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Use a bust of Seneca, not the Pseudo-Seneca which is a bust of somebody else (Hesiod? nobody knows for sure).
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[[Image:Seneca.JPG|thumb|Bust, traditionally thought to be Seneca, now identified by some as [[Hesiod]].]]
[[Image:Seneca-berlinantikensammlung-1.jpg|thumb|Ancient bust of Seneca, part of a double herm ([[Antikensammlung Berlin]])]]
'''Lucius Annaeus Seneca''' (often known simply as '''Seneca''', or '''Seneca the Younger''') ([[ca.]] [[4 BC]]–AD [[65]]) was a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Stoicism|Stoic]] [[philosopher]], [[statesman]], [[dramatist]], and in one work [[humorist]], of the [[Silver Age of Latin literature]].
'''Lucius Annaeus Seneca''' (often known simply as '''Seneca''', or '''Seneca the Younger''') ([[ca.]] [[4 BC]]–AD [[65]]) was a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Stoicism|Stoic]] [[philosopher]], [[statesman]], [[dramatist]], and in one work [[humorist]], of the [[Silver Age of Latin literature]].


Revision as of 19:11, 20 September 2007

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

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. 4 BC–AD 65) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature.

Biography

Born in Corduba, Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula, comprising modern Spain and Portugal), about 3 B.C.E., Seneca was the second son of Helvia and Marcus (Lucius) Annaeus Seneca, a wealthy rhetorician known as Seneca the Elder. Both his gens name (Annaeus) and the names of his notable relatives, (e.g., Lucan) indicate his family was originally of Southern Italian, Oscan extraction, most likely hailing from the confluence of modern Apulia, Calabria and Basilicata. Many Southern Italian families, once obtaining Roman citizenship, participated in the colonization of Roman Hispania.

Seneca's older brother, Gallio, became proconsul at Achaia. Seneca was uncle to the poet Lucan by his younger brother Annaeus Mela.

Tradition relates that he was a sickly child and that he was taken to Rome for schooling. He was trained in rhetoric and was introduced into Stoic philosophy by Attalos and Sotion. Due to his illness, Seneca stayed in Egypt (from 25-31) for treatment.

After his return, he established a successful career as an advocate. Around 37, he was nearly killed as a result of a conflict with the Emperor Caligula who only spared him because he believed the sickly Seneca would not live long anyway. In 41, Messalina, wife of the Emperor Claudius, persuaded Claudius to have Seneca banished to Corsica on a charge of adultery with Julia Livilla. He spent his exile in philosophical and natural study and wrote the Consolations.

In AD 49, Claudius' new wife Agrippina had Seneca recalled to Rome to tutor her son who was to become the emperor Nero. On Claudius' death in 54, Agrippina secured the recognition of Nero as emperor over Claudius' son, Britannicus.

Seneca acted as Nero's advisor for eight years from 54 to 62. Seneca's influence was said to be especially strong in the first year.[1] Many historians consider Nero's early rule with Seneca and the praetorian prefect Sextus Afranius Burrus to be quite competent. Over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over Nero. With the death of Burrus in 62 and accusations of embezzlement, Seneca retired and devoted his time to more study and writing.

In 65, Seneca was accused of being involved in the Pisonian conspiracy, a plot to kill Nero. Then, having escaped the assassination attempt, he went home to commit ritual suicide. Tacitus gives an account of the suicide of Seneca in his book, the Annals, in Book XV, Chapter/Number 60 through 64. His wife, Pompeia Paulina, intended to commit suicide after but was forbidden to do so by Nero. She attempted suicide by cutting her wrists, but the wounds were bound up, and she did not make a second attempt. Unfortunately for Seneca, who also chose to cut his wrists, his diet caused the blood to flow slowly, thus causing pain instead of a quick death. He took poison given to him by a friend, but it didn't work. He dictated 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.

Works

Works attributed to Seneca include a satire, a meteorological essay, philosophical essays, 124 letters dealing with moral issues, and nine tragedies. 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's brand of Stoic philosophy 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.

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) .

Tragedies:

  • Hercules Oetaeus (Hercules on Oeta) and Octavia closely resemble Seneca's plays in style, but are probably written by a follower.

Dialogues

Other

Seneca as a humanist saint

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. However, this seems unlikely as Seneca always professed to be Stoic.

Dante, nevertheless, 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.

Seneca the younger also makes an appearance as a character in Monteverdi's opera L'incoronazione di Poppea.

See also

References

  1. ^ 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 (Cassius Dio, Roman History, LXI.3-7)
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