Editing Seneca the Younger (section)

==Life==
===Early life, family and adulthood===
Seneca was born in [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]] in the Roman province of [[Hispania Baetica|Baetica]] in [[Hispania]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=6}}</ref> His branch of the [[Annaea gens]] consisted of Italic colonists, of Umbrian or Paelignian origins.<ref>George Davis Chase, "The Origin of Roman Praenomina", in Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. VIII, pp. 103–184 (1897).</ref>  His father was [[Seneca the Elder|Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder]], a Spanish-born [[Equites|Roman knight]] who had gained fame as a writer and teacher of rhetoric in Rome.<ref name="dandy">{{Cite book|author-first=Stephen|author-last=Dando-Collins|title=Blood of the Caesars: How the Murder of Germanicus Led to the Fall of Rome|year=2008|page=47|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0470137413}}</ref> It is conjectured, based on a single inscription, Seneca's mother, Helvia, was from a prominent Baetician family.<ref name="habby7">{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=7}}</ref> Seneca was the second of three brothers; the others were [[Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus|Lucius Annaeus Novatus]] (later known as Junius Gallio), and Annaeus Mela, the father of the poet [[Lucan]].<ref name="rgm92">{{Harvnb|Reynolds|Griffin|Fantham|2012|p=92}}</ref> [[Miriam Griffin]] says in her biography of Seneca that "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."<ref name="thegriff">Miriam T. Griffin. ''Seneca: A Philosopher in Politics'', Oxford 1976. 34.</ref> Griffin also infers from the ancient sources that Seneca was born in either 8, 4, or 1 BC. She thinks he was born between 4 and 1 BC and was resident in Rome by AD 5.<ref name="thegriff"/>

[[File:Sénèque - Cordoue.JPG|thumb|right|Modern statue of Seneca in Córdoba]]
Seneca is said to have been taken to [[Rome]] in the "arms" of his aunt (his mother's stepsister) at a young age, probably when he was about five years old.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=48}} citing ''De Consolatione ad Helviam Matrem'' 19.2</ref> His father resided for much of his life in the city.<ref name="asmi7">{{Harvnb|Asmis|Bartsch|Nussbaum|2012|p=vii}}</ref> Seneca was taught the usual subjects of literature, grammar, and rhetoric, as part of the standard education of high-born Romans.<ref name="habby8">{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=8}}</ref> While still young he received philosophical training from [[Attalus (Stoic)|Attalus]] the [[Stoicism|Stoic]], and from [[Sotion (Pythagorean)|Sotion]] and [[Papirius Fabianus]], both of whom belonged to the short-lived [[School of the Sextii]], which combined Stoicism with [[Pythagoreanism]].<ref name="rgm92" /> Sotion persuaded Seneca when he was a young man (in his early twenties) to become a [[vegetarian]], which he practiced for around a year before his father urged him to desist because the practice was associated with "some foreign rites".<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=56}}</ref> Seneca often had breathing difficulties throughout his life, probably [[asthma]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=32}}</ref> and at some point in his mid-twenties ({{Circa|AD 20}}) he appears to have been struck down with [[tuberculosis]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=57}}</ref> He was sent to [[Egypt (Roman province)|Egypt]] to live with his aunt (the same aunt who had brought him to Rome), whose husband [[Gaius Galerius]] had become [[Prefect of Egypt]].<ref name="habby7" /> She nursed him through a period of ill health that lasted up to ten years.<ref name="wilko62">{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=62}}</ref> In 31 AD he returned to Rome with his aunt, his uncle dying en route in a shipwreck.<ref name="wilko62" /> His aunt's influence helped Seneca be elected [[quaestor]] (probably after AD 37<ref name="habby8" />), which also earned him the right to sit in the [[Roman Senate]].<ref name="wilko62" />

===Politics and exile===
Seneca's early career as a senator seems to have been successful and he was praised for his oratory.<ref name="brauny24">{{Harvnb|Braund|2015|p=24}}</ref> In his writings Seneca has nothing good to say about Caligula and frequently depicts him as a monster.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=67}}</ref> [[Cassius Dio]] relates a story that [[Caligula]] was so offended by Seneca's oratorical success in the Senate that he ordered him to commit suicide.<ref name="brauny24"/> Seneca survived only because he was seriously ill and Caligula was told that he would soon die anyway.<ref name="brauny24"/> Seneca explains his own survival as due to his patience and his devotion to his friends: "I wanted to avoid the impression that all I could do for loyalty was die."<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=67}} citing ''Naturales Quaestiones'', 4.17</ref>

