Senator rufus

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Often appears with: slave informer · self-denunciation · diplomacy and embassies · crime and punishment · conspiracy and assassination · augustus

Usually: narrative (1) · injustice endured (1) · praise (1)

L. Annaeus Seneca on Benefits primary

Lucius Annaeus Seneca · c. 59-65 CE (approx.)
BOOK I. The prevalence of ingratitude--How a benefit ought to be bestowed--The three Graces--Benefits are the chief bond of human society--What we owe in return for a benefit received--A benefit consists not of a thing but of the wish to do good--Socrates and > BOOK III. (18/23)

Seneca tells how a slave reports a senator Rufus’s insulting remarks about Caesar, leading Rufus to self-denounce and be pardoned; he praises both Caesar’s mercy and the slave’s service.

who did his master this service was set free; yet his master did not do this for nothing, for Caesar had already paid him the price of the slave's liberty. XXVIII. After so many instances, can we doubt that a master may sometimes receive a benefit from a slave? Why need the person of the giver detract from the thing which he gives? why should not the gift add rather to the glory of the giver. All men descend from th…