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¶ … Seneca and Perpetua
Comparison of Seneca's "On Tranquility of Mind" and Perpetua's Passion
What does the Stoic pagan philosopher Seneca have in common with the Christian martyr Perpetua, other than the fact that both individuals wrote during the latter part of the height of the Classical Roman Empire? Both writers perceived themselves as attempting to live, in real and philosophical terms, an alternative existence to their more contemporary, worldly peers. However, while the Stoic focused on his readers achieving a state of correct philosophical mind, the interpreters of Perpetua's visions and dreams focused on what the young woman's martyrdom meant in a political and physical sense, regardless of Perpetua's own interpretations of her behavior.
Seneca's statement in his essay "On Tranquility of Mind" that it "is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible," seems to have been written for the Christian martyrs whom attempted to perfect their souls by allowing an imperfect world to sacrifice them as public examples of transgressions. Seneca advocated a quiet endurance in the face of societal ills, focusing on self-scrutiny rather than on raging against injustice in the world. This quiet, inner state seems quite literally embodied in the figures of individuals such as Perpetua, who allowed their bodies to be gored at the hands of hungry beasts for public amusement.
Perpetua was a third-century Christian martyr who died with her female slave, Felicitas, in the arena. According to the historian Joyce Salisbury,...
Rather it was also structured, in the martyr's own words, through a series of dreams and visions that highlighted her focus on the world to come, rather than upon the world's evils in the present. Like Seneca, she believed that she could do little to change the minds of her tormentors. All she could do was to uphold her own belief structure in the face of worldly resistance.
However, Salisbury suggests an inherent paradox in the comparison between how the writings of these two individuals have been interpreted by later writers. Although both Seneca and Perpetua may have seen themselves as engaged in fleeing the world, or "world flight," as the Medieval theologians were later to call it, Perpetua's sacrifice, especially by later church patriarchs such as Augustine, was seen primarily as a physical sacrifice. Perpetua's sacrifice was greater because she was young, healthy, and had a child. In other words because of her physical qualities as a member of the weaker sex and as member of the stronger, rather…
Works Cited
Salisbury, Joyce. Perpetua's Passion. New York: Routledge, 1997.
Seneca. Dialogues. Penguin Classics.
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