Seneca on the Shortness of Life

Course Description: The life we receive is not short, but we make it so, nor do we have any lack of it, but are wasteful of it. So opines the great Stoic philosopher Seneca at the beginning of one of his most famous essays, De Brevitate Vitae. In this intermediate reading course, we will attempt to read, translate, and discuss the whole of this work, helped in this by Dr. Geoffrey Steadman's recent student-oriented commentary.

DETAILS

Level: Intermediate students and up.

Textbook: Geoffrey Steadman, Seneca's De Brevitate Vitae, available from Dr. Steadman's website.

Sections capped at: 5 students. If the course is sold-out, please fill out this waiting-list form.

When
Tuesdays, 6:30p.m. U.S. Eastern Time

Cost
$250

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Payment amount

Seneca on the Shortness of Life Spring 2026 ($250)

Payment method

ACH Credit Card (3% convenience fee)

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Instructor

Marcello Lippiello

A participant in the Telepaideia program since its inception, Marcello Lippiello is now completing his tenth year as an instructor. In that time, he has joyfully logged over 1000 hours of live video instruction experience, covering a range of topics and levels. Highlights include reading--together with enthusiastic Telepaideians of course!--the entirety of Homer's Odyssey in Greek over the course of a seven-year period, perennial courses in basic Latin and Greek grammar, and a number of advanced Latin conversational groups.

He was born and raised in the Bronx, New York, where he received his B.A. in Classical Languages and Theology from Fordham University. He has long had an interest in conversational Latin, earning a Graduate Certificate in Latin Studies from the University of Kentucky's Institutum Studiis Latinis Provehendis in 2005, along with master's degrees in classical languages and classical studies from Kentucky and from Duke University. He is also a two-time alumnus of Paideia's Living Greek in Greece Program (where he played Tiresias in the Bacchae), and has participated in many other conversational Greek and Latin workshops through the University of Kentucky, the Polis Institute, and through SALVI, such as the Synodos Hellenike and Rusticatio. He has taught undergraduate college courses in all levels of Latin and Greek at several institutions, including Christendom College in Virginia and the Pontifical College Josephinum in Ohio. He lives with his family in Danbury, Connecticut.