Seneca should have owned up to it. We’ve talked about this. He was 13 years in Nero’s service before he broke with the clearly broken emperor. It is to Seneca’s credit that he walked away. More to his credit still that he was at least partly involved in the Piso Conspiracy to unseat Nero, as we talked about recently (and is also told at length in Lives of the Stoics).

But where in Seneca’s voluminous writings is there anything about taking responsibility for his role in such a corrupt and evil regime? Sure, Seneca’s violent plays do dance around the topic, sort of subtweeting his former boss–but Seneca could have, should have written more. Generations could have learned from his example…

A worse Stoic in this regard is the infamous Diotimus (also profiled in Lives of the Stoics) who, caught up in some sort of philosophical feud, fabricated a number of letters designed to destroy the reputation of his Epicurean rivals.

He was caught, but the historical record shows us only a defiant Diotimus. We hear nothing of an apology, nothing of an attempt to pick up the pieces, to make it right, to help others learn from what was, although inexcusable, a bit of human folly.

We all make mistakes. We get caught up in things. We strike back at people who have struck at us. We are tempted, blinded, led astray–as Seneca certainly was. It happens. What matters most though, is what happens next. What we do after we have done wrong, how we try to make it right.

Do we take responsibility? Or take refuge in denial? Do we throw ourselves a pity party, do we rage against ‘cancel culture,’ or do we get to work on ourselves…or better yet, get to work making this less about ourselves and more about the people or cause we have harmed?

Learn about these, and the philosophers and thinkers behind Stoicism in Ryan Holiday’s Lives of the Stoics. Grab a signed or personalized copy today!