Editing Seneca the Younger (section)

===As a proto-Christian saint===
[[File:Plato Seneca Aristotle medieval.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Plato]], Seneca, and [[Aristotle]] in a medieval manuscript illustration (c. 1325–35)]]

Seneca's writings were well known in the later Roman period, and [[Quintilian]], writing thirty years after Seneca's death, remarked on the popularity of his works amongst the youth.<ref name="lars54a"/> While he found much to admire, Quintillian criticized Seneca for what he regarded as a degenerate literary style—a criticism echoed by [[Aulus Gellius]] in the middle of the 2nd century.<ref name="lars54a">{{Harvnb|Laarmann|2013|p=54}} citing Quintilian, ''Institutio Oratoria'', x.1.126f; Aulus Gellius, ''Noctes Atticae'', xii. 2.</ref>

The early Christian Church was very favourably disposed towards Seneca and his writings, and the church leader [[Tertullian]] possessively referred to him as "our Seneca".<ref>Moses Hadas. ''The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca'', 1958. 1.</ref> By the 4th century an [[Correspondence of Paul and Seneca|apocryphal correspondence]] with [[Paul the Apostle]] had been created linking Seneca into the Christian tradition.<ref name="lars54">{{Harvnb|Laarmann|2013|p=54}}</ref> The letters are mentioned by [[Jerome]] who also included Seneca among a list of Christian writers, and Seneca is similarly mentioned by [[Augustine]].<ref name="lars54"/> In the 6th century [[Martin of Braga]] synthesized Seneca's thought into a couple of treatises that became popular in their own right.<ref name="lars55">{{Harvnb|Laarmann|2013|p=55}}</ref> Otherwise, Seneca was mainly known through a large number of quotes and extracts in the ''[[florilegium|florilegia]]'', which were popular throughout the medieval period.<ref name="lars55"/> When his writings were read in the later Middle Ages, it was mostly his ''[[Letters to Lucilius]]''—the longer essays and plays being relatively unknown.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=218}}</ref>

Medieval writers and works continued to link him to Christianity because of his alleged association with Paul.<ref name="wilko219">{{Harvnb|Wilson|2014|p=219}}</ref> The ''[[Golden Legend]]'', a 13th-century [[hagiography|hagiographical]] account of famous saints that was widely read, included an account of Seneca's death scene, and erroneously presented Nero as a witness to Seneca's suicide.<ref name="wilko219"/> [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] placed Seneca (alongside [[Cicero]]) among the "great spirits" in the [[Inferno (Dante)#First Circle (Limbo)|First Circle of Hell]], or [[Limbo]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ker|2009|p=197}} citing Dante, ''Inf.