Gordon Brown using his pen to stab the back seat of his limo in rage puts one in mind of Domitian (emperor ad 81-96) killing flies in rather the same way. Brown’s furious treatment of messengers with bad tidings likewise has many ancient parallels. So our Prime Minister would do well to read some ancient treatises on anger-management.
In his de ira (‘On Anger’), the Roman philosopher Seneca (ad 1-65) describes what an angry person looks like: ‘his eyes blaze and flash, his whole face is crimson with blood surging up from the depths of his heart, his lips quiver, his teeth clench, his hair bristles and stands on end, his breathing is forced and harsh, his limbs can be heard twisting themselves into knots, he groans and bellows…’. One can see why he is against it. It is Stoicism that lies behind this analysis, with its conviction that, since reason rules the universe, man must live by reason alone if he is to be happy.
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