Dying Every Day

Seneca at the Court of Nero

De: James S. Romm

Narrado por: Paul Woodson

James Romm seamlessly weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, despot and madman.

Romm writes that Seneca watched over Nero as teacher, moral guide, and surrogate father, and, at 17, when Nero abruptly ascended to become emperor of Rome, Seneca became, with Nero, the ruler of the Roman Empire. We see how Seneca was able to control his young student, how, under Seneca's influence, Nero ruled with intelligence and moderation, banned capital punishment, reduced taxes, gave slaves the right to file complaints against their owners, pardoned prisoners arrested for sedition. But with time, as Nero grew vain and disillusioned, Seneca was unable to hold sway over the emperor, and between Nero's mother, Agrippina, and Nero's father, how long could the young Nero have been contained?

Dying Every Day is a portrait of Seneca's moral struggle in the midst of madness and excess. As Nero's adviser, Seneca was presented with a more complex set of choices, as the only man capable of summoning the better aspect of Nero's nature, yet, remaining at Nero's side and colluding in the evil regime he created.

©2014 James Romm (P)2021 Tantor

Outstanding

I like the narrative because when it was assuming it let the listener understand the facts of the why the assumed was made. A good book very informative.

Immensely enjoyed.

James Romm’s Dying Every Day is a tightly woven, narratively elegant account of the Roman philosopher Seneca during his years at the court of Nero—a chapter of history as ethically fraught as it is politically brutal.

Reading this book left me not with certainty, but with questions. Was Seneca a coward or a survivor? A compromised philosopher or a reluctant statesman caught in the coils of empire? Romm doesn’t offer us moral clarity—and that may be his greatest strength. Instead, he builds a portrait of a man under pressure, who wrote with philosophical brilliance while serving a tyrant capable of casual executions. Romm doesn’t demand our judgment. He simply holds us in the tension of what we know: that living under the whims of a Roman emperor meant exile—or death—was often one breath away. It’s not hard to imagine that Seneca, at times, looked back on his banishment to Corsica with a sense of lost peace.

Romm’s prose walks a fine line between storytelling and scholarship. I practiced immersion reading—following the text while listening to the audiobook—and the result was a historical work that sounded like a novel. The book flows quickly and deliberately. Romm is not trying to deliver a comprehensive biography. He sets out to explore one specific terrain: Seneca’s presence in the eye of Nero’s storm. And on that mission, he absolutely hits his mark. The narrative is lean, the pace brisk, and the scope focused. You get the sense that every word was chosen to serve the core tension between Stoic thought and imperial service.

The book doesn’t try to resolve the contradiction between Seneca’s lofty moral writings and his service to a despot. That’s not Romm’s job—it’s ours. And if we’re honest, that tension may reflect something deeply human. Years ago, I might’ve dismissed Seneca as a hypocrite or opportunist. But time—and reading—softens judgment. There’s a line of thinking that says, “We’d all be the ones to hide Anne Frank.” But in truth, statistically, most of us would not. Most of us would survive. And perhaps that’s what Seneca did. He did not die in protest like some of his Stoic peers. He died an old man, by his own hand, at Nero’s request. Was it poetic? Yes. Heroic? Not quite. Human? Absolutely.

I no longer need Seneca to be clean. I need him to be useful. Dying Every Day doesn’t sanitize or sanctify. It simply places Seneca where he lived: in the middle of a moral minefield, writing philosophy by candlelight while Rome burned.

This book is for the reader who doesn’t need heroes—just humans trying to live by principles in impossible situations. It’s for those who understand that wisdom doesn’t require perfection, and that surviving tyranny sometimes makes philosophers more relevant, not less.

Exactly what I wanted from this book

It gives a good look into the life and times of Seneca, touching on some of his philosophy, and how and when he used it or ignored it, in his own life.
Will read again.

pleasant narration, engaging characters, enriching

Delightful historial-psychological storytelling about the major dramatis personae in Seneca's Rome. Author J. Romm interweaves documented facts with accessible, plausible, human character studies. Unintrusive flowing narration by Paul Woodson = so smooth and clear that I listened twice!

Romm traces Lucius Annaeus Seneca from his affluent Córdoba birth, through his legendary literary career, into his governance duties as Nero's tutor/co-ruler. The story unfolds his lifelong asthma, moral philosophy and its hypocrisies, banishment and restoration, oligarch status, usurious loan-making to Britannia, and his forced suicide, age-68.

Romm paints an understandable - though terrifying - picture of violent, sadistic, paranoid, pleasure-junkie Nero. He also develops insightful portraits of Nero's ambitious, stop-at-nothing "momager" Agrippina [murdered], teenage wife-1 Octavia [murdered] wife-2 beloved Poppaea [murdered], father-figure Praetorian tutor Burrus, and Seneca's enduring wife, Paulina - inter multa alia. Recommended for Seneca fans!

Best book on Seneca I’ve read

Well, written, and very interesting, so easy to listen to and so informative Highly recommend for an a fan of Seneca

Great book…A must read!!

Great book! Thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it!! Just shows you a great view of Senacca!

GREAT

GREAT; very good history of Seneca the Younger and his philosophy. The contrast between pseudo Seneca and Seneca the man is GREAT.

Clear reading, great information, great choice of a narrator.

Seneca remains to be morally ambiguous til this day, his teachings remain invaluable regardless. Great book.