 In this large corpus, arguably his most important surviving work for political philosophy is his De clementia (“On Mercy”), addressed to the emperor Nero whom he served as tutor (in rhetoric, not in philosophy) and later in the capacity of officially designated amicus or friend (Veyne 2003, vii, 19). Presented as a “mirror” in which Nero could see himself and the consequences of his virtue (1.1.1), this text would become a fountainhead of the “mirror for princes” genre in subsequent centuries. The challenge was how to reconcile the virtue of justice with that of clementia, clemency or mercy, a distinctively Roman virtue (not corresponding exactly to any Greek word: Braund 2009, 33) that had been incorporated into public life as a virtue of the Roman people (clementia populi Romani) and attributed specifically in cultic form to Caesar Augustus (previously Octavian) as clementia Caesaris (included as one of “the four virtues attributed to Augustus on an honorific shield,” as observed by Griffin 2000: 540; see more generally Flamerie de Lachapelle 2011). Appealing to the related Stoic virtue of philanthrôpia in Greek, humanitas in Latin, or love of humankind, Seneca claimed that, by taking into account all the circumstances of the affair, clemency can claim to embody, as it were, a more perfect justice (iustissimum), than would the observance of the strict letter of the law (2.7.3, as discussed by Braund 2009, 66–70).