Seneca · c. 4 BCE – 65 CE
On Clemency 1.4 ¶1–2 — Seneca
Translation by Aubrey Stewart (1889)
Seneca, On Clemency 1.4 ¶1–2
Men therefore love their own safety, when they draw up vast legions in battle on behalf of one man, when they rush to the front, and expose their breasts to wounds, for fear that their leader’s standards should be driven back. He is the bond which fastens the commonwealth together, he is the breath of life to all those thousands, who by themselves would become merely an encumbrance and a source of plunder if that directing mind were withdrawn:— Bees have but one mind, till their king doth die, But when he dies, disorderly they fly.
Cite this passage
Seneca, On Clemency 1.4 ¶1–2, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1889)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/on-clemency/1.4.1
Seneca, Dialogues, tr. Aubrey Stewart (1887–1889). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA leader is the bond that holds a community together, and people defend him because they are really defending their own safety; without that guiding mind the crowd would fall apart, like bees once their king dies.
Older wording
- “commonwealth”
- — the state or community as a whole
- “encumbrance”
- — a burden or hindrance
Themes and situations
- Leadership and power
- Community and our duty to others
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