Seneca, On Peace of Mind 5.5

I think that Curius Dentatus spoke truly when he said that he would rather be dead than alive: the worst evil of all is to leave the ranks of the living before one dies.

Yet it is your duty, if you happen to live in an age when it is not easy to serve the state, to devote more time to leisure and to literature.

Thus, just as though you were making a perilous voyage, you may from time to time put into harbor, and set yourself free from public business without waiting for it to do so.

I have a special fondness for the tales about Manius Curius Dentatus, a consul from the old Roman Republic. The man even had the nerve to be a plebeian, and not a patrician.

He apparently lived a simple life, preferring, as he said, to rule over those who possessed gold to possessing any gold for himself. It would be as if we now somehow elected a congressman who wasn’t already a wealthy lawyer, or doctor, or business mogul.

A story has it that some foreign ambassadors came to visit him, offering elaborate gifts to win his favor. Dentatus, it is said, would have none of it, and sat by the fire, roasting some turnips instead.

“Report and remember,” he told them, “that I can neither be defeated in battle, nor be corrupted with money.”

Now that’s my kind of man. Turnips over gold! What possible point could there be to remaining alive in the body, while already being dead in the soul?

Sometimes Fortune will permit a man like Dentatus to hold high office, but far more often she will deny him such a position. If it must be this way, it is still no obstacle to a good life. Will they not let you follow your calling, or pay you for what you have done, or give you any respect? No matter. Your dignity remains your own.

I have worked in the trenches of education for quite a few years, and in that time I have come across many directors, headmasters, deans, provosts, and presidents. I have known only one who truly maintained his character while in such a position. What was his secret?

There was no secret at all. He was still a teacher at heart, and he was interested only in helping other people learn, one student at a time. He kept roasting his turnips, and he did it very well. When they finally ousted him from office, it seemed so unfair, but he was quite content.

“I’ve spent twenty years dodging the bureaucrats, and the whole time they completely missed what I was doing. All I did was read dusty old books with people, but it was a good run.”

Leisure is not laziness, but rather taking the time to reflect. Literature is not a waste of life, but rather a magnification of all the meaning that can be found in life.

Written in 8/2011

IMAGE: Jacopo Amigoni, Manius Curius Dentatus Refuses the Gifts of the Samnites (c. 1736)