort chez nous peut sembler incroyable ou au-dessus de la nature humaine ? Il prétend que l’injure est supportable pour le sage, nous que pour le sage elle n’existe pas.",
            "translator": "Joseph Baillard",
            "edition": "Œuvres complètes de Sénèque le Philosophe (1914)",
            "source_id": "baillard-1914-wikisource-fr",
            "translation_type": "historical_human_translation"
        }
    ],
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}