On Anger, Book 2, Section 5 — In Plain English

Seneca — The Senator

They say that when Hannibal saw a ditch filled with human blood, he cried out, "What a beautiful sight!" How much more beautiful would he have thought it if it had filled a river or a lake? Why should we be surprised that you find this sight more charming than any other? You were born into bloodshed and raised on slaughter from childhood. Fortune will follow you and reward your cruelty for twenty years. She will show you the sight you love wherever you go. You will see it at Trasimene and at Cannae, and finally at your own city of Carthage. Volesus, who not long ago served as proconsul of Asia Minor under Emperor Augustus, beheaded three hundred people in one day. Then he strutted among the corpses with a proud look, as if he had done something grand and remarkable. He shouted in Greek, "What a kingly deed!" What would this man have done if he had actually been a king? This was not anger — it was something worse and incurable.

Seneca — The Senator Original

It is said that when Hannibal saw a trench full of human blood, he exclaimed, "O, what a beauteous sight!" How much more beautiful would he have thought it, if it had filled a river or a lake? Why should we wonder that you should be charmed with this sight above all others, you who were born in bloodshed and brought up amid slaughter from a child? Fortune will follow you and favour your cruelty for twenty years, and will display to you everywhere the sight that you love. You will behold it both at Trasumene and at Cannae, and lastly at your own city of Carthage. Volesus, who not long ago, under the Emperor Augustus, was proconsul of Asia Minor, after he had one day beheaded three hundred persons, strutted out among the corpses with a haughty air, as though he had performed some grand and notable exploit, and exclaimed in Greek, "What a kingly action!" What would this man have done, had he been really a king? This was not anger, but a greater and an incurable disease.

Seneca — The Senator

We should also ask whether those whose cruelty knows no limits — who delight in spilling human blood — are actually angry when they kill people who have done them no harm. People like Apollodorus or Phalaris. This isn't anger. It's savagery. It doesn't hurt because it has been hurt. It's even willing to be hurt, as long as it gets to hurt others. It doesn't want to beat and torture bodies to get revenge. It does it for pleasure. So what should we make of this? This evil does grow from anger. When anger becomes a habit and gets fed constantly, it makes a person forget mercy. It drives out all sense of human fellowship. Finally, it turns into cruelty. These men laugh, celebrate, and enjoy themselves greatly. They look nothing like angry men — because cruelty has become their form of entertainment.

Seneca — The Senator Original

We must also enquire whether those whose cruelty knows no bounds, and who delight in shedding human blood, are angry when they kill people from whom they have received no injury, and who they themselves do not think have done them any injury; such as were Apollodorus or Phalaris. This is not anger, it is ferocity: for it does not do hurt because it has received injury: but is even willing to receive injury, provided it may do hurt. It does not long to inflict stripes and mangle bodies to avenge its wrongs, but for its own pleasure. What then are we to say? This evil takes its rise from anger; for anger, after it has by long use and indulgence made a man forget mercy, and driven all feelings of human fellowship from his mind, passes finally into cruelty. Such men therefore laugh, rejoice, enjoy themselves greatly, and are as unlike as possible in countenance to angry men, since cruelty is their relaxation.