Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography/Volume 3/Seneca, Lucius Annæus
SENECA, Lucius Annæus, the stoic philosopher, was born at Corduba in Spain about six years b.c. He was the son of Marcus Annæus Seneca the rhetorician. He was brought to Rome in early life by his maternal aunt, whose kindness in nursing him through a tedious illness he gratefully commemorates. He was through life a valetudinarian—so much so, that to get rid of his troubles he frequently resolved to commit suicide, and was only restrained by reflecting what a grievous affliction his death would be to his old and indulgent father (Epist. 78). In spite of his bad health he applied himself diligently to the study of law, literature, and philosophy. In the reign of Caligula (a.d. 37), he had risen to considerable distinction as a pleader; and it is probable that about this time he composed his earliest work, the treatise "De Ira." When Claudius came to the throne (a.d. 41), Seneca was accused by the Empress Messalina of being too intimate with Julia, the niece of the emperor. The infamous character of Messalina makes it probable that there was no foundation for the scandal. Nevertheless the philosopher was banished to the island of Corsica, where he remained for eight years. Here he wrote his "Consolatio ad Helviam" (his mother), and his "Consolatio ad Polybium" (a favourite freedman of the emperor). In this treatise, with a view to his recall, he flatters Claudius in a strain of fulsome adulation very much at variance with the lofty independence and high-strung stoicism which in his other works he professes. In the year 49, Seneca was allowed to return to Rome, his sentence having been remitted through the interposition of Agrippina, the sister of Julia, and now the wife of the emperor. Through the same influence he obtained a prætorship, and was appointed tutor, along with Burrus, præfect of the prætorian guard, to Nero, the son of Agrippina by her former husband, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus. Agrippina had prevailed on Claudius to adopt Nero, and to make him his heir, to the exclusion of his own son, Brittanicus; and she was now desirous that his training should be intrusted to persons wholly devoted to her interests. Nero was eleven years of age when Seneca undertook his education. What effect his instructions may have had on the conduct and disposition of the young prince, it is impossible to determine exactly. Suetonius represents him as more disposed to minister to his own vanity, than to the improvement of his pupil (in Vit. Ner., c. 52). Among the frescoes discovered at Pompeii, there is one which represents a butterfly endeavouring to curb and direct a dragon. This is said to have been designed to typify the relation in which Seneca and Nero stood as master and pupil—(see Oxford Essays, 1858—Art. "The Ancient Stoics," p. 108). Doubtless there was much truth in the emblem. Yet it is not probable that Seneca's lessons were altogether thrown away, or that his control was totally ineffectual. Tacitus commends both him and Burrus for their judicious management of Nero (Annal. xiii. 2). Although they could not fix in his mind the principles of virtue, they certainly laid some arrest on the development of his vicious propensities, and retarded the outbreak of those hideous excesses into which he plunged before the close of his career. Considering the nature of the material given him to mould, we may wonder, not that Seneca should have failed in forming a good prince, but that he should have succeeded in preventing so bad a one from being execrable from the very first. Nero became emperor, a.d. 54. In about a year afterwards, Brittanicus was put to death by his orders. As Seneca was believed to have been enriched by his downfall, it has been inferred that he had some share in his destruction. That Seneca had amassed great wealth is certain; but it is by no means clear that it was obtained through the murder and spoliation of Brittanicus. A darker stain rests on his memory in connection with Nero's next great crime—the murder of his mother, Agrippina (a.d. 60). Agrippina was steeped in crimes, and her ambition was such that she was continually plotting how she might wrest the sceptre from her son; but her wickedness does not extenuate the guilt of the parricide and his abettor. Seneca not only assented to the murder, but was, moreover, the author of the letter addressed by Nero to the senate, in which he accuses his mother of a conspiracy against him, and alleges that she had committed suicide on its failure. Whatever truth there may have been in regard to the conspiracy, there was none in regard to the suicide. In the year 63, Nero got rid of Burrus by means of poison. Burrus was a man of greater force of character than Seneca, and was therefore more obnoxious to the emperor, on account of the stronger opposition he offered to his evil designs and depraved practices. From this time the power of Seneca ceased; and Nero, under the influence of two infamous parasites, Tigellinus and Rufus, now gave himself up to every species of cruelty and excess. They excited his jealousy and tempted his cupidity by enumerating the possessions of Seneca, whose life was itself a standing reproach to the emperor. It was, therefore, resolved that he should die. He was falsely charged with being privy to the conspiracy of Piso; and the emperor's commands were conveyed to him, signifying that he must prepare for death. He heard his doom unmoved, and his bearing showed that he could practise, as well as preach, the principles of an exalted stoicism. His veins were opened, and he expired in a warm bath, endeavouring, as his life ebbed away, to assuage by his exhortations the sorrow of his surrounding friends, and to confirm their virtue by his example. He died, a.d. 65.—(Tacit., Annal. xv. 62.) In regard to the character of Seneca, opinions have been divided. By some he has been represented as vain and avaricious, as a time-server, and a hypocrite. It is truer, as well as more charitable, to suppose that his faults were incident to his situation, rather than indigenous to himself; that in circumstances the most inimical to virtue, he preserved his virtue, if not spotless, still tolerably entire; and that, true to the principles of his philosophy, he succeeded in making the best of a very bad position. Stoicism, as expounded by Seneca, and as practised by him and other noble Romans, was the one redeeming feature of this—the worst of times. It inculcated a reliance on the wisdom, and an acquiescence in the decrees, of Providence; and at a time when the lives, the liberties, and the possessions of men were in the highest degree unstable and precarious—when the whole Roman empire was broken-hearted and in despair—it taught the useful lesson, that to overcome the fear of death was to stand superior to every earthly calamity; and that to be conscious of an inner and spiritual freedom, as the true life of the soul, and as that which the power of the imperial tyrant and his minions could never reach, was to enjoy a peace which the world could neither give nor take away. Such is the purport of the philosophy which Seneca enforces, often with eloquence and solemnity, although his style is generally deficient in natural grace, and somewhat too antithetical. The work in modern times which most closely resembles the writings of Seneca, both in thought and in expression, is Young's Night Thoughts. A useful and cheap edition of the works of Seneca was edited by Frederic Haase, and published by Tübner, Leipsic, 1853. The tragedies sometimes ascribed to him, are now generally acknowledged to be his. His epistles to St. Paul are spurious.—J. F. F.