Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2012 Forgiveness in Ancient Rome: A review of contemporary forgiveness clementia Caesaris and Senecas De clementia James Sedlak Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the Ancient History, Greek and Roman through Late Antiquity Commons, and the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Sedlak, James, "Forgiveness in Ancient Rome: A review of contemporary forgiveness clementia Caesaris and Senecas De clementia" (2012). Honors Theses. 899. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/899 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. FORGIVENESS IN ANCIENT ROME: A REVIEW OF CONTEMPORARY FORGIVENESS, CLEMENTIA CAESARIS, AND SENECA’S DE CLEMENTIA BY JAMES J. SEDLAK ************* Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of Classics and the Department of Philosophy UNION COLLEGE JUNE, 2012 ABSTRACT SEDLAK, JAMES Forgiveness in Ancient Rome: A review of contemporary forgiveness, clementia Caesaris, and Seneca’s De clementia. This thesis explores the question of modern forgiveness in the lives of ancient Romans. Specifically, did their understanding of clementia reflect contemporary forgiveness? In the first chapter, I analyze five views on forgiveness and offer my own account. In the second chapter, I explore clementia in the life of Julius Caesar during the Roman Republic. In the third chapter, I analyze Lucius Annaeus Seneca’s philosophy on clementia in Imperial Rome.