Seneca in Roman Biography

Sen'e-ca,[Fr. SENEQUE,*.sa'n?k'.](r.ucius Ann.eus,) an eminent Roman Stoic, philosopher, and moralist, born at Corduba, in Spain, about 5 H.c. He was educated in Rome, whither he was brought by his parents in his childhood. Having studied rhetoric, philosophy, and law, he gained distinction as a pleader. Accused by Messalina of improper intimacy with Julia, a niece of Claudius, he was banished to Corsica in4l A.n. During his exile he composed his " Consolatio ad Helviam." (Ilelvia was the name of his mother.) Through the influence of Agrippina, he obtained permission to return to Rome in 49 A.D., was raised to the prastorship, and appointed tutor to L. Domitius, (commonly known as Nero,) who became emperor in 54 a.d. According to Tacitus, Seneca endeavoured to reform or restrain the evil propensities of his pupil. Some writers, however, censure his conduct in this connection, by arguments which derive plausibility from the immense wealth which Seneca amassed. About the year 56 he wrote a treatise on clemency, addressed to Nero, " De Clementia, ad Neronem." Seneca consented to the death of Nero's mother, Agrippina, who was killed by order of her son in 60 a.d., and wrote the letter which Nero addressed to the senate in his justification. He was afterwards supplanted in the favour of Nero by Tigellinus and Rufus, who sought to ruin Seneca by exciting the suspicion of the tyrant against him. He was accused of being an accomplice of Piso, (who had conspired against the emperor,) and was ordered to put himself to death. Having opened his veins, he died in a warm bath in 65 a.d. He was an uncle of the poet Lucan. Seneca was an eloquent and popular writer. His style is aphoristic, antithetical, and somewhat inflated. Anion" his numerous works are a treatise "On Anger," (" De Ira,") "A Book on Providence," (" De Providentia Liber,") "On Tranquillity of Mind," ("De Animi Tranquillitate,") "On the Brevity of Eife,"("De Krevitate Vita?,") essays on natural science, entitled " Qutestiones Naturales," and numerous epistles, " Epistolae ad Lucilium," which are a collection of moral maxims. We have also ten tragedies in verse which are attributed to Seneca, and which, though not adapted to the stage, have considerable literary merit. There has been great diversity of opinion respecting the character and writings of Seneca. He has been quoted as an authority by councils and fathers of the Church. He was highly extolled as a writer by Montaigne. Quintilian observes that his writings "abound in charming defects," (dulcibusvitiis.) Macaulay is among those who take the least favourable view of the character and influence of the great Stoic. He says, "It is very reluctantly that Seneca can be brought to confess that anv philosopher had ever paid the smallest attention to anything that could possibly promote what vulgar people would consider as the well-being of mankind. . . . The business of a philosopher was to declaim in praise of poverty, with two millions sterling out at usury ; to meditate epigrammatic conceits about the evils of luxury, in gardens which moved the envy of sovereigns ; to rant about liberty, while fawning on the insolent and pampered freedmen of a tyrant." ("Essay on Lord Bacon.") See Rosmini, "Vita di Seneca," 1793; Justus Lipsius, "Vita L. A. Senecas," 1607; Klotzscu, "Seneca," 2 vols., 1799- 1802; Rkinhardt, "De Seneca Vita et Scriptis," 1817; Vernier, " Vie de Seneque," 1812; Am. Fi.euky, "Seneque et Saint-Paul," 2 vols., 1853; P. Ekerman, "Vita et Dogmata L. A. Senecae," 1742; Hitter, " History of Philosophy;" Hirschig, " Dood en Gedachtenis van Seneca," 1831 ; Denis Diderot, " Essai sur la Vie de Seneque," 1779; F. Salvador], "II Filosofo cortigiano, o sia il Seneca," 1674; Tacitus, "Annales;" "Nouvelle Biographie Generate?