De Beneficiis (English: On Benefits) is a first-century work by Seneca the Younger. It forms part of a series of moral essays (or "Dialogues") composed by Seneca. De Beneficiis concerns the award and reception of gifts and favours within society, and examines the complex nature and role of gratitude within the context of Stoic ethics.

Meaning of title Although the title is typically translated as On Benefits, the word Beneficiis is derived from the Latin word beneficium, meaning a favor, benefit, service, or kindness.Latin Word Study Tool [Retrieved 2015-03-13] Other translations of the title have included: On gifts and services; On the Award and Reception of Favors;Review by Oleg V. Bychkov, St. Bonaventure University of Seneca, On Benefits, Miriam Griffin and Brad Inwood (trs.) in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews Retrieved 2015-03-12 On Favours; and On kind deeds.

The work is dedicated to Aebutius Liberalis who is also the subject of Letter 91.

Dating of the writing

It is considered that the work was very likely written between the years 56 and 62 AD. Mario Lentano provides a collation of a number of sources who posit different periods of about these years in Brill's Companion to Seneca. Seneca mentions the completed work in his Letters to Lucilius (81. 3) indicating that it was finished by 64.(Translated by J Solodow) Nero was emperor during the time of writing.PG Walsh writing from translation of Cicero – On Obligation (xxxiv) Oxford University Press, 2000 [Retrieved 2015-3-14]

Influences The Greek language term for giving and receiving is δόσις και λῆ(μ)ψις. The Stoic philosopher Hecato of Rhodes is quoted several times in the treatise and was a likely influence for Seneca.

Contents De Beneficiis comprises seven books.Miriam T. Griffin – on Society: A Guide to De Beneficiis (Preface – p. vii) [Retrieved 2015-3-12] The first sentence of the work reads:

Seneca's aim of the work was, through a discussion of benefits (to regulate a practice):M.Griffin in A De Vivo, E Lo Cascio – Seneca uomo politico e l'età di Claudio e di Nerone: atti del Convegno internazionale : Capri 25-27 marzo 1999 p. 90, Edipuglia srl, 2003 [Retrieved 2015-o3-14]

The giving of beneficia was for Seneca the most important thing that morally bound humans in society:

Themes De Beneficiis concerns the nature of relative benefits to persons fulfilling the role in social exchange of either giver or receiver.The European Graduate School Lucius Annaeus Seneca – Biography Retrieved 2015-3-14 This includes benefit-exchange,S Joubert – Paul as Benefactor: Reciprocity, Strategy and Theological Reflection in Paul's Collection p. 40, [Retrieved 2015-3-12] reciprocity,BJ Malina, JJ Pilch – Social Scientific Models for Interpreting the Bible: Essays by the Context Group in Honor of Bruce J. Malina p. 51, Brill, 2001 [Retrieved 2015-3-12] and giving and receiving, within society. The subject of the work might be thought of as social ethics, and specifically Stoic ethics.

De Beneficiis deals with ethics with regards to political leadership.J Sellars – Stoicism p. 13, (Routledge, 2014) [Retrieved 2015-3-16] As such, the work is concerned with the lives of Roman aristocrats, and the nature of their relationships. This is of the form of and etiquette of bond-formation between persons by the giving and exchanging of gifts or services (favors), and is prescriptive ZA Crook – Reconceptualising Conversion: Patronage, Loyalty, and Conversion in the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean, Issue 130 p. 62. Walter de Gruyter, 1 Jan 2004 [Retrieved 2015-3-13] of the way in which the aristocrats might behave, for the good of ancient Roman society.M. Griffin – De Beneficiis and Roman Society Cambridge Journals: Journal of Roman Studies ( November 2003, pp. 92–113) [Retrieved 2015-3-13]T Fear – Of Aristocrats and Courtesans: Seneca, "De Beneficiis" 1.14 JSTOR, originally published by: Franz Steiner Verlag [Retrieved 2015-3-13] Amicitia is the Latin term for friendship in the context of Ancient Roman culture. It represents an ideal. Relationships of this kind would be between elite males of fairly equal social standing.Description in BASE (Bielefeld University Library) of Francois, D – Amicitia in the plays of Terence University of Texas at Austin: Digital Repository [Retrieved 2015-3-29]

History of transmission, publications and translations Earliest The oldest extant copy of the work is of the late 8th to early 9th century. After its founding, the monastery of Lorsch acquired the archetype of the work during sometime circa 850, this had been written somewhere in Italy (probably within the area of Milan) about 800, part of a text known as the codex Nazarianus, (currently in the Palatine collection of the Vatican Library), and after numerous copies were made via monasteries in the Loire. The work was subsequently disseminated throughout Western Europe.

