Conscientia in Seneca

Conscientia in Seneca Three Footnotes
Author(s): B. L. Hijmans Jr.

Source: Mnemosyne, Fourth Series, Vol. 23, Fasc. 2 (1970), pp. 189-192
Published by: BRILL
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4429850
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MISCELLANEA
189
sind die Verse 37-8 zu lesen in der Form, die

2. Im Aitienprolog
haben.
Nur soll man statt d??at? mit dem
sie im Hesiodscholion
Der Anfang
von 37 (-ww-)
ist bis
Papyrus
d??at? schreiben.
hielten ja auch Lobel und
zu betrachten;
auf weiteres
als verloren
in die L?cke
?? ???es?? unterzubringen
Hunt es f?r unm?glich,
ab
et, ut nunc opinor,
spatio longius
(vgl. Pf. ad loc. : ??????es??
huius loci sensu alienum").
darauf hinweisen,
dass die an sich schon
sch?esslich
Ich m?chte
von W. Wimmel
Aufstellungen
(Kallimachos
wenig ?berzeugenden
w?rden.
in Rom, 51 ff.) bei dieser Sachlage
v?llig hinf?llig
Oegstgeest,
Prins
Bernhardlaan
CONSCIENTIA
IN
C. M. J. Sicking
28
SENECA
THREE
FOOTNOTES
in the younof the use of the term conscientia

with
the
will
deal
one
footnotes
some
;
requires
ger Seneca*)
another
with the
for his concept,
Seneca employs
spatial language
a third
the custos to conscientia,
relates
Seneca
whether
question
table that was used.
with the comparative
A recent
a) Spatial
discussion
terminology
I, 13, 3 2) : qui, ubi circumspexit,

quaeque fecit quaeque
ac tormentis
sceleribus
suam plenam
est, et conscientiam
facturus
words
The
mortem
timet, saepius optat e.q.s.
plenam
saepe
adaperuit,
or is it meant
and adaperuit suggest space. Is this space a metaphor
that have
by Molenaar
literally ? The two further places mentioned
and
similar terminology
7,1, 7, p. 180)
(De benef. 3,1, 4, p. 177,
do not make this clear, but there are several others. At De benef.
clusus est,
we read hie (sc. vir gratus) intra conscientiam
4, 21,1
De
clem.
?) G. Molenaar, Mnemos. IV 22 (1969), 170-180. The survey would have

