La vera gioia (Sen. Epist. 59), in Litterarum Fiscella. Studi di filologia e Letteratura classica e cristiana

In his writings Seneca uses two different terminological registers regarding the two terms voluptas and gaudium: the so-called verbum publicum and the significatio Stoica. He specifies that voluptas has a negative connotation and is configured as a falsum bonum, while gaudium, which acts in accordance with virtus, is characterised as a verum bonum. Therefore, true joy, as the Stoics technically understand it, does not depend from external circumstances or material pleasures, but only belongs to the wiseman who leads a life according to reason and virtue.