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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Seneca Biography SENECA, Lucius Annæus (c.4 B.C.–65 a.d.). A Roman Stoic philosopher, the son of Annæus Seneca (q.v.), born at Corduba about 4 b.c. In philosophy his first teacher was the Pythagorean Sotion, whom he afterward left to follow Attalus the Stoic. He traveled in Greece and Egypt and pleaded in courts of law, but not-withstanding his forensic triumphs he left the bar from fear of Caligula’s jealousy. He filled the office of quæstor and had already risen high in the favor of the Emperor Claudius when he was accused of an intrigue with Julia, the daughter of Germanicus and wife of Vinicius. He was exiled to Corsica for eight years, deriving from philosophy what consolation he could. When Claudius married Agrippina (q.v.), Seneca was recalled by her influence, raised to the prætorship, and appointed instructor of her son Nero (q.v.). On the death of his governor and military tutor, Burrus, Nero gave way to his depraved passions with a force which Seneca could not control. All his influence over his pupil was lost, but he profited by his extravagant bounty to such a degree that his accumulated wealth amounted to 300,000 sestertia., or about $12,000,000 of our money. Seneca, to avert dangerous consequences, offered to refund to the Emperor his gifts and begged leave to retire on a small allowance. This Nero declined, and Seneca under pretense of illness shut himself up and refused to appear in public. Nero then attempted to have him poisoned, but failed. A short time afterward Antonius Natalis, when on his trial for participation in the conspiracy of Piso (q.v.), implicated Seneca as one of the conspirators. He was sentenced to put himself to death. His wife, Paulina, declared her resolution to die with him and in spite of his remonstrances accompanied him into the bath in which according to his own choice he was to be bled to death. The Emperor, however, would not allow Paulina to die, but removed her from her husband, who gradually expired. Seneca’s extant writings are mainly on moral subjects and consist of epistles, and treatises on Anger, Consolation, Providence, Tranquillity of Mind, Philosophical Constancy, Clemency, The Shortness of Life, A Happy Life, Philosophical Retirement, and Benefits. He wrote also seven books entitled Quœstiones Naturales. Ten tragedies, ascribed to him by Quintilian and generally included in editions of his works, have also come down to us. They were not intended, and are certainly not adapted, for the stage. They are overcharged with declamation and wanting in dramatic life. They are of importance in dramatic history on account of the great influence they exerted on Renaissance and French classical drama as well as on English drama. Of his genuine prose writings modern opinion takes a divided view—some critics praising his practical sagacity, others finding him wanting in speculative reach. The Apocolocyntosis Divi Claudi is a most amusing satire on the deceased Emperor Claudius; the word apocolocyntosis (pumpkinification) is coined humorously for apotheosis (deification). It is published in Bücheler’s Petronius (5th ed., Berlin, 1912) and edited by A. P. Ball (New York, 1903). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 699-700. |