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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is caused by the flaunting of one's possessions?

2. What creates certain habits of study and thought which are actually useful?

3. Whose first instinct is it to incorporate wisdom into his life and actions?

4. Who says there are four causes?

5. For Stoics, what are two basic elements found in any object?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Seneca object to Posidinus' claims that philosopher's ruled during the Golden Age and were responsible for many new technological innovations?

2. What advice does Seneca give Lucilius about coping with illness and the sometimes severe symptoms that accompany it?

3. What does Seneca say about people who have an excessive concern with pain?

4. What advice does Seneca give for staying safe?

5. What lesson can be learned from the city that burned?

6. List and explain three types of people who, according to Seneca, find philosophy attractive for the wrong reasons.

7. How does Seneca feel about moving to improve studies?

8. How, according to Seneca, are life and philosophy both the gifts of the gods?

9. What does Seneca say causes envy and how can envy be avoided?

10. How, according to Letter LXXXIII, does Seneca spend his day?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Seneca's retirement from Nero's court and his quest for apatheia.

Essay Topic 2

Is Stoicism a religion? Explore why or why not.

Essay Topic 3

Compare and contrast the lives and deaths of Socrates and Seneca.

(see the answer keys)

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