Seneca · Letters to Lucilius
Letter 47: On master and slave
Letter 47 congratulates Lucilius for living on friendly terms with his slaves and describes the dinner where they may not speak while the master overeats.
Seneca reminds him that the slave breathes and dies like him, and sums up his advice in one sentence: treat your inferior as you would want your superior to treat you.
From the letter
No, they are our fellow-slaves, if one reflects that Fortune has equal rights over slaves and free men alike.
It is just as possible for you to see in him a free-born man as for him to see in you a slave.
But this is the kernel of my advice: Treat your inferiors as you would be treated by your betters.
And as often as you reflect how much power you have over a slave, remember that your master has just as much power over you.
You should therefore not be deterred by these finicky persons from showing yourself to your slaves as an affable person and not proudly superior to them; they ought to respect you rather than fear you.
Coverage
Our editions hold 30 letters of 124 in Richard Mott Gummere’s translation (1917–1925); 29 of them have a page here, those that Joseph Baillard’s French translation (1861) also contains.
Seneca and Epictetus are in Stoic+ — 2 passages of this letter, each with its reference; Marcus Aurelius is free in the app.