Seneca - Dialogues and Letters

Senecas life spanned one of the most colourful and important periods of Romes history. He was born in Cordoba, probably some time between 4 and 1 BC, and he committed suicide in AD 65 because of his alleged association with the ill-fated conspiracy of Piso against Nero. Thus he lived under the first five emperors of the Roman Principate, and those varied and turbulent times both deeply affected the course of his life and closely informed the content of his writings. He is a distinguished example of a major literary figure who also played a leading part for many years in the public life of his country. One of the interesting aspects of reading Seneca is to observe, where we can, the interaction between the troubled political world in which he moved and the writings in which he reflected on that world, and tried to come to terms with it and to draw lessons for the benefit of those to whom he addressed his works.

From Spain Seneca was brought to Rome as a small child by an aunt, probably a stepsister of his mother Helvia. Otherwise we know very little about his early life. His education at Rome opened up to him the worlds of rhetoric and philosophy, which remained dominant interests for the rest of his life. Here too there was clearly a domestic influence at work. His father was passionately interested in the theory and practice of rhetoric, and has left us two important collections of rhetorical exercises culled from his own observation of rhetoricians and their pupils, the Suasoriae and Controversiae. We also know from his own writings that Seneca suffered from chronic ill-health, and (perhaps partly for that reason) he seems not to have been politically ambitious and gained a quaestorship only around the late 30s AD. He probably married twice, losing his first wife in childbirth some time before 41, and subsequently enjoying a happy marriage with Pompeia Paulina.

The year 41 was a sad landmark for Seneca, and the point from which his life becomes far better documented for us. In that year he was charged with adultery with Julia Livilla, a sister of the emperor Gaius, and exiled (strictly the milder form called relegatio) to Corsica. It is difficult now to disentangle what truth there may have been in the accusation, but two of our sources for it, Dio Cassius (60.8) and Tacitus (Ann. 12.8.3), imply Senecas innocence. At any rate he remained in exile until 49, when he was recalled through the influence of Agrippina, mother of the later emperor Nero. He then became praetor, and Agrippinas motives for favouring him were clear when she appointed him tutor to the twelve-year-old Nero. This was the beginning of a perilous relationship with Nero that lasted for the rest of Senecas life. From Neros accession Seneca acted as his official counsellor, minister and speech-writer, having in this position a staunch ally in Burrus, the prefect of the praetorian guard. For several years the young Nero was sufficiently tractable in their hands; Seneca himself became suffect consul in 56; and Rome and the empire enjoyed a period of moderately good and peaceful government. But as Seneca grew older and Nero increasingly became mentally and morally unstable, Senecas influence declined sharply, and after the death of Burrus in 62 he attempted to withdraw from public life. Nero was unwilling to let him go, but from 64 he was at last allowed to retire and live the life of a recluse. However, within a year an unsuccessful conspiracy was formed to kill Nero and replace him by C. Calpurnius Piso. Nero believed (probably wrongly) that Seneca was implicated and ordered him to commit suicide. With no choice in the matter Seneca took his own life in April 65. It was a disastrous episode for his family generally, as both of his brothers and his nephew, the poet Lucan, also met similar fates from alleged association with the conspiracy.