The sources of On Anger

1. Aristotle 1 neutral · 3 refuted 4 citations · 6 passages

   book 1 4 passages anchored here · book 3 2 passages anchored here

   Aristotle's definition of anger is explicitly cited and compared to Seneca's, without clear endorsement or refutation at this point.

   "Anger," says Aristotle, "is necessary, and nothing can be carried by storm without it, unless it fills the mind and kindles the spirit;

2. Plato 3 authority 3 citations

   book 1 2 passages anchored here · book 2

   Seneca explicitly states he will use Plato's argument because it supports his own case, invoking it as legitimating authority.

   I will bring forward also the argument of Plato—for what harm is there in using what belongs to others in the part where it is ours?

3. Theophrastus 2 refuted 2 citations · 7 passages

   book 1 7 passages anchored here

   Seneca directly addresses Theophrastus by name and argues at length against the claim, calling it an appeal to the crowd rather than to reason.

   When you say this, Theophrastus, you seek to bring odium upon the braver precepts, and, leaving the judge, you appeal to the crowd.

4. Iliad Homer 1 neutral 1 citation

   book 1

   The passage explicitly identifies the line shouted by Caesar as 'that Homeric line,' invoking Homer as the source

   they will utter something you might think the mark of a great spirit, as did Gaius Caesar, who, angry at the heavens because a thunderstorm was drowning out the pantomimes—whom he imitated more zealously than he watched—and because his revelry was frightened by lightnings (very ill-aimed ones, at that), called Jupiter to battle, and that to the death, shouting out that Homeric line:

5. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus 1 extended 1 citation

   book 3

   The passage continues and develops the treatise's own ongoing argument about anger, marking it as a self-citation/extension of the work's project.

   but this very thing will be a part of anger raging beyond its custom.

Each stands at a single passage. The chapter carries the anchors.

book 1 6 sources

A poetic line about animals not remembering wrath · Hieronymus · Let them hate, so long as they fear (saying) · Reported saying to a slave ("I would beat you, were I not angry") · Saying that the wise man's mind retains a scar though healed · unspecified history (Ab Urbe Condita, implied)

book 2 12 sources

Ajax (mythic tradition) · an opposing philosophical position on virtue and anger (likely Peripatetic/Aristotelian doctrine) · anecdote of Gaius Caesar and Pastor · anecdote of the bath assault · legend of Priam and Achilles · line on mutual fear · record of Sulla's proscriptions · saying on generalship · teaching on the mirror technique · unspecified Stoic teaching on the seat of anger · unspecified poetic line on national character and climate · verses on Bellona and Discord

book 3 4 sources

Example of Cato's conduct · Stoic doctrine on anger and self-examination · Teaching/example of Diogenes the Stoic · saving precept on tranquility