Technical problems are all fixed, and the internet has returned to my room! Whether this is actually a good thing for my revision schedule remains to be seen…

Last week we had to choose our options for the momentously named Part II - I was so excited about it. As always (A levels, degree, specialisation within degree…) I love finding out what the people around me are interested in. In any case, I’ve gone for a very Philology and Linguistics based Part II - one paper on Historical Linguistics, one on Latin/Greek bilingualism in the Roman Empire (very fashionable topic, I’m told) and one interdisciplinary on Death. This is what I’m most excited about, I think, because the lecturers were so energetic - but it looks like it’s going to be a very popular course.

In honour of Paper X1: Death, then, here are some quotes from Seneca the Younger’s letters, which I was revising yesterday (the translation is from this book, which I recommend).

“I shall die” : What you mean is this -  I shall cease to be liable to illness, I shall cease to be liable to bonds, I shall cease to be liable to death… Every day we die, for every day part of our life is lost… the final hour when we actually die does not alone bring our death but simply completes the process. (Letter 24)

“So,” I said, “is death making all these trials of me? Let him: I made trial of him long ago.” “When?” you ask. Before I was born. Death is non-existence. I already know what it is like, and it will be the same after me as it was before me. If there is any torment in the after state in must have been present in the state before we came to birth; yet we felt no distress then. I ask you, wouldn’t you call anyone an utter idiot who thought that a lamp was worse off when it was extinguished than before it was lit? We too are lit and extinguished. (Letter 54)

Puts exams in perspective a bit… some find it all rather morbid, but I find it very comforting. Maybe I’ve watched a bit too much Six Feet Under. All the same, I think that my Desert Island Discs book would be a massive book of Seneca the Younger’s complete works. Maybe even in Latin - that would take me a good few years.