been useful if many references had not been wrong and if some had been
there. E.g. p. 170 n. 2: Schwyzer quotes Hierocles, not Musonius Rufus
(Entr. Hardt V, 1957, 357_8)? Mus. seems to have neither s??a?s??s?? nor
s??e?d?s??, but conscientia occurs in a fragment taken from Gellius (ed.
Hense p. 131.11); p. 174 line 3: Clem. I 9 should read I 11, 3 (Pr?chac) or
I 13, 3 (Hosius) : I 9, 9 (Hosius) also has conscientia but it is not the passage
referred to; p. 174 note 3: V.B. VII 2 should read V.B. 20, 4 or Dial. VII
20, 4; p. 178 line 2: (Clem.) I 15 should be I 1 : De clem. 1, 15, 5 also has an
example of conscientia, but it is not the passage referred to. The phrase
(p. 170 line 15) "the word s??a?s??s?? became a technical term in natural
science" requires a reference or two to be useful.
2) Citations according to the various Teubner editions, except for the
Letters which have been checked in Reynolds' OCT.
MISCELLANEA
ICO
tacitam
elsewhere
that
duorum
conmaxima
beneficia . . . intra
consc. here 'awareness'
scientiam
rather
latent (De benef. 3, 10,2;
of voluntas
in much the same
than 'conscience').
Seneca
speaks
way: De benef. 2, 25, 2 ut voluntas nostra non lateatur, sed aperiatur
et luceat. There are, on the other hand, also instances
where conscientia is not the container
but the contained;
cf. De v. b. 19, 1,
De benef. 4, 21, 6, fr. 24 Haase. It seems quite possible
that Seneca
nature of thinker and thought,
was acutely aware of the coextensive
show
that
and investigation
Seneca
would
probably
regarded
conscientia
in all its senses as an aspect of animus
(cf. e.g. the play
between
and 'conscience'
at De brev. vit. 13, 2 as well as
'knowledge'
De tr. an. 7, 3, Molenaar
p. 173), which, in so far as it is corpus
filling a place,
(ep. 113, 25), may of course be spoken of as literally
nature is also able to penetrate
but which in view of its tenuous
wherever
it pleases (ep. 50, 6). Again, it is the summi boni locus (ep.
I am hesitant
is possible,
87, 21). Where such a literal interpretation
to speak of spatial imagery since we are dealing with a self-confessed
Stoic.
in the same context,
Mr. Molenaar
quotes,
ep. 43, 4: conscientia
a
the
entrance
of
the
man" (my italics).
at
interior
"places
janitor
I do not think that Seneca
is speaking
Lucilius
metaphorically.
man in the province
and his every
is an important
is
activity
In Seneca's
he
scrutinized.
can
himself
only judge
opinion
happy
if he is truly able to live in publico, if his house serves to protect
rather than to hide him. Modern man with his electronic
listening
devices
may smile a little, but Seneca is quite serious and quite
literal except, perhaps,
for a slight but noticeable
element
of persoin par. 5 of the same letter
which also appears
nification,
(bona
conscientia
turbam advocat). Cf. ep. 97, 12 (bona conscientia
prodire
such as Phoen. 216 (fugio conscium scelerum
vult) and expressions
and H.F.
serus
conscios
vultus
692 (Pudorque
omniumjpectus)
of
For
a
similar
treatment
virtus
see
20
and
66,
tegit).
e.g. ep.
27,
of ratio ibid. 32 and 45-6, De ira ?, ?8, ?.
b) Conscientia
and Cusios
In his discussion
of the relationship
between
conscientia
and
observator-custos
based on ep. 41, 2 (cf. ep. 31, 11) Molenaar
states
"Seneca
between
God and human
con(p. 180):
distinguishes
science".
He follows
Pohlenz
rather
than
(Die Stoa, I, 317,320)
Sevenster
suffers from a
(Paul and Seneca,
90 f.). The discussion
lack of clarity in -so far as Seneca's
usage of terms such as deus,
and the ease with
di, mens, Spiritus, ratio etc. remains
undefined,
which the author
the transition
makes
from the terminology
of
the strict
scheme
of Stoicism
to the much
less strict
physical
MISCELLANEA
I9I
of popular
custos
language
goes unnoticed.
Certainly
expressions
at least once (fr. 14 Haase:
are identical
custos te
and conscientia
non h?here conscium
habenti
tuus sequitur . . . quid Ubi prodest
whereas at De benef. 3, 17, 3 testes ingratorum
omnium
conscientiam),
conscientia
deos metuit, urit ilium et angit intercepti
the
beneficii
of the first, rather than the
second phrase may well be explicative
It is interesting
item.
to compare
of another
mere addition
ep.
deos omnis,
no, 1 iubeo (te) habere mentem bonam, hoc est propitios
This last
quisqu?s sibi se propitiavit.
quos habet placatos et faventes
close to the notion
of bona conscientia.
comes
very
expression
a distinction
between
the di . . .
At De v.b. 20, 5 there is indeed
the
on
one
hand
and
conscientia
censores factorum
dictorumque
me conscio)
on the other, but ep. 73,
(as well as the expression
15-16, 41, 2 etc. etc. make it quite clear that Seneca feels no pangs
of God or the gods as transcendent
in speaking
and
of conscience
as present within a human being in one and the same breath.
c) The comparative
table
Mr. Molenaar has counted

