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the others were lucius annaeus novatus later known as junius gallio and annaeus mela the father of the poet lucan 10 miriam griffin says in her biography of seneca that the evidence for seneca s life before his exile in 41 is so slight and the potential interest of these years for social history as well as for biography is so great that few writers on seneca have resisted the temptation to eke out knowledge with imagination 11 griffin also infers from the ancient sources that seneca was born in either 8 4 or 1 bc she thinks he was born between 4 and 1 bc and was resident in rome by ad 5 11 modern statue of seneca in córdoba seneca is said to have been taken to rome in the arms of his aunt his mother s stepsister at a young age probably when he was about five years old 12 his father resided for much of his life in the city 13 seneca was taught the usual subjects of literature grammar and rhetoric as part of the standard education of high born romans 14 while still young he received philosophical training from attalus the stoic and from sotion and papirius fabianus both of whom belonged to the short lived school of the sextii which combined stoicism with pythagoreanism 10 sotion persuaded seneca when he was a young man in his early twenties to become a vegetarian which he practiced for around a year before his father urged him to desist because the practice was associated with some foreign rites 15 seneca often had breathing difficulties throughout his life probably asthma 16 and at some point in his mid twenties c ad 20 he appears to have been struck down with tuberculosis 17 he was sent to egypt to live with his aunt the same aunt who had brought him to rome whose husband gaius galerius had become prefect of egypt 9 she nursed him through a period of ill health that lasted up to ten years 18 in 31 ad he returned to rome with his aunt his uncle dying en route in a shipwreck 18 his aunt s influence helped seneca be elected quaestor probably after ad 37 14 which also earned him the right to sit in the roman senate 18 politics and exile edit seneca s early career as a senator seems to have been successful and he was praised for his oratory 19 in his writings seneca has nothing good to say about caligula and frequently depicts him as a monster 20 cassius dio relates a story that caligula was so offended by seneca s oratorical success in the senate that he ordered him to commit suicide 19 seneca survived only because he was seriously ill and caligula was told that he would soon die anyway 19 seneca explains his own survival as due to his patience and his devotion to his friends i wanted to avoid the impression that all i could do for loyalty was die 21 in ad 41 claudius became emperor and seneca was accused by the new empress messalina of adultery with julia livilla sister to caligula and agrippina 22 the affair has been doubted by some historians since messalina had clear political motives for getting rid of julia livilla and her supporters 13 23 the senate pronounced a death sentence on seneca which claudius commuted to exile and seneca spent the next eight years on the island of corsica 24 two of seneca s earliest surviving works date from the period of his exile both consolations 22 in his consolation to helvia his mother seneca comforts her as a bereaved mother for losing her son to exile 24 seneca incidentally mentions the death of his only son a few weeks before his exile 24 later in life seneca was married to a woman younger than himself pompeia paulina 10 it has been thought that the infant son may have been from an earlier marriage 24 but the evidence is tenuous 10 seneca s other work of this period his consolation to polybius one of claudius freedmen focused on consoling polybius on the death of his brother it is noted for its flattery of claudius and seneca expresses his hope that the emperor will recall him from exile 24 in 49 ad agrippina married her uncle claudius and through her influence seneca was recalled to rome 22 agrippina gained the praetorship for seneca and appointed him tutor to her son the future emperor nero 25 imperial advisor edit nero and seneca by eduardo barrón 1904 museo del prado from ad 54 to 62 seneca acted as nero s advisor together with the praetorian prefect sextus afranius burrus early in nero s reign his mother agrippina exercised his authority to make decisions seneca and burrus opposed this authoritarian matriarchy which had become the cause of irresponsibility of the emperor one by product of his new position was that seneca was appointed suffect consul in 56 26 seneca s influence was said to have been especially strong in the first year 27 seneca composed nero s accession speeches in which he promised to restore proper legal procedure and authority to the senate 25 he also composed the eulogy for claudius that nero delivered at the funeral 25 seneca s satirical skit apocolocyntosis which lampoons the deification of claudius and praises nero