History of European Morals From Augustus to Charlemagne Volume I Part 18

"Rebus in adversis facile est contemnere vitam, Fort.i.ter ille facit qui miser esse potest."

See, too, Martial, xi. 56.

311 Especially _Ep._ xxiv. Seneca desires that men should not commit suicide with panic or trepidation. He says that those condemned to death should await their execution, for "it is a folly to die through fear of death;" and he recommends men to support old age as long as their faculties remain unimpaired. On this last point, however, his language is somewhat contradictory. There is a good review of the opinions of the ancients in general, and of Seneca in particular, on this subject in Justus Lipsius' _Manuductio ad Stoicam Philosophiam_, lib. iii. dissert. 22, 23, from which I have borrowed much.

312 In his _Meditations_, ix. 3, he speaks of the duty of patiently awaiting death. But in iii. 1, x. 8, 22-32, he clearly recognises the right of suicide in some cases, especially to prevent moral degeneracy. It must be remembered that the _Meditations_ of Marcus Aurelius were private notes for his personal guidance, that all the Stoics admitted it to be wrong to commit suicide in cases where the act would be an injury to society, and that this consideration in itself would be sufficient to divert an emperor from the deed.

Antoninus, the uncle, predecessor, and model of M. Aurelius, had considered it his duty several times to prevent Hadrian from committing suicide (Spartia.n.u.s, _Hadria.n.u.s_). According to Capitolinus, Marcus Aurelius in his last illness purposely accelerated his death by abstinence. The duty of not hastily, or through cowardice, abandoning a path of duty, and the right of man to quit life when it appears intolerable, are combined very clearly by Epictetus, _Arrian_, i. 9; and the latter is a.s.serted in the strongest manner, i. 24-25.

313 Porphyry, _De Abst. Carnis_, ii. 47; Plotinus, 1st Enn. ix. Porphyry says (_Life of Plotinus_) that Plotinus dissuaded him from suicide.

There is a good epitome of the arguments of this school against suicide in Macrobius, _In Som. Scip._ 1.

314 Quoted by Seneca, _Ep._ xxvi. Cicero states the Epicurean doctrine to be, "Ut si tolerabiles sint dolores, feramus, sin minus aequo animo e vita, c.u.m ea non placet, tanquam e theatro, exeamus" (_De Finib._ i. 15); and again, "De Diis immortalibus sine ullo metu vera sent.i.t. Non dubitat, si ita melius sit, de vita migrare."-Id. i. 19.

315 This is noticed by St. Jerome.

316 Corn. Nepos, _Atticus_. He killed himself when an old man, to shorten a hopeless disease.

317 Petronius, who was called the arbitrator of tastes ("elegantiae arbiter"), was one of the most famous voluptuaries of the reign of Nero. Unlike most of his contemporaries, however, he was endowed with the most exquisite and refined taste; his graceful manners fascinated all about him, and made him in matters of pleasure the ruler of the Court. Appointed Proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards Consul, he displayed the energies and the abilities of a statesman.

A Court intrigue threw him out of favour; and believing that his death was resolved on, he determined to antic.i.p.ate it by suicide.

Calling his friends about him, he opened his veins, shut them, and opened them again; prolonged his lingering death till he had arranged his affairs; discoursed in his last moments, not about the immortality of the soul or the dogmas of philosophers, but about the gay songs and epigrams of the hour; and partaking of a cheerful banquet, died as recklessly as he had lived. (Tacit. _Annal._ xvi.

18-19.) It has been a matter of much dispute whether or not this Petronius was the author of the _Satyricon_, one of the most licentious and repulsive works in Latin literature.

318 Seneca, _De Vita Beata_, xix.

319 "Imperfectae vero in homine naturae praecipua solatia, ne Deum quidem posse omnia; namque nec sibi potest mortem consciscere si velit, quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitae pnis."-_Hist. Nat._ ii. 5.

_ 320 Hist. Nat._ ii. 63. We need not be surprised at this writer thus speaking of sudden death, "Mortes repentinae (hoc est summa vitae felicitas)," vii. 54.

_ 321 Tusc. Quaest._ lib. 1. Another remarkable example of an epidemic of suicide occurred among the young girls of Miletus. (_Aul. Gell._ xv.

10.)

322 Sir Cornewall Lewis, _On the Credibility of Early Roman History_, vol. ii. p. 430. See, too, on this cla.s.s of suicides, Cromaziano, _Istorica Critica del Suicidio_ (Venezia, 1788), pp. 81-82. The real name of the author of this book (which is, I think, the best history of suicide) was Buonafede. He was a Celestine monk. The book was first published at Lucca in 1761. It was translated into French in 1841.

323 Senec. _De Provid._ ii.; _Ep._ xxiv.

324 See some examples of this in Seneca, _Ep._ lxx.

325 See a long catalogue of suicides arising from this cause, in Cromaziano, _Ist. del Suicidio_, pp. 112-114.

_ 326 Consol. ad Marc._ c. xx.