44 places where conscientia
figures in
I am not
of Seneca's
the remains
opera omnia. Th. L. L. gives?if
Leiden
consc.
Mulder
notione,
1908,
(De
mistaken?39,
printed
in
is difficult,
after Th. L. L., cf. p. 6 note 1) has 48. Counting
on which the count is to be made are not
if the principles
particular
two references
I suspect
Molenaar
has excluded
first established.
hon. vit. 3,4
and
Form.
in Haase's
(p. 69,11-12)
Supplement:
De moribus 65 (= m?nita 26), yet there are good reasons to regard
at least in origin. Even when the same restriction
both as Senecan
is applied,
48 if one counts
my own count results in 46 instances,
acc. to works: dialogi
epp. 12, 9 and 43, 5 double. The distribution
2,
7, de benef 15, de clem. 4, letters 17 (19), nat. qu. 1, fragments
Molenaar:
established
to
the
by
2];
according
groups
[excerpts
with someone else' 3, b. 'with obj. gen. (pos.)' 4, c. 'with
a. 'together
1 [2], d. 'absolute'
22, e. 'mala consc'
4 [6], /.
obj. gen. (neg.)'
to
on whether
one wishes
'bona consc'
11, 12 or 13 depending
Mr. Molenaar's
count ep. 12, 9 and ep. 117, 1 (salva conscientia).
count of 1 under b. and 4 under c. is the result of a misprint
(cf.
but
may seem of minor importance,
p. 173). The actual counting
where
such small
statistics
of applying
in view of the hazards
of
seems
are involved
numbers
importance.
paramount
accuracy
with
lies in the comparison
of the table,
The interest
however,
in roughly 350.000
Cicero. It would seem that with ca. 45 instances
than Cicero with ca.
words Seneca uses the term more frequently
avoids
Molenaar
words.
drawing
rightly
73 x) in some 1.300.000
1) Mulder mentions
77 instances.
MISCELLANEA
192
but he does draw

with regard to absolute
conclusions
frequency,
of particular
with respect to relative frequency
conclusions
types of
whether
word
an idea-carrying
One must
ask, however,
usage.
is likely to be produced
like conscientia
Thus it
by the context.
that in Cicero's
letters
conscientia
with an obj. gen.
is curious
in a positive
never occurs in the negative
sense some 15
sense;
to which one may add praeclara consc. (Att. 10, 4, 5), and
times,
recta consc. (Att. 13, 20, 4). Again the context
of beneficia seems to
of instances
in Seneca
account
for rather a large number
(15 in
De benef., add ep. 81, 20 and 21); and at least 15 of the instances
under rubric c (Cicero) are to be found in the speeches
x). Theretable that takes context
into account,
in partifore, a comparative
cular if it is balanced
table that shows distribution
by another
in the various works, would be much more enlightening.
University
of Manitoba
SEG
B. L. Hijmans
VI,
731:
Jr.
[S??]???S?
A
Side
of the
honorific
third
A. D. from
inscription
century
in Pamphylia
tells us that the boule,
the demos
and the
gerousia have set up a statue of the ?e?? [s???]??t??
(i.e. a personification of the Roman
by the side of (pa??) ta?? ?e?a??
Senate2))
. .| .]ea?? 3).
t?? Se?as[t??
t[?? p??|?]????
Two restorations
have been proposed:
[d?|?]ea??
(W. M. Calder)
and [?e|?]ea??
is supposed
(Paribeni-RomanelH;
Buckler).
???e?
to mean 'gift portrait
or bust' and G. F. Hill reasonably
calls this
or bust' surely is ade"quite adequate"
4). The meaning
'portrait
whether
the concept
of a
quate in this text but it seems doubtful
is what we really need; nor am I sure that we do not
'gift portrait'
of the Greek by interpreting
strain the meaning
d??e? as a 'gift
the
the
of
ancestors
at first
moreover,
d??ea?
portrait')
emperor's
seem to indicate
sight would
gifts or privileges,
conveyed
upon
an individual
whereas Calder and Hill naturally
by these ancestors,
?) I suspect that the Cicero numbers have been accidentally interchanged
between b. and c. as was the case with the numbers for Seneca. I have not
taken the time to make a very accurate check of all the Cicero passages involved.
2) Cf. G. Forni, ?e?? e Te?? S?????t??: Un capitolo dimenticato nella
storia del Senato Romano, Mem. Acc. Lincei, Sc. Mor. Stor., Ser. VIII, vol. 5,
nr. 3 ; Forni missed this example from Side.
3) SEG VI, 731; cf. also L. Robert, Rev. de Phil. 1958, 27.
4) Anatolian Studies W. M. Ramsey (Manchester 1923), 216.

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Conscientia in Seneca Three Footnotes

Author(s): B. L. Hijmans Jr.

sind die Verse 37-8 zu lesen in der Form, die

in the younof the use of the term conscientia

I, 13, 3 2) : qui, ubi circumspexit,

?) G. Molenaar, Mnemos. IV 22 (1969), 170-180. The survey would have

Mr. Molenaar has counted

but he does draw

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