Fame, Virtue, and True Recognition — Letters from a Stoic

Letter 79 begins as travel correspondence, Seneca curious about Sicily, Charybdis, Aetna, and becomes something else. He wants Lucilius to climb Aetna and report back, but then turns to Lucilius's writing: he has read Lucilius's work on Aetna, and he is not merely encouraging him but making a claim on his behalf. Do not be discouraged because the subject has already been treated. Virgil wrote about Aetna.

Ovid wrote about it. Both found it worthwhile. The fact that someone has already done something is not a reason not to do it, it is proof the thing is worth doing. Then the letter's real argument: fame is not why you should write, and it is not something to pursue.

Virtue has its own reward, and that reward comes regardless of whether posterity notices. The truly good man lives the same way whether observed or unobserved, announced or sudden. Pretense accomplishes nothing; masks are easily spotted. Truth is the same in every part.

What you have done for virtue has been done. Whatever recognition follows, or doesn't follow, is a separate matter entirely.