Later Three English translations were made during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century.V Moul – Jonson, Horace and the Classical Tradition (p. 81: footnote 63 Cambridge University Press, 2010 [Retrieved 2015-3-14] The first translation into English was made in 1569 by Nicolas Haward, of books one to three,H.H. Davis – An Unknown and Early Translation of Seneca's "De beneficiis" Huntington Library Quarterly Vol. 24, No. 2 (Feb., 1961), pp. 137–144 – Published by: University of California Press [Retrieved 2015-3-13] while the first full translation into English was made in 1578 by Arthur Golding, and the second in 1614 by Thomas Lodge.B.Y Kunze, D.D. Brautigam – Court, Country, and Culture: Essays on Early Modern British History in Honor of Perez Zagorin (p. 112) Boydell & Brewer, 1992 [Retrieved 2015-3-13] Roger L'Estrange made a paraphrased work in 1678,EG Andrew (c. 2006 professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto) – Patrons of Enlightenment p. 59, University of Toronto Press, 2006 [Retrieved 2015-04-02]Sir Roger L'Estrange – Seneca's Morals by Way of Abstract S. Ballard, 1746 [Retrieved 2015-04-02] he had been making efforts on Seneca's works since at least 1639.Charles Antoine de La Serna Santander – Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de m. C. de la Serna Santander, rédigé et mis en ordre par lui-même p. 1472, (Brussels) 1803[Retrieved 2015-04-02] A partial Latin publication of books 1 to 3, being edited by M. Charpentier – F. Lemaistre, was made circa 1860, books 1 to 3 were translated into French by de Wailly, and a translation into English was made by J. W. Basore circa 1928–1935.David Camden (Ph.D. candidate in Classical Philology at Harvard University) [Retrieved 2015-3-13]

Nicholas Haward chose the title F Heal – The Power of Gifts: Gift Exchange in Early Modern England (p. 17) Oxford University Press, 2014 Retrieved 2015-3-13Religion and Trade: Cross-Cultural Exchanges in World History, 1000–1900 (p. 70: fn 26) edited by F Trivellato, L Halevi, C Antunes – published by Oxford University Press, 2014 [Retrieved 2015-3-14] Arthur Golding called the work .M Archer – The Meaning of "Grace" and "Courtesy": Book VI of The Faerie Queene JSTOR originally published in SEL: Studies in English Literature 1500–1900 (Winter, 1987) [Retrieved 2015-3-15] The standard English form chosen after the Lodge translation of 1613 is On Benefits.J.M. Cooper, J. F. Procopé – Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought – Seneca: Moral and Political Essays (p. 184) Cambridge University Press, 1995 [Retrieved 2015-03-14]

Later reception The ethics of Seneca's writing were readily assimilated by twelfth century Christian thinkers.

Michel de Montaigne was acquainted with the work.the literature of the french renaissance (footnote to p. 161) [Retrieved 2015-3-14Michel de Montaigne – The Complete Essays of Michel de Montaigne Chapter 21: Note 154, Digireads.com Publishing, 2004 [Retrieved 2015-3-14]

The work is recognised as having been influential in the writing of the sociologist Marcel Mauss, specifically his essay The Gift,SC Stroup in The Gift in Antiquity Chapter 8 – 3rd page of copy, edited by Michael Satlow, published by John Wiley & Sons, 2013 [Retrieved 2015-3-14] first published in 1925 in French, and translated in 1954 into English.Marcel Mauss – Essai Sur Le Don Psychology Press, 2002 Retrieved 2015-3-14 The subject of the gift has become a central concept to the discipline of anthropology since Mauss.M Lentano – De Beneficiis p. 204, in Brill's Companion to Seneca: Philosopher and Dramatist Brill, 2013 [Retrieved 2015-3-19]

References

Further reading Translations Miriam Griffin, Brad Inwood, (2011). Seneca: On Benefits. University of Chicago Press.

Studies Degand, Martin, Sénèque au risque du don. Une éthique oblative à la croisée des disciplines, Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. Fear, Trevor (2007). Of Aristocrats and Courtesans: Seneca, De Beneficiis 1.14. Hermes: Zeitschrift für klassische philologie, 135(4), pp. 460–468. oro.open.ac.uk Griffin, M. (2003) "De Beneficiis and Roman Society" The Journal of Roman Studies. Vol. 93. jstor.org Inwood, Brad "Politics and paradox in Seneca's De Beneficiis". In Laks, A., Schofield, M., Justice and generosity: studies in Hellenistic social and political philosophy : proceedings of the Sixth Symposium Hellenisticum (1995) Cambridge University Press, books.google.co.uk Lavery, G. B. 1987 "The Adversarius in Seneca's De Beneficiis". Mnemosyne, Vol. 40. jstor.org

External links

Aubrey Stewart (1887):

John W. Basore, (ed.), (1935), On Benefits at www.stoics.com Latin text at www.perseus.tufts.edu