On Mercy (De Clementia)

Seneca, the Stoic philosopher who had been Nero's tutor and was then his chief adviser, addressed On Clemency to the young emperor in AD 55 or 56, when Nero was eighteen and had been on the throne for little more than a year. The work was planned in three books; the first survives complete, the second only in part. This volume contains the first book, which argues that mercy is the virtue that most becomes a ruler.

Seneca begins by presenting the treatise as a mirror in which Nero can see his own goodness. He explains that clemency benefits the innocent as well as the guilty, that it suits a prince because the prince is the mind of the state and binds it together, and that it is a sign of a great soul, since all of us have done wrong. Rulers should imitate the gods, who are merciful; supreme power is in fact a kind of servitude. The central example is Augustus, who pardoned the conspirator Cinna and made him consul, and who showed restraint when sitting in judgement on the son of Tarius. Seneca contrasts king and tyrant, presents the prince as father and physician of his people, urges humane treatment of slaves, and points to the king of the bees, who has no sting. He ends with the harm frequent punishment does and the miseries of a cruel reign.

On Clemency is a central text for Roman political thought under the emperors, read with added interest because of what Nero later became.