"Believe me, that was a happy age, before the days of architects, before the days of builders"

Seneca the Younger’s reflection on a “happy age” reveals a longing for a simpler, purer era in human existence. The words conjure an image of a time unencumbered by the complexities and artifices of later civilization, suggesting that true happiness thrived before the advent of architecture and monumental building. Architects and builders serve as symbols of human ambition, rational planning, and the striving for artificial grandeur. Their absence, in Seneca’s mind, represented a world more closely aligned with nature, untouched by the drive for status, power, or material display.

Seneca belonged to a philosophical tradition that valued modesty, frugality, and self-sufficiency. By referencing a pre-architectural age, he evokes a philosophical ideal where human needs were simple, and virtue was uncomplicated by desires for luxury or ostentation. The “happy age” is thus not just a chronological period, but a state of mind or way of living, one that centers on inward contentment rather than outward display.

Within the cultural context of Rome, where wealth and grandiose public works became expressions of personal and civic ambition, Seneca’s words serve as a critique of contemporary values. Architecture becomes a metaphor for the burdens and anxieties fostered by material progress. The structures people construct, both literally and figuratively, create distances from nature, from simplicity, and from the essence of being human.

Implied in Seneca’s observation is a warning: that progress carries a moral cost. With every layer of complexity and refinement, society risks losing sight of what makes life truly fulfilling. Peace and happiness are not found in marble pillars or towering walls, but in a life suffused with simplicity, humility, and authentic connection to the natural world and to oneself.