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Ancient bust of Seneca, part of a double herm (Antikensammlung Berlin)
Ancient bust of Seneca, part of a double herm (Antikensammlung Berlin)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (c. The Antikensammlung Berlin (Berlin Antiquities collection is one of the most important collections of classical art in the world now held in the Altes Museum and 4 BC – AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. Year 4 BC was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. Year 65 was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy, was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century BC Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence knowledge truth beauty justice validity mind and language A statesman or stateswoman or statesperson is usually a Politician or other notable figure of State who has had a long and respected career in A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. A humorist is a person who writes or performs humorous material Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( December 15, 37 – June 9, 68) born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called

Contents

Biography

As Griffin says in her standard modern biography of Seneca[1] "The evidence for Seneca's life before his exile in 41 is so slight, and the potential interest of these years, for social history as well as for biography, is so great that few writers on Seneca have resisted the temptation to eke out knowledge with imagination". Therefore what one reads as supposed fact has to be read with extreme caution.

According to Griffin it can be inferred from ancient sources that he was born on any of the three following dates 8, 4, and 1 BC. She thinks he was born between 4 and 1 BC and was resident in Rome by 5 AD. Seneca says that he was carried to Rome in the arms of his mother's stepsister[2]. As Griffin says allowing for rhetorical exaggeration "it is fair to conclude that Seneca was in Rome as a very small boy.

His family was from Corduba, Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula), and we might infer that he may have been born there although there is no documentary evidence for this. ||-||-||} Córdoba ( Cordova in English is a City in Andalusia, southern Spain, and the capital of the province of Córdoba. Hispania was the name given by the Romans to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Portugal, Spain, Andorra, Gibraltar The Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe, and includes modern day Spain, Portugal, Andorra

He was the second son of Helvia and Lucius Annaeus Seneca (there is no ancient evidence for the name Marcus), a wealthy rhetorician known as Seneca the Elder. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Lucius or Marcus Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician (ca Griffin says that it is probable that the Annaei came from Etruria or the "area further east towards Illyria". There is no way of knowing when the family came to Spain.

Seneca's older brother, Gallio, became proconsul at Achaia. Ancient Rome In the Roman Republic, a proconsul was a Promagistrate (like a Propraetor) who after serving as Consul, spent a year Achaea was a province of the Roman Empire, consisting of the modern-day Peloponnese in southern Greece and bordered on the north by Seneca was uncle to the poet Lucan the son of his younger brother Annaeus Mela. Marcus Annaeus Lucanus ( November 3, 39 AD – April 30, 65 AD better known in English as Lucan, was a Roman

At Rome he was trained in rhetoric and was introduced into Stoic philosophy by Attalos and Sotion. Rhetoric has had many definitions no simple definition can do it justice Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy, was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century BC Seneca tells us about his poor health and at some stage he was nursed by his mother's step sister. As she was in Egypt from 16 – 31 AD it can be inferred that Seneca visited Egypt although for how long we do not know.

Seneca and his Aunt returned to Rome in 31 AD and she helped him in his campaign for his first magistracy.

Around 37 AD, he had a severe conflict with the Emperor Caligula who only spared his life because he believed the sickly Seneca would not live long anyway. Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (August 31 AD 12 &ndash January 24 AD 41 more commonly known by his nickname Caligula (kəˈlɪɡjʊlə was a Roman Emperor In 41 AD, Messalina, wife of the Emperor Claudius, persuaded Claudius to have Seneca banished to Corsica on a charge of adultery with Julia Livilla. Year 41 was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus or Claudius I ( August 1, 10 BC &ndash October 13, AD 54 ( Tiberius Claudius Drusus from birth to Corsica (Corse Corsican and Italian: Corsica) is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily Julia Livilla ( Classical Latin: IVLIA•LIVILLA or IVLIA•GERMANICI•FILIA ( Lesbos, early 18 - Pandateria (modern Ventotene He spent his exile in philosophical and natural study and wrote the Consolations.

In 49 AD, Claudius' new wife Agrippina had Seneca recalled to Rome to tutor her son, then 12 years old, who was to become the emperor Nero. Julia Agrippina; known as Agrippina Minor ( Latin for the ‘younger’, Classical Latin: IVLIA•AGRIPPINA from the year 50 Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( December 15, 37 – June 9, 68) born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, also called On Claudius' death in 54 AD, Agrippina secured the recognition of Nero as emperor over Claudius' son, Britannicus. For the 1669 Tragedy by French Dramatist Jean Racine, see Britannicus (play.

From 54 – 62 AD, Seneca acted as Nero's advisor, together with the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus. Praetorian prefect (Latin Praefectus praetorio) was the constant title of a high office in the Roman state that changed fundamentally in nature For other persons named Afranius see Afranius. Sextus Afranius Burrus (1 - 62 Praetorian prefect, was advisor to Roman emperor Seneca's influence was said to be especially strong in the first year. [3] Many historians consider Nero's early rule with Seneca and Burrus to be quite competent. Over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over Nero. In 59 AD they had to reluctantly agree to Agrippina's murder, and afterwards Seneca wrote a dishonest exculpation of Nero to the Senate. Year 59 was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar. Exoneration occurs when a person who has been convicted of a Crime is later proved to have been innocent of that crime The Roman Senate was a political institution in Ancient Rome. [4] With the death of Burrus in 62 AD and accusations of embezzlement, Seneca retired and devoted his time to more study and writing. Year 62 was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Julian calendar.

Luca Giordano, The death of Seneca (1684)
Luca Giordano, The death of Seneca (1684)

In 65 AD, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Luca Giordano ( October 18, 1634 &ndash January 12, 1705) was an eclectic peripatetic and influential Italian late Baroque The conspiracy of Gaius Calpurnius Piso in 65 represented one of the major turning points in the reign of the Roman emperor Nero (54&ndash68 Although it is unlikely that he was a co-conspirator he was ordered to kill himself by Nero (by opening his veins), as did his wife Pompeia Paulina who chose to share his fate. Pompeia Paulina was the wife of the statesman philosopher and orator Lucius Annaeus Seneca, and she was part of a circle of educated Romans who sought to lead a Tacitus gives an account of the suicide in his Annals (Book XV, Chapters 60 through 64). Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. Nero ordered that Seneca's wife be saved. The wounds were bound up, and she did not make a second attempt. Unfortunately for Seneca, his old age and diet caused the blood to flow slowly, thus causing pain instead of a quick death. He then took poison, but it didn't work. He dictated his last words to a scribe, and then jumped into a hot pool. He did not try to drown, but instead, it appears, tried to make the blood flow faster. Tacitus wrote in his Annals of Imperial Rome that Seneca died from suffocation from the steam rising from the pool. Publius (or Gaius) Cornelius Tacitus (ca 56 &ndash ca 117 was a senator and a Historian of the Roman Empire. The Annals, or in Latin, Annales, is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign of the four Roman Emperors succeeding

Reputation

Seneca remains one of the few popular Roman philosophers from the period. His works were celebrated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, John of Salisbury, Erasmus and others. Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25 1803 &ndash April 27 1882 was an American essayist philosopher poet and leader of the Transcendentalist movement in the early 19th century John of Salisbury (c 1120 &ndash 1180 English author diplomat and Bishop of Chartres, was born at Salisbury. Montaigne was considered to be a "French Seneca" by Pasquier. Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (French miʃɛl ekɛm də mɔ̃tɛɲ ( February 28 1533 &ndash September 13 1592) was one of the most influential writers Pasquier is a surname and may refer to Edme-Armand-Gaston d'Audiffret-Pasquier (1823–1905 a French politician and member of the Académie française While his ideas are not considered to be original, he was important in making the Greek philosophers presentable and intelligible. [5]

Even with the admiration of such intellectual stalwarts, Seneca is not without his detractors. In his own time, he was widely considered to be a hypocrite or, at least, less than "stoic" in his lifestyle. His tendency to engage in illicit affairs with married women and close ties to Nero's excess test the limits of his teachings on restraint and self-discipline. While banished to Corsica, he wrote pleas for restoration rather incompatible with his advocacy of a simple life and the acceptance of fate. In his Pumkinification (54) he ridiculed several behaviors and policies of Claudius that every Stoic should have applauded. The Pumpkinification of ( the Divine) Claudius or Apocolocyntosis (divi Claudii is a political satire on the Roman emperor Claudius Suilius claims that Seneca acquired some "three hundred million sesterces within the space of four years" through Nero's favor. The sestertius, or sesterce, was an ancient Roman Coin. During the Roman Republic it was a small Silver, and rare coin issued [6] Robin Campbell, a translator of Seneca's letters, writes that the "stock criticism of Seneca right down the centuries [has been]. . . the apparent contrast between his philosophical teachings and his practice. "[7]

According to Tactitus however, Suilius' accusations did not hold up under scrutiny. [8] It would make sense that Seneca's position of power would make him vulnerable to trumped-up charges, as many public figures were at the time. [9]

In 1966 scholar Anna Lydia Motto also challenged this view of Seneca, arguing that his image has been based almost entirely off Sulius' account while many others who would have lauded him have been lost. Year 1966 ( MCMLXVI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the 1966 Gregorian calendar. [10]

"We are therefore left with no contemporary record of Seneca's life, save for the desperate opinion of Publius Suilius. Think of the barren image we should have of Socrates, had the works of Plato and Xenophon not come down to us and were we wholly dependent upon Aristophanes' description of this Athenian philosopher. To be sure, we should have a highly distorted, misconstrued view. Such is the view left to us of Seneca, if we were to rely upon Suillius alone. "[11]

Works

Works attributed to Seneca include a dozen philosophical essays, one hundred twenty-four letters dealing with moral issues, nine tragedies, a satire, and a meteorological essay. A moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human Meteorology (from Greek grc μετέωρος metéōros, "high in the sky" and grc -λογία -logia) is the Interdisciplinary One of the tragedies attributed to him, Octavia, was clearly not written by him. He even appears as a character in the play. His authorship of another, Hercules on Oeta, is doubtful.

Seneca generally employed a pointed rhetorical style. His writings contain the traditional themes of Stoic philosophy: the universe is governed for the best by a rational providence; contentedness is achieved by a simple, unperturbed life in accordance with nature and the duty to the state; human suffering should be accepted and has a positive effect on the soul; study and learning is important; etc. Stoicism, a school of Hellenistic philosophy, was founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early third century BC He emphasized practical steps by which the reader might confront life's problems. In particular, he considered it important to confront the fact of one's own mortality. The discussion of how to approach death dominates many of his letters.

Seneca's Tragedies

Many scholars have thought, following the ideas of the nineteenth century German scholar Leo, that Seneca's tragedies were written for recitation only. Other scholars think that they were written for performance and that it is possible that actual performance had taken place in Seneca's life time (George W. M. Harrison (ed. ), Seneca in performance, London: Duckworth, 2000). Ultimately, this issue is not capable of resolution on the basis of our existing knowledge.

The tragedies of Seneca have been successfully staged in modern times. The dating of the tragedies is highly problematic in the absence of any ancient references. A relative chronology has been suggested on metrical grounds but scholars remain divided. It is inconceivable that they were written in the same year. They are not at all based on Greek tragedies, they have a five act form and differ in many respects from extant Attic drama, and whilst the influence of Euripides on some these works is considerable, so is the influence of Virgil and Ovid. Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus Publius Vergilius Maro ( October 15, 70 BCE &ndash September 21, 19 BCE later called Virgilius, and known in English as Virgil or Publius Ovidius Naso ( March 20, 43 BC – 17 AD was a Roman poet known to the English -speaking world as Ovid who wrote on many topics including

Seneca's plays were widely read in medieval and Renaissance European universities so they strongly influenced tragic drama in that time, such as Elizabethan England (Shakespeare and other playwrights), France (Corneille and Racine) and the Netherlands (Joost van den Vondel) . The Renaissance (from French Renaissance, meaning "rebirth" Italian: Rinascimento, from re- "again" and nascere A university is an institution of Higher education and Research, which grants Academic degrees in a variety of subjects Romance and reality The Victorian era and the early twentieth century idealised the Elizabethan era William Shakespeare ( baptised Joost van den Vondel ( November 17, 1587 - February 5, 1679) was a Dutch writer and playwright

Tragedies:

Dialogues

Other

Seneca as a humanist saint

Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle in a medieval manuscript illustration (c. 1325–35)
Plato, Seneca, and Aristotle in a medieval manuscript illustration (c. Biography Early life Birth and family Plato was born in Athens Greece Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. 1325–35)

The early Christian Church was very favorably disposed towards Seneca and his writings, and the church leader Tertullian called him "our Seneca". Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, Anglicised as Tertullian, (ca [12]

Medieval writers and works (such as the Golden Legend, which erroneously has Nero as a witness to his suicide) believed that Seneca had been converted to the Christian faith by Saint Paul, and early humanists regarded his fatal bath as a kind of disguised baptism. The Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea by Jacopo da Varagine is a collection of fanciful hagiographies or lives of the Saints that became a late medieval Paul the apostle (שאול התרסי Šaʾul HaTarsi, meaning " Saul of Tarsus " Σαούλ Saul and Σαῦλος Saulos and Humanism is a broad category of ethical philosophies that affirm the dignity and worth of all people based on the ability to determine right and wrong by appealing to universal However, this seems unlikely as Seneca always professed to be Stoic.

Dante placed Seneca in the First Circle of Hell, or Limbo, a place of perfect natural happiness where good non-Christians like the ancient philosophers had to stay for eternity, due to their lack of the justifying grace (given only by Christ) required to go to heaven. The Divine Comedy See also Intermediate state Purgatory|Heaven|Sheol|Hades in Christianity|Hell in Christianity In Roman Catholic theology Limbo (Latin limbus Heaven may refer to the physical heavens the sky or the seemingly endless expanse of the Universe beyond

Seneca the Younger also makes an appearance as a character in Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea. L'incoronazione di Poppea ( SV 308 The Coronation of Poppea) is an Opera seria in three acts by Claudio Monteverdi to an Italian

See also

References

  1. ^ Miriam T. Lucius or Marcus Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician (ca This article is about theatrical performances in ancient Rome The so-called Pseudo-Seneca is a Roman bronze bust of the late first century BCE that was discovered at Herculaneum in 1754 the finest example of about two dozen Griffin. Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics, Oxford 1976
  2. ^ Cons Helv. 19. 2
  3. ^ Cassius Dio claims Seneca and Burrus "took the rule entirely into their own hands,", but "after the death of Britannicus, Seneca and Burrus no longer gave any careful attention to the public business" in 55 AD (Cassius Dio, Roman History, LXI. 3-7)
  4. ^ Moses Hadas. The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca, 1958. 7.
  5. ^ Moses Hadas. The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca, 1958. 3.
  6. ^ Campbell, Robin Letters from a Stoic (London 1998) 11.
  7. ^ Campbell, Robin Letters from a Stoic (London 1998) 11.
  8. ^ Tacitus The Annals (New York 2003) 267.
  9. ^ Tacitus The Annals (New York 2003) All.
  10. ^ Lydia Motto,Anna Seneca on Trial: The Case of the Opulent Stoic The Classic Journal, Vol. 61, No. 6 (1966) pp. 254-258
  11. ^ Lydia Motto,Anna Seneca on Trial: The Case of the Opulent Stoic The Classic Journal, Vol. 61, No. 6 (1966) pp. 257
  12. ^ Moses Hadas. The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca, 1958. 1.

External links


Persondata
NAME Seneca the Younger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lucius Annaeus Seneca
SHORT DESCRIPTION Roman philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH 4 BC
PLACE OF BIRTH Roman Empire
DATE OF DEATH 63 AD
PLACE OF DEATH Roman Empire

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