_ 327 De Ira_, iii. 15.

_ 328 Ep._ lxx.

329 See Donne's _Biathanatos_ (London, 1700), pp. 56-57. Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, ch. xliv. Blackstone, in his chapter on suicide, quotes the sentence of the Roman lawyers on the subject: "Si quis impatientia doloris aut taedio vitae aut morbo aut furore aut pudore mori maluit non animadvertatur in eum." Ulpian expressly a.s.serts that the wills of suicides were recognised by law, and numerous examples of the act, notoriously prepared and publicly and gradually accomplished, prove its legality in Rome. Suetonius, it is true, speaks of Claudius accusing a man for having tried to kill himself (Claud, xvi.), and Xiphilin says (lxix. 8) that Hadrian gave special permission to the philosopher Euphrates to commit suicide, "on account of old age and disease;" but in the first case it appears from the context that a reproach and not a legal action was meant, while Euphrates, I suppose, asked permission to show his loyalty to the emperor, and not as a matter of strict necessity. There were, however, some Greek laws condemning suicide, probably on civic grounds. Josephus mentions (_De Bell. Jud._ iii. 8) that in some nations "the right hand of the suicide was amputated, and that in Judea the suicide was only buried after sunset." A very strange law, said to have been derived from Greece, is reported to have existed at Ma.r.s.eilles. Poison was kept by the senate of the city, and given to those who could prove that they had sufficient reason to justify their desire for death, and all other suicide was forbidden. The law was intended, it was said, to prevent hasty suicide, and to make deliberate suicide as rapid and painless as possible. (Valer.

Maximus, ii. 6, -- 7.) In the Reign of Terror in France, a law was made similar to that of Domitian. (Carlyle's _Hist. of the French Revolution_, book v. c. ii.)

330 Compare with this a curious "order of the day," issued by Napoleon in 1802, with the view of checking the prevalence of suicide among his soldiers. (Lisle, _Du Suicide_, pp. 462-463.)

331 See Suetonius, _Otho._ c. x.-xi., and the very fine description in Tacitus, _Hist._ lib. ii. c. 47-49. Martial compares the death of Otho to that of Cato:

"Sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Caesare major; Dum moritur, numquid major Othone fuit?"

-_Ep._ vi. 32.

332 Xiphilin, lxviii. 12.

333 Tacit. _Hist._ ii. 49. Suet. _Otho_, 12. Suetonius says that, in addition to these, many soldiers who were not present killed themselves on hearing the news.

334 Ibid. _Annal._ xiv. 9.

335 Plin. _Hist. Nat._ vii. 54. The opposite faction attributed this suicide to the maddening effects of the perfumes burnt on the pile.

336 Tacit. _Annal._ vi. 26.

337 Plin. _Ep._ i. 12.

338 This history is satirically and unfeelingly told by Lucian. See, too, Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus, xxix. 1.

339 Sophocles.

340 Arrian, i. 24.

341 Seneca, _Ep._ lviii.

342 Stobaeus. One of the most deliberate suicides recorded was that of a Greek woman of ninety years old.-Val. Maxim. ii. 6, -- 8.

343 Plin. _Ep._ iii. 7. He starved himself to death.

_ 344 Ep._ i. 22. Some of Pliny's expressions are remarkable:-"Id ego arduum in primis et praecipua laude dignum puto. Nam impetu quodam et instinctu procurrere ad mortem, commune c.u.m multis: deliberare vero et causas ejus expendere, utque suaserit ratio, vitae mortisque consilium suscipere vel ponere, ingentis est animi." In this case the doctors p.r.o.nounced that recovery was possible, and the suicide was in consequence averted.

345 Lib. vi. _Ep._ xxiv.

_ 346 Ep._ lxxvii. On the former career of Marcellinus, see _Ep._ xxix.

347 See the very beautiful lines of Statius:-

"Urbe fuit media nulli concessa potentum Ara Deum, mitis posuit Clementia sedem: Et miseri fecere sacram, sine supplice numquam Illa novo; nulla d.a.m.navit vota repulsa.

Auditi quicunque rogant, noctesque diesque Ire datum, et solis numen placare querelis.

Parca superst.i.tio; non thurea flamma, nec altus Accipitur sanguis, lachrymis altaria sudant ...

Nulla autem effigies, nulli commissa metallo Forma Deae, mentes habitare et pectora gaudet.

Semper habet trepidos, semper locus horret egenis Ctibus, ignotae tantum felicibus arae."-_Thebaid_, xii. 481-496.

This altar was very old, and was said to have been founded by the descendants of Hercules. Diodorus of Sicily, however, makes a Syracusan say that it was brought from Syracuse (lib. xiii. 22).

Marcus Aurelius erected a temple to "Beneficentia" on the Capitol.

(Xiphilin, lib. lxxi. 34.)

348 Herodotus, vi. 21.