In AD 41, [[Claudius]] became emperor, and Seneca was accused by the new empress [[Messalina]] of adultery with [[Julia Livilla]], sister to Caligula and [[Agrippina the Younger|Agrippina]].<ref name="habby9">{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=9}}</ref> The affair has been doubted by some historians, since Messalina had clear political motives for getting rid of Julia Livilla and her supporters.<ref name="asmi7"/><ref name="wilko79">{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=79}}</ref> The Senate pronounced a death sentence on Seneca, which Claudius commuted to exile, and Seneca spent the next eight years on the island of [[Corsica]].<ref name="brauny23">{{Harvnb|Braund|2015|p=23}}</ref> Two of Seneca's earliest surviving works date from the period of his exile—both [[Seneca's Consolations|consolations]].<ref name="habby9"/> In his ''Consolation to Helvia'', his mother, Seneca comforts her as a bereaved mother for losing her son to exile.<ref name="brauny23"/> Seneca incidentally mentions the death of his only son, a few weeks before his exile.<ref name="brauny23"/> Later in life Seneca was married to a woman younger than himself, [[Pompeia Paulina]].<ref name="rgm92"/> It has been thought that the infant son may have been from an earlier marriage,<ref name="brauny23"/> but the evidence is "tenuous".<ref name="rgm92"/> Seneca's other work of this period, his ''Consolation to [[Polybius (freedman)|Polybius]]'', one of Claudius' freedmen, focused on consoling Polybius on the death of his brother. It is noted for its flattery of Claudius, and Seneca expresses his hope that the emperor will recall him from exile.<ref name="brauny23"/> In 49 AD Agrippina married her uncle Claudius, and through her influence Seneca was recalled to Rome.<ref name="habby9"/> Agrippina gained the [[praetor]]ship for Seneca and appointed him tutor to her son, the future emperor [[Nero]].<ref name="brauny22">{{Harvnb|Braund|2015|p=22}}</ref>

===Imperial advisor===
[[File:Nerón y Séneca (Barrón).JPG|thumb|right|Nero and Seneca, by [[Eduardo Barrón González|Eduardo Barrón]] (1904). [[Museo del Prado]]]]
From AD 54 to 62, Seneca acted as Nero's advisor, together with the [[praetorian prefect]] [[Sextus Afranius Burrus]]. Early in Nero's reign, his mother Agrippina exercised his authority to make decisions. Seneca and Burrus opposed this authoritarian matriarchy which had become the cause of irresponsibility of the emperor. One by-product of his new position was that Seneca was appointed [[suffect consul]] in 56.<ref>The ''Senatus Consultum Trebellianum'' was dated to 25 August in his consulate, which he shared with Trebellius Maximus. ''Digest'' 36.1.1</ref> Seneca's influence was said to have been especially strong in the first year.<ref>[[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)</ref> Seneca composed Nero's accession speeches in which he promised to restore proper legal procedure and authority to the Senate.<ref name="brauny22"/> He also composed the eulogy for Claudius that Nero delivered at the funeral.<ref name="brauny22"/> Seneca's satirical skit ''[[Apocolocyntosis]]'', which lampoons the deification of Claudius and praises Nero, dates from the earliest period of Nero's reign.<ref name="brauny22"/> In AD 55, Seneca wrote ''[[De Clementia|On Clemency]]'' following Nero's murder of [[Britannicus]], perhaps to assure the citizenry that the murder was the end, not the beginning of bloodshed.<ref name="habby10">{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=10}}</ref> ''On Clemency'' is a work which, although it flatters Nero, was intended to show the correct (Stoic) path of virtue for a ruler.<ref name="brauny22"/> [[Tacitus]] and Dio suggest that Nero's early rule, during which he listened to Seneca and Burrus, was quite competent. However, the ancient sources suggest that, over time, Seneca and Burrus lost their influence over the emperor. In 59 they had reluctantly agreed to Agrippina's murder, and afterward Tacitus reports that Seneca had to write a letter justifying the murder to the Senate.<ref name="habby10"/>

In AD 58 the senator [[Publius Suillius Rufus]] made a series of public attacks on Seneca.<ref name="brauny21">{{Harvnb|Braund|2015|p=21}}</ref> These attacks, reported by [[Tacitus]] and [[Cassius Dio]],<ref>Tacitus, ''Annals'' xiii.42; Cassius Dio, ''Roman History'' lxi.33.9.</ref> included charges that, in a mere four years of service to Nero, Seneca had acquired a vast personal fortune of three hundred million [[Sestertius|sestertii]] by charging high interest on loans throughout Italy and the provinces.<ref name="asmi9">{{Harvnb|Asmis|Bartsch|Nussbaum|2012|p=ix}}</ref> Suillius' attacks included claims of sexual corruption, with a suggestion that Seneca had slept with Agrippina.<ref name="wilko130">{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=130}}</ref> Tacitus, though, reports that Suillius was highly prejudiced: he had been a favorite of Claudius,<ref name="brauny21"/> and had been an embezzler and informant.<ref name="asmi9"/> In response, Seneca brought a series of prosecutions for corruption against Suillius: half of his estate was confiscated and he was sent into exile.<ref name="wilko131">{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=131}}</ref> However, the attacks reflect a criticism of Seneca that was made at the time and continued through later ages.<ref name="brauny21"/> Seneca was undoubtedly extremely rich: he had properties at [[Baiae]] and [[Nomentum]], an [[Alba Longa|Alban]] villa, and Egyptian estates.<ref name="brauny21"/> Cassius Dio even reports that the [[Boudica]] uprising in [[Roman Britain|Britannia]] was caused by Seneca forcing large loans on the indigenous British aristocracy in the aftermath of Claudius's [[Roman conquest of Britain|conquest of Britain]], and then calling them in suddenly and aggressively.<ref name="brauny21"/> Seneca was sensitive to such accusations: his ''[[De Vita Beata]]'' ("On the Happy Life") dates from around this time and includes a defense of wealth along Stoic lines, arguing that properly gaining and spending wealth is appropriate behavior for a philosopher.<ref name="asmi9"/>

===Retirement===
After Burrus's death in 62, Seneca's influence declined rapidly; as Tacitus puts it (Ann. 14.52.1), ''mors Burri infregit Senecae potentiam'' ("the death of Burrus broke Seneca's power").<ref>{{Harvnb|Braund|2015|p=viii}}</ref> Tacitus reports that Seneca tried to retire twice, in 62 and AD 64, but Nero refused him on both occasions.<ref name="asmi9"/> Nevertheless, Seneca was increasingly absent from the court.<ref name="asmi9"/> He adopted a quiet lifestyle on his country estates, concentrating on his studies and seldom visiting Rome. It was during these final few years that he composed two of his greatest works: ''[[Naturales quaestiones]]''—an encyclopedia of the natural world; and his ''[[Letters to Lucilius]]''—which document his philosophical thoughts.<ref name="habby14">{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=14}}</ref>
[[File:Peter Paul Rubens - Dying Seneca.jpg|thumb|200px|''Death of Seneca'' by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]]]

===Death===

In AD 65, Seneca was caught up in the aftermath of the [[Pisonian conspiracy]], a plot to kill Nero. Although it is unlikely that Seneca was part of the conspiracy, Nero ordered him to kill himself.<ref name="asmi9"/> Seneca followed tradition by severing several [[vein]]s in order to [[exsanguination|bleed to death]], and his wife Pompeia Paulina attempted to share his fate. Cassius Dio, who wished to emphasize the relentlessness of Nero, focused on how Seneca had attended to his last-minute letters, and how his death was hastened by soldiers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Habinek|2013|p=16}} citing Cassius Dio ii.25</ref>  A generation after the Julio-Claudian emperors, [[Tacitus]] wrote an account of the suicide, which, in view of his republican sympathies, is perhaps somewhat romanticized.<ref name="brodby">{{cite book|author1-last=Church|author1-first=Alfred John|author2-last=Brodribb|author2-first=William Jackson|title=Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome |chapter=xv| location=New York|publisher= [[Barnes & Noble]] |date=2007|page=341}} citing Tacitus ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'', xv. 60–64</ref> According to this account, Nero ordered Seneca's wife saved. Her wounds were bound up and she made no further attempt to kill herself. As for Seneca himself, his age and diet were blamed for slow loss of blood and extended pain rather than a quick death. He also took poison, which was not fatal. 
[[File:Manuel Domínguez Sánchez - El suicidio de Séneca.jpg|thumb|left|300px|[[Manuel Domínguez Sánchez]], ''Death of Seneca'', [[Museo del Prado]]]]

After dictating his last words to a scribe, and with a circle of friends attending him in his home, he immersed himself in a warm bath, which he expected would speed blood flow and ease his pain. Tacitus wrote, "He was then carried into a bath, with the steam of which he was suffocated, and he was burnt without any of the usual funeral rites.  So he had directed in a codicil of his will, even when in the height of his wealth and power he was thinking of life's close."<ref name="brodby"/> This may give the impression of a favorable portrait of Seneca, but Tacitus's treatment of him is at best ambivalent. Alongside Seneca's apparent fortitude in the face of death, for example, one can also view his actions as rather histrionic and performative; and when Tacitus tells us that he left his family an ''imago suae vitae'' (''Annales'' 15.62), "an image of his life", he is possibly being ambiguous: in Roman culture, the ''imago'' was a kind of mask that commemorated the great ancestors of noble families, but at the same time, it may also suggest duplicity, superficiality, and pretense.<ref>Cf. especially Beard, M., "How Stoical was Seneca?", in the ''New York Review of Books'', Oct. 9, 2014.</ref>