To put the matter bluntly, would a good emperor, or a good Stoic, or both, have gone ahead and killed Turnus?
To put the matter bluntly, would a good emperor, or a good Stoic, or both, have gone ahead and killed Turnus?
April 29, 2020 Comments Off on To put the matter bluntly, would a good emperor, or a good Stoic, or both, have gone ahead and killed Turnus? Uncategorized Assignment-helpThe following is a quote from M. Tullius Cicero’s De Officiis (On Duties): Panaetius was a Stoic philosopher who died in about 110 BC.“ The consideration necessary to determine conduct1 is, therefore, as Panaetius thinks, a threefold one: first, people question whether the contemplated act is morally right or morally wrong; and in such deliberation their minds are often led to widely divergent conclusions. And then they examine and consider the question whether the action contemplated is or is not conducive to comfort and happiness in life, to the command of means and wealth, to influence, and to power, by which they may be able to help themselves and their friends; this whole matter turns upon a question of expediency. The third type of question arises when that which seems to be expedient seems to conflict with that which is morally right; for when expediency seems to be pulling one way, while moral right seems to be calling back in the opposite direction, the result is that the mind is distracted in its inquiry and brings to it the irresolution that is born of deliberation.”Use this quote as a guideline to determine whether Aeneas was “right” to kill Turnus at the end of the Aeneid: was it morally right? Conducive to Aeneas’ comfort, happiness, etc? And if the two conflict, how might Aeneas have resolved the issue. You might want to consult Book 6 of the poem, the Stoic cosmogeny of the eternal return that explains how Aeneas can see his descendants in the Underworld; you should also consult two lives in the Lives of the Later Caesars, the life of Trajan, a pastiche of various sources compiled by Anthony Birley; and the life of Marcus Antoninus the Philosopher, better known to history as Marcus Aurelius, a genuine Stoic philosopher as well as emperor, author of the Meditations; and you should look at the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (sent earlier, and also at the end of the Velleius Paterculus book). To put the matter bluntly, would a good emperor, or a good Stoic, or both, have gone ahead and killed Turnus?