Lucius Annaeus Seneca

In 65 AD, Seneca was implicated in a plot to kill Nero, called the Pisonian conspiracy. Nero ordered him to commit suicide, which he did by severing several veins, bleeding to death.

He was married to Pompeia Paulina, an educated and refined woman. When her husband cut his veins, Pompeia too slit her wrists. But her servants, following Nero’s order, saved her life.

The early Christian Church approved Seneca’s writings, while medieval writers hold that he was baptized by Saint Paul. He appears in the works of Dante, Chaucer, Petrarch, Virgil, Erasmus and John Calvin.

Seneca was born in 4 BC at Cordoba, Hispania. He was the second son of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Seneca the Elder), a famous teacher of rhetoric, and Helvia, an educated lady from a cultured family. He had two brothers - Gallio and Annaeus Mela.

He received training in rhetoric and philosophy from Attalus and Sotion in Rome. Between 16 and 31 AD, suffering from poor health, he spent time in Egypt where an aunt looked after him.

Caligula became the Roman emperor in 37AD. Seneca had already been elected magistrate, and wielded much power. But he feuded with Caligula, but the emperor spared him as he thought Seneca was dying anyway.

Following Caligula’s assassination in 41 AD, Claudius ascended the throne. But Claudius’ powerful wife, Messalina, charged the magistrate of committing adultery with Caligula’s sister, Julia Livilla, and had him exiled to Corsica.

While in exile, he wrote the ‘Consolations’, which contain the essence of his Stoic teachings. They are personal letters of consolation, but have a detached tone as if he is attempting to present realities.

In 49 AD, Agrippina, the fourth wife of Claudius, manipulated the Emperor to adopt Nero, her son from an earlier marriage, and began grooming him to be his successor. She called Seneca from exile to instruct Nero.

Seneca and Sextus Afranius Burrus, the praetorian prefect, became Emperor Nero’s advisers from 54 to 62 AD. Their influence on Nero was minimal, as is evident from their reluctant agreement to the murder of Agrippina.

Seneca wrote the drama, ‘Phaedra’, before 54 A.D. His use of devices such as asides and soliloquies has influenced even Shakespeare’s tragedies. The play continues to be performed today and has inspired many versions.

His tragedy, ‘Oedipus’, was held in high esteem in Elizabethan England, as the standard for tragedies. Alexander Neville who first translated it from Latin in 1560 regards it as a work of moral instruction.