[63] Seneca uses the term ‘law of mortality’: ‘minime dis [irascamur]: non enim illorum, sed lege mortalitatis patimur quicquid incommodi accidit’ _Dial._ iv 28, 4. [64] ‘sciat illa ipsa, quibus laedi videtur, ad conservationem universi pertinere, et ex iis esse, quae cursum mundi officiumque consummant’ _Ep._ 74, 20. [65] ‘di multa ingratis tribuunt. sed illa bonis paraverunt: contingunt etiam malis, quia separari non possunt. excerpere singulos non potuerunt’ _Ben._ iv 28, 1. [66] ‘quicquid est quod nos sic vivere sic mori iussit, eadem necessitate et deos adligat’ _Dial._ i 5, 8. [67] ‘[God] has given me the things which are in the power of the will. How was he able to make the earthly body free from hindrance? [He could not], and accordingly he has subjected to the revolution of the whole possessions, household things, house, children, wife’ Epict. _Disc._ iv 1, 100. ‘What says Zeus? since I was not able to do for you what I have mentioned, I have given you a small portion of us’ _ib._ i 1, 10-12. [68] ‘non potest artifex mutare materiam’ Sen. _Dial._ i 5, 9; see also Plut. _comm. not._ 34, and Mayor on Cic. _N. D._ ii 34, 86. In technical language, the gods cannot control the ἐπακολουθήματα and συναπτόμενα. [69] ‘quicquid nobis negatum est, dari non potuit’ Sen. _Ben._ ii 29, 3. [70] ‘dementes itaque et ignari veritatis illis imputant saevitiam maris, immodicos imbres, pertinaciam hiemis’ _Dial._ iv 27, 2. [71] ‘frustra vota ac studia sunt; habebit quisque quantum illi dies primus adscripsit’ _ib._ vi 21, 6. [72] ‘accusare fata possumus, mutare non possumus: stant dura et inexorabilia’ _ib._ xi 4, 1. [73] See above, § 226, note 46. Fortune only has ultimate existence if identified with fate or providence; ‘sic nunc naturam voca, fatum, fortunam; omnia eiusdem dei nomina sunt varie utentis sua potestate’ _Ben._ iv 8, 3. [74] ‘fortuna ceteros casus rariores habet, primum ab inanimis procellas, tempestates, naufragia, ruinas, incendia; deinde a bestiis ictus, morsus, impetus, etc.’ Cic. _Off._ ii 6, 19; ‘saepe ... optimorum virorum segetem grando percussit. fert sortem suam quisque’ Sen. _Ben._ ii 28, 3. [75] So Fortune is technically defined as ‘a cause not discerned by human reason’; οἱ Στωϊκοὶ [τὴν τύχην] αἰτίαν ἄδηλον ἀνθρωπίνῳ λογισμῷ Aët. _plac._ i 29, 7. [76] ‘in regnum Fortunae et quidem durum atque invictum pervenimus, illius arbitrio digna atque indigna passuri’ Sen. _Dial._ vi 10, 6; ‘hanc imaginem animo tuo propone, ludos facere fortunam’ _Ep._ 74, 7. [77] ‘Chrysippus aestuans laboransque quonam pacto explicet et fato omnia fieri et esse aliquid in nobis, intricatur hoc modo’ Gellius _N. A._ vii 2, 15. [78] ἐκεῖνο γὰρ δὴ τὸ καταγελαστότατον ἁπάντων, τὸ μίγμα καὶ ἡ σύνοδος τοῦ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις τι εἶναι, καὶ εἱρμὸν (seriem causarum) οὐδὲν ἧττον εἶναι Oenom. apud Euseb. _pr. ev._ vi p. 258 (Arnim ii 978); ‘manente fato aliquid est in hominis arbitrio’ Sen. _N. Q._ ii 38, 3.