On Anger, Book 2, Section 9 — In Plain English

Seneca — The Senator

"Host is not safe from guest. Father-in-law fears son. Brothers rarely love each other. Wives plot to destroy their husbands. Husbands plan to kill their wives. Stepmothers prepare deadly poison. Children wonder when their fathers will finally die." But these are just a tiny fraction of human crimes! The poet hasn't even described a whole nation split into two warring camps. He hasn't written about parents and children fighting on opposite sides. Or Rome burned by Roman hands. Or fierce cavalry hunting down the condemned in their hiding places. Or wells poisoned. Or plagues created on purpose. Or children digging trenches around their own besieged parents. Or packed prisons. Or fires that devour entire cities. Or dark tyrannies. Or secret plots to seize power and destroy nations. Or people celebrating acts that used to be called crimes — rape, corruption, and lust.

Seneca — The Senator Original

"Host is not safe from guest, Father-in-law from son; but seldom love Exists 'twixt brothers; wives long to destroy Their husbands, husbands long to slay their wives, Stepmothers deadly aconite prepare And child-heirs wonder when their sires will die." And how small a part of men's crimes are these! The poet[5] has not described one people divided into two hostile camps, parents and children enrolled on opposite sides, Rome set on fire by the hand of a Roman, troops of fierce horsemen scouring the country to track out the hiding-places of the proscribed, wells defiled with poison, plagues created by human hands, trenches dug by children round their beleaguered parents, crowded prisons, conflagrations that consume whole cities, gloomy tyrannies, secret plots to establish despotisms and ruin peoples, and men glorying in those deeds which, as long as it was possible to repress them, were counted as crimes—I mean rape, debauchery, and lust .