dates from the earliest period of nero s reign 25 in ad 55 seneca wrote on clemency following nero s murder of britannicus perhaps to assure the citizenry that the murder was the end not the beginning of bloodshed 28 on clemency is a work which although it flatters nero was intended to show the correct stoic path of virtue for a ruler 25 tacitus and dio suggest that nero s early rule during which he listened to seneca and burrus was quite competent however the ancient sources suggest that over time seneca and burrus lost their influence over the emperor in 59 they had reluctantly agreed to agrippina s murder and afterward tacitus reports that seneca had to write a letter justifying the murder to the senate 28 in ad 58 the senator publius suillius rufus made a series of public attacks on seneca 29 these attacks reported by tacitus and cassius dio 30 included charges that in a mere four years of service to nero seneca had acquired a vast personal fortune of three hundred million sestertii by charging high interest on loans throughout italy and the provinces 31 suillius attacks included claims of sexual corruption with a suggestion that seneca had slept with agrippina 32 tacitus though reports that suillius was highly prejudiced he had been a favorite of claudius 29 and had been an embezzler and informant 31 in response seneca brought a series of prosecutions for corruption against suillius half of his estate was confiscated and he was sent into exile 33 however the attacks reflect a criticism of seneca that was made at the time and continued through later ages 29 seneca was undoubtedly extremely rich he had properties at baiae and nomentum an alban villa and egyptian estates 29 cassius dio even reports that the boudica uprising in britannia was caused by seneca forcing large loans on the indigenous british aristocracy in the aftermath of claudius s conquest of britain and then calling them in suddenly and aggressively 29 seneca was sensitive to such accusations his de vita beata on the happy life dates from around this time and includes a defense of wealth along stoic lines arguing that properly gaining and spending wealth is appropriate behavior for a philosopher 31 retirement edit after burrus s death in 62 seneca s influence declined rapidly as tacitus puts it ann 14 52 1 mors burri infregit senecae potentiam the death of burrus broke seneca s power 34 tacitus reports that seneca tried to retire twice in 62 and ad 64 but nero refused him on both occasions 31 nevertheless seneca was increasingly absent from the court 31 he adopted a quiet lifestyle on his country estates concentrating on his studies and seldom visiting rome it was during these final few years that he composed two of his greatest works naturales quaestiones an encyclopedia of the natural world and his letters to lucilius which document his philosophical thoughts 35 death of seneca by peter paul rubens death edit in ad 65 seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the pisonian conspiracy a plot to kill nero although it is unlikely that seneca was part of the conspiracy nero ordered him to kill himself 31 seneca followed tradition by severing several veins in order to bleed to death and his wife pompeia paulina attempted to share his fate cassius dio who wished to emphasize the relentlessness of nero focused on how seneca had attended to his last minute letters and how his death was hastened by soldiers 36 a generation after the julio claudian emperors tacitus wrote an account of the suicide which in view of his republican sympathies is perhaps somewhat romanticized 37 according to this account nero ordered seneca s wife saved her wounds were bound up and she made no further attempt to kill herself as for seneca himself his age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood and extended pain rather than a quick death he also took poison which was not fatal manuel domínguez sánchez death of seneca museo del prado after dictating his last words to a scribe and with a circle of friends attending him in his home he immersed himself in a warm bath which he expected would speed blood flow and ease his pain tacitus wrote he was then carried into a bath with the steam of which he was suffocated and he was burnt without any of the usual funeral rites so he had directed in a codicil of his will even when in the height of his wealth and power he was thinking of life s close 37 this may give the impression of a favorable portrait of seneca but tacitus s treatment of him is at best ambivalent tacitus tells us that he left his family an imago suae vitae annales 15 62 an image of his life he is possibly being ambiguous in roman culture the imago was a kind of mask that commemorated the great ancestors of noble families but at the same time it may also suggest duplicity superficiality and pretense 38 philosophy edit first page of the naturales quaestiones made for the aragonese court as a major philosophical figure of the roman imperial period 39 seneca s lasting contribution to philosophy has been to the school of stoicism his writing is highly accessible 40 41 and was the subject of attention from the renaissance onwards by writers such as michel de montaigne 42 seneca wrote a number of books on stoicism mostly on ethics with one work naturales quaestiones on the physical world 43 seneca built on the writings of many of the earlier stoics he often mentions zeno cleanthes and chrysippus 44 and frequently cites posidonius with whom seneca shared an interest in natural phenomena 45 he frequently quotes epicurus especially in his letters 46 his interest in epicurus is mainly limited to using him as a source of ethical maxims 47 likewise seneca shows some interest in platonist metaphysics but never with any clear commitment 48 his moral essays are based on stoic doctrines 41 stoicism was a popular philosophy in this period and many upper class romans found in it a guiding ethical framework for political involvement 43 it was once popular to regard seneca as being very eclectic in his stoicism 49 but modern scholarship views him as a fairly orthodox stoic albeit a free minded one 50 seneca s first letter to lucilius discussing the value of time in latin with english subtitles his works discuss both ethical theory and practical advice and seneca stresses that both parts are distinct but interdependent 51 his letters to lucilius showcase seneca s search for ethical perfection 51 seneca regards philosophy as a balm for the wounds of life 52 the destructive passions especially anger and grief must be uprooted 53 or moderated according to reason 54 he discusses the relative merits of the contemplative life and the active life 52 and he considers it important to confront one s own mortality and be able to face death 53 54 one must be willing to practice poverty and use wealth properly 55 and he writes about favours clemency the importance of friendship and the need to benefit others 55 52 56 the universe is governed for the best by a rational providence 55 and this must be reconciled with acceptance of adversity 53 drama edit see also senecan tragedy and theatre of ancient rome woodcut illustration of the suicide of seneca and the attempted suicide of his wife pompeia paulina ten plays are attributed to seneca of which most likely eight were written by him 57 the plays stand in stark contrast to his philosophical works with their intense emotions and grim overall tone the plays seem to represent the antithesis of seneca s stoic beliefs 58 up to the 16th century it was normal to distinguish between seneca the moral philosopher and seneca the dramatist as two separate people 59 scholars have tried to spot certain stoic themes it is the uncontrolled passions that generate madness ruination and self destruction 60 this has a cosmic as well as an ethical aspect and fate is a powerful albeit rather oppressive force 60 many scholars have thought following the ideas of the 19th century german scholar friedrich leo that seneca s tragedies were written for recitation only 61 other scholars think that they were written for performance and that it is possible that actual performance took place in seneca s lifetime 62 ultimately this issue cannot be resolved on the basis of our existing knowledge 57 the tragedies of seneca have been successfully staged in modern times the dating of the tragedies is highly problematic in the absence of any ancient references 63 a parody of a lament from hercules furens appears in the apocolocyntosis which implies a date before ad 54 for that play 63 a relative chronology has been proposed on metrical grounds 64 the plays are not all based on the greek pattern they have a five act form and differ in many respects from extant attic drama and while the influence of euripides on some of these works is considerable so is the influence of virgil and ovid 63 seneca s plays were widely read in medieval and renaissance european universities and strongly influenced tragic drama in that time such as elizabethan england william shakespeare and other playwrights france corneille and racine and the netherlands joost van den vondel 65 english translations of seneca s tragedies appeared in print in the mid 16th century with all ten published collectively in 1581 66 he is regarded as the source and inspiration for what is known as revenge tragedy starting with thomas kyd s the spanish tragedy and continuing well into the jacobean era 67 thyestes is considered seneca s masterpiece 68 and has been described by scholar dana gioia as one of the most influential plays ever written 69 medea is also highly regarded 70 71 and was praised along with phaedra by t s eliot 69 works edit works attributed to seneca include 12 philosophical essays 124 letters dealing with moral issues nine tragedies and a satire the attribution of which is disputed 72 his authorship of hercules on oeta has also been questioned seneca s tragedies edit fabulae crepidatae tragedies with greek subjects hercules or hercules furens the ...