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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Seneca called the past age?
(a) The Platonic Age.
(b) The Golden Age.
(c) The Silver Age.
(d) The Bronze Age.

2. According to Letter XCI, what town was destroyed by fire?
(a) Rome.
(b) Vatican City.
(c) Lyons.
(d) Croton.

3. According to Seneca in Letter LXXXVIII, what should man strive to become?
(a) A good man.
(b) A religious man.
(c) A learned man.
(d) A pleasant man.

4. In Letter LXXXIII, whose logic does Seneca question?
(a) Zeno's.
(b) Aristotle's.
(c) Plato's.
(d) Sappho's.

5. According to Stoic thought, what is the formless substance with "unlimited potential?"
(a) Reason.
(b) Cause.
(c) Matter.
(d) Mass.

6. Who especially does Seneca consider when he makes his move to the country?
(a) His father.
(b) His mother.
(c) His wife.
(d) Himself.

7. Who does Seneca point out (in Letter CIV) had a wife and children who constantly nagged him?
(a) Sophocles.
(b) Plato.
(c) Socrates.
(d) Himself.

8. What does Seneca give advice about coping with in Letter LXXVIII?
(a) Grief.
(b) Love.
(c) Religious faith.
(d) Illness.

9. According to Letter LXV, how do friends get Seneca to stop reading and writing while he is sick?
(a) By entertaining him with a short play.
(b) By bringing in a card game.
(c) By taking him to a hospital.
(d) By asking him to discuss a philosophical question.

10. Who wrote the Iliad?
(a) Seneca.
(b) Petronius.
(c) Virgil.
(d) Homer.

11. Why does Seneca praise suicide?
(a) He likes to challenge the legal system.
(b) It is active, not passive.
(c) He is tired of being sick.
(d) To cut back on medical needs of the community.

12. What do the friends Seneca talks about in Letter LXV compare to concepts by Aristotle and Plato?
(a) The Stoic concept of causation.
(b) Arelius' thoughts about life.
(c) Zeno's concept of relationships.
(d) Seneca's thoughts about death.

13. What is symptomatic of excessive attachment to the body, according to Seneca?
(a) Frequent trips to community baths.
(b) Excessive concern with pain.
(c) Excessive primping.
(d) Frequent baths.

14. Where is Seneca when he writes Letter LXXXVI?
(a) In the hospital.
(b) On vacation.
(c) In bed at home recuperating.
(d) At Lucilius' house.

15. Who objects to Posidinus' claims about past rulers and technological inventions?
(a) Lucilius.
(b) Vatia.
(c) Plato.
(d) Seneca.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is duty that Seneca states all men are bound to eventually carry out?

2. According to Seneca, who can truly appreciate wisdom?

3. How much duty does Seneca say one must must fulfill before his life ends?

4. Who says there are five causes?

5. Which line of studies does Seneca say tends to have a special temptation to vanity?

(see the answer keys)

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