Seneca
Lucius, or Marcus, Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician (ca. 54 BC- ca. 39 AD) was a Roman rhetorician and writer, born of a well-to-do equestrian family of Corduba Cordoba, Spain.
His praenomen is uncertain, but in any case Marcus is an arbitrary conjecture of Raphael of Volterra. During a lengthy stay on two occasions at Rome he attended the lectures of famous orators and rhetoricians, to prepare for an official career as an advocate. His ideal orator was Cicero, and he disapproved of the florid tendencies of the oratory of his time.
During the civil wars (which kept him in Spain and thus prevented him from ever hearing Cicero speak) his sympathies, like those of his native place, were probably with Pompey, as were those of his son and his grandson (the poet Lucan).
By his wife Helvia of Corduba he had three sons: L. Annaeus Novatus, adopted by his father's friend, the rhetorician Junius Gallio, and subsequently called L. Junius Gallio; L. Annaeus Seneca, the philosopher; Annaeus Mela, the father of the poet Lucan.
As he died before his son was banished by Claudius (41; Seneca, ad Helviam, ii. 4), and the latest references in his writings are to the period immediately after the death of Tiberius, he probably died about AD 39.
At an advanced age, at the request of his sons, he prepared, it is said from memory, a collection of various school themes and their treatment by Greek and Roman orators. These he arranged in ten books of Controversiae (imaginary legal cases) in which seventy-four themes were discussed, the opinions of the rhetoricians upon each case being given from different points of view, then their division of the case into different single questions (divisio), and, finally, the devices for making black appear white and extenuating injustice (colores).
Each book was introduced by a preface, in which the characteristics of individual rhetoricians were discussed in a lively manner. The work is incomplete, but the gaps can be to a certain extent filled up with the aid of an epitome made in the 4th or 5th century for the use of schools. The romantic elements were utilized in the collection of anecdotes and tales called Gesta Romanorum.
For Books I, II, VII, IX, and X we possess both the original and the epitome; for the remainder we have to rely upon the epitome alone. Even with the aid of the latter, only seven of the prefaces are available.The Controversiae were supplemented by the Suasoriae (exercises in hortatory or deliberative oratory), in which the question is discussed whether certain things should or should not be done. The whole forms the most important authority for the history of contemporary oratory.
Seneca was also the author of a lost historical work, containing the history of Rome from the beginning of the civil wars almost down to his own death, after which it was published by his son. Of this we learn something from the younger Seneca's De vita patris (H. Peter, Historicorum Romanorum fragmenta, 1883, pp. 292, 301), of which the beginning was discovered by Barthold Georg Niebuhr.
The father's claim to the authorship of the rhetorical work, generally ascribed to the son during the Middle Ages, was vindicated by Raphael of Volterra and Justus Lipsius.
Quote - "Against a slave everything is permitted."
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (often known simply as Seneca, or Seneca the Younger) (ca. 4 BC - 65 AD) was a Roman philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work, humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature.
Born in Cordoba, Hispania (in modern Spain), Seneca was the second son of Helvia and Marcus (Lucius) Annaeus Seneca, a wealthy rhetorician known as Seneca the Elder. Seneca's older brother, Gallio, was proconsul at Achaia (where early Christian documents recall he encountered the apostle Paul about AD 52).
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 by an aunt for schooling. He was trained in rhetoric, and studied neo-Pythagorean and, principally, Stoic philosophy.
But there is very little hard biographical information available from his own works and where this appears to be the case one needs to exercise extreme caution as it is invariably misleading and included simply to illustrate some philosophical idea rather than to impart biographical data.
Other historical accounts are written from biased points of view and make the reconstruction of the original Seneca problematic.
Under his father's and aunt's guidance, 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 anyhow.
In 41, Messalina, wife of the Emperor Claudius, persuaded Claudius to have him 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 49, Claudius' new wife, Agrippina, had him recalled to Rome to tutor her son, L. Domitius, who was to become the emperor Nero. On Claudius' murder in 54, Agrippina secured the recognition of Nero as emperor over Claudius' son, Britannicus.
For the first five years, the quinquennium Neronis, Nero ruled wisely under the influence of Seneca and the praetorian prefect, Sextus Afranius Burrus. But, before long, Seneca and Burrus had lost their influence over Nero and his reign became tyrannical. With the death of Burrus in 62, Seneca retired and devoted his time to more study and writing.
In 65, Seneca was accused of being involved in a plot to murder Nero, the Pisonian conspiracy. Without a trial, he was ordered by Nero to commit suicide. Tacitus gives an account of the suicide of Seneca and his wife, Pompeia Paulina, who chose to follow her husband in death.
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, is clearly not 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
It is impossible to determine if the tragedies were performed on stage: there is no evidence for either side. The German scholar Leo stated that they were recitation dramas but this reflected his conception of what a drama ought to be and this in turn was based on his conception of Greek tragedy.
They 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 based on Greek tragedy and whilst Euripides is a very distant ancestor of these works the main influence is Ovidian.
Seneca's plays were widely read in medieval European universities, so they strongly influenced Renaissance tragic drama, particularly the literature of Elizabethan England.
Seneca the Elder Wikipedia
LITERATURE, POETRY, DRAMA IN ANCIENT ROME
ANCIENT AND LOST CIVILIZATIONS
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
