A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

778 SENECA. SENECA.
probably lived till near the end of the reign of Ti- jealous of the influence of Julia with Claudius,
berius, and died at Rome or in Italy. It appears and hated her for her haughty behaviour. Julia
that he was at Rome early in life, from what has was again exiled, and Seneca's intimacy with her
been stated as to Ovid; and he must have returned was a pretext for making him share her disgrace.
to Spain, because his son Lucius was brought to What the facts really were is unknown; and the
Rome from Spain when he was an infant. (L. Se- innocence of Seneca and Julia is at least as
neca, Consol. ad Helviasm.) probable as their guilt, when Messalina was the
Seneca was gifted with a prodigious memory. accuser.
He was a man of letters, after the fashion of his In his exile in Corsica Seneca had the opportime, when rhetoric or false eloquence was most in tunity of practising the philosophy of the Stoics,
vogue. His Controversiarum Libri decem, which to which he had attached himself. His Consolatio
he addressed to his three sons, were written when ad Helviam, or consolatory letter to his mother,
he was an old man. The first, second, seventh, was written during his residence in the island.
eighth, and tenth books only, are extant, and these If the Consolatio ad Polybium, which was also
are somewhat mutilated: of the other books only written during his exile, is the work of Seneca, it
fragments remain. These Controversiae are rhe- does him no credit. Polybius was the powerful
torical exercises on imaginary cases, filled with freedman of Claudius, and the Consolatio is incommon-places, such as a man of large verbal tended to comfort him on the occasion of the loss
memory and great reading carries about with him of his brother. But it also contains adulation of
as his ready money. Another work of the same the emperor, and many expressions unworthy of a
class, attributed to Seneca, and written after the true Stoic, or of an honest man. The object of
Controversiae, is the Suasoriarum Liber, which is the address to Polybius was to have his sentence
probably not complete. We may collect, from its of exile recalled, even at the cost of his character.
contents, what the subjects were on which the After eight years' residence in Corsica Seneca
rhetoricians of that age exercised their wits: one of was recalled A. nD. 49, by the influence of Agripthem is, "Shall Cicero apologise to Marcus Anto- pina (Tac. Ann. xii. 8), who had just married
nius? Shall he agree to burn his Philippics, if her uncle the emperor Claudius. From this tine
Antonius requires it?" Another is, " Shall Alex- the life of Seneca is closely connected with that of
ander embark on the ocean?" If there are some Nero, and Tacitus is the chief authority for both.
good ideas and apt expressions in these puerile de- On his return he obtained a praetorship, and was
clamations, they have no value where they stand; made the tutor of the young Domitius, afterwards
and probably most of them are borrowed. No the emperor Nero, who was the son of Agrippina
merit of form can compensate for worthlessness of by a former husband. Agrippina relied on the
matter. The eloquence of the Roman orators, which reputation of Seneca and his advice as a means of
was derived from their political institutions, was securing the succession to her son; and she trusted
silenced after the Civil Wars; and the puerilities to his gratitude to herself as a guarantee for his
of the rhetoricians were the signs of declining taste. fidelity to her interests, and to his hatred of
The Controversiae and Suasoriarunz Liber have Claudius for the wrongs that he had suffered from
often been published with the works of Seneca the him.
son. The edition of A. Schottus appeared at Hei- It was unfortunate that the philosopher had so
delberg, 1603 and 1604, Paris, 1607 and 1613. bad a pupil, but we cannot blame him for all that
The Elzivir print of 1672, 8vo., contains the notes Nero learned and all that he did not learn. The
of N. Faber, A. Schottus, J. F. Gronovius, and youth had a taste for what was showy and superothers. ficial: he had no capacity for the studies which
The confusion between Seneca, the father, and befit a man who has to govern a state. If Seneca
Seneca, the philosopher, is fully cleared up by had made a rhetorician of him after his own taste,
Lipsius, Electoruen Lib. I. cap. 1, Opera, vol. i. p. that would have been something, but Domitius
631, ed. 1675. [G. L.] had not even the low ability to distinguish himself
SENECA, L. ANNAEUS, the son of M. An- as a talker. There is no evidence to justify the
naeus Seneca, was born at Corduba, probably imputation that Seneca encouraged his vicious proabout a few years B. C., and brought to Rome by pensities; and if Nero had followed the advice
his parents when he was a child. Though he was contained in Seneca's treatise, De Clemnentia ad
naturally of a weak body, he was a hard student Neroneme Caesarem, written in the second year
from his youth, and he devoted himself with great of Nero's reign, the young emperor might have
ardour to rhetoric and philosophy. He also soon been happy, and his administration beneficent.
gained distinction as a pleader of causes, and he That Seneca would look upon his connection with
excited the jealousy and hatred of Caligula by the Nero as a means of improving his fortunes and
ability with which he conducted a case in the enjoying power, is just what most other men
senate before the emperor. He was spared, it is would have done, and would do now in the same
said, because Caligula was assured by one of his circumstances; and that a man with such views
mistresses that Seneca would soon die of disease. would not be very rigid towards an unruly pupil
The emperor also affected to despise the eloquence is a reasonable inference. We know that he did
of Seneca: he said that it was sand without lime not make Nero a wise man or a good man; we do
(Sueton. Calig. 53). Seneca obtained the quaes- not know that he helped to make him worse than
torship, but the time is uncertain. In the first year he would have been; and in the absence of
of the reign of Claudius (A. D. 41), the successor positive evidence of his corrupting the youth, and
of Caligula, Seneca was banished to Corsica. Clau- with the positive evidence of his own writings in
dius had recalled to Rome his nieces Agrippina his favour, it is a fair and just conclusion that
and Julia, whom their brother Caligula had exiled he did as much with Nero as a man could who
to the island of Pontia (Ponza). It seems pro- had accepted, and chose to retain a post in which
bable that MessalinLa, the wife of Claudius, was Iis character could not possibly escape some impu