Timeless wisdom on controlling anger in personal life and politics from the Roman Stoic philosopher and statesman Seneca In his essay “On Anger” ( De Ira ), the Roman Stoic thinker Seneca (c. 4 BC–65 AD) argues that anger is the most destructive passion: “No plague has cost the human race more dear.” This was proved by his own life, which he barely preserved under one wrathful emperor, Caligula, and lost under a second, Nero. This splendid new translation of essential selections from “On Anger,” presented with an enlightening introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, offers readers a timeless guide to avoiding and managing anger. It vividly illustrates why the emotion is so dangerous and why controlling it would bring vast benefits to individuals and society. Drawing on his great arsenal of rhetoric, including historical examples (especially from Caligula’s horrific reign), anecdotes, quips, and soaring flights of eloquence, Seneca builds his case against anger with mounting intensity. Like a fire-and-brimstone preacher, he paints a grim picture of the moral perils to which anger exposes us, tracing nearly all the world’s evils to this one toxic source. But he then uplifts us with a beatific vision of the alternate path, a path of forgiveness and compassion that resonates with Christian and Buddhist ethics. Seneca’s thoughts on anger have never been more relevant than today, when uncivil discourse has increasingly infected public debate. Whether seeking personal growth or political renewal, readers will find, in Seneca’s wisdom, a valuable antidote to the ills of an angry age. "This is a well-produced, stimulating book and a worthy addition to an excellent series." ---Ray Morris, Classics for All "This is wisdom down the ages." ― Paradigm Explorer "Few have written more eloquently and profoundly on the perils of anger than Seneca and few have translated him better than James Romm." ―Ryan Holiday, coauthor of The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living “ How to Keep Your Cool presents one of Seneca’s most timely essays in an attractive format that is sure to appeal to readers. James Romm’s excellent translation is more readable than any other.” ―A. A. Long, author of Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life James Romm is the editor and translator of Seneca’s How to Die: An Ancient Guide to the End of Life (Princeton) and the author of Dying Every Day: Seneca at the Court of Nero (Knopf). He has written for the New York Review of Books and the Wall Street Journal , among other publications. He is the James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics at Bard College and lives in Barrytown, New York. How To Keep Your Cool An Ancient Guide to Anger Management By Seneca, James Romm PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS Copyright © 2019 Princeton University Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-691-18195-0 Contents Introduction, vii, De Ira / How to Keep Your Cool, 1, Notes, 207, CHAPTER 1 HOW TO KEEP YOUR COOL Seneca frames his essay "On Anger" as a letter to his older brother Novatus, a man who, like Seneca himself, had gone into politics and had become a senator. (Novatus would later change his name to Gallio after being adopted by a wealthy patron of that name, and he appears as Gallio in the biblical book of Acts as the Roman governor of Greece who dealt with the apostle Paul in Corinth). The single addressee is only a fiction, however, for the essay is really directed at Seneca's fellow elite Romans and can be applied even more widely today. You urged me, Novatus, to write about the way in which anger can be softened, and I think you are right to be most frightened of this emotion, the ugliest and most savage of all emotions. The others have some measure of peace and quiet in them, but this one rages, in turmoil and furious movement — with an eagerness hardly human — for pain, weapons, blood, and torture, until it harms others while discarding its own good. It rushes to arms and greedily seeks a vengeance that will only drag the avenger down with it. Some wise men have called anger a brief madness; in equal degrees, it is unable to govern itself, forgetful of decorum, ignorant of friendships, obstinate and intent on finishing what it begins, deaf to reason and advice, stirred up by empty provocations, unsuited to distinguishing what's just and true; it resembles nothing so much as a collapsing building that breaks apart upon that which it crushes. But to understand that those in the grips of anger are not sane, look at how they present themselves. For just as madness shows clear signs — a brash and threatening expression, an unhappy face, a wrinkled forehead, an agitated gait, nervous hands, changed skin color, rapid and heavy breathing — just so, angry people display the same signs: their eyes burn and flash, their whole face reddens with blood that boils up from their innermost organs, their lips tremble, their te