Introduction
Seneca The Younger was born at the same time as Christ, but that is not why he grabs my attention. I am drawn to the fact that he writes about his experience of Asthma, something I have had to deal with in my life more than 2000 years later. Nowadays, I can usually keep the worst of it at bay with a regime of preventer and reliever inhalers and, when those fail, nebulisers and oral steroids can be used, or Oxygen in a secondary health care system, if it comes to it. Antibiotics can be thrown in to the mix to deal with any infection too.
Seneca had none of that, and what is not widely known, is that during my childhood in the 1960’s and 70’s, reliever and preventer inhalers did not exist – or at least none that worked. Ventolin was not available to me on prescription until I was 20 years old, when I drew, for the first time, what resembled a real breath. So, there was no daily management of Asthma during my entire childhood, I mostly had the same experience as Seneca. Thus, I was interested in what he had to say.
Seneca and Asthma
In his brief essay on the subject, he opens with such familiarity for all who suffer with any chronic condition: “Ill health – which had granted me quite a long spell of leave – has attacked me without warning again.”
He then complains of having many ailments, but this one is the worst for him, claiming that the doctors of the time had nicknamed it “rehearsing death”. It leads him to reflect on his own mortality, reflecting that, like a lamp, “we too are lit and put out”, which in turn, leads him to conclude that the result of death is simply no existence, as was the case before being born.
All of these reflections were present for him whilst he was disabled by the asthma attack. As the attack abates, his stoicism is applied to having no fear of death when it comes for him. Whilst he assures others that he finds joy in life, despite afflictions, and will not therefore end his life, he will not resist as he maintains that a wise man will escape necessity by willing what necessity intends to force on him.
For me, it is a great treasure to read an account that has so much familiarity about it, but which was written so long ago. I may not be quite so willing to embrace death as a necessity, but do tend, at age 66, to shrug my shoulders a lot more.
Asthma and Fraser
I am reminded of how it was as a child without the drugs that are available today, sat bolt upright in bed, fighting to breathe, and failing, and eventually getting up and sat upright in the chair in order to desperately try and get some sleep, as lying down would initiate another attack, with tears rolling down my face, believing that I would die every single time. Thus, Seneca’s description of “rehearsal of death” seems particularly appropriate. His description was as an adult, and he had his stoic beliefs to accompany him through these episodes. I had my mother praying to her God, whilst rubbing my back, and slapping Vick on to my chest and nostrils in a vain attempt to bring some form of relief, whilst my father would retreat to the shed in the garden in order to smoke another cigarette, unencumbered by an asthmatic child, and to turn some more wood on a lathe, as that was something he could control.
As an adult, when hospitalised, I accepted the possibility that I could die, particularly as the asthma was accompanied by flu, pneumonia and atrial fibrillation. My conscious mind was shrugging shoulders, whilst my unconscious mind may have borne the responsibility for the atrial fibrillation, suddenly jolting me from 153 beats per minute back down to 103, the norm for me being around 60. In reality, the fact that I had been admitted to hospital greatly increased my chances of survival, as was pointed-out to me by a clinician comment of “you are lucky to have got here when you did”. This was in February, 2019, a year before knowing anything about Covid-19, so the clinician turned-out to be prophetic as well as commenting on my situation back then. I shudder when I think of it now, and it was one of the main drivers for me to spend shielding periods in a strictly isolated fashion, having had the most incredible support from one family member in particular.
The Writings of Seneca
Seneca was a high-born Roman, born around 3AD, and he lived till he was around 68 or 69. He was born in Córdoba in Spain. He was exiled to Corsica for 8 years, following an accusation of adultery, and he spent some time as tutor to the future Emperor Nero, but later took his own life on the instructions of Nero, considered to be a virtuous act in stoic terms.
He was a prolific writer, often espousing his values within letters to others on all sorts of subjects. His writing influenced those writing Elizabethan tragedies, Marcus Aurelius, Dante Alighieri, Augustine of Hippo and many others too. And both Michel de Montaigne and Francis Bacon cite his letters as being an inspiration.
Given the prolific nature of his writing, known mostly for his tragedies, we are given a good account of life in Rome over 2000 years ago, but at the same time, there is some debate as to which writings should be attributed to Seneca, and which should not. His emphasis was on brevity and clarity, whilst containing some reference to the stoicism that was such a part of his life, as was the case with many of his fellow Roman citizens of the time. To that end, he was popular, and was read in public, but his critics referred to his writing as jerky in nature.
The influence of Seneca saw a revival in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which led to the kind of prose we can recognise today, and to Seneca having the reputation of the progenitor of modern essay writing. On a personal note, and as a reader and writer, I feel honoured and privileged to be able to read his words so long after they were written. I believe they have lessons for us all.
Fraser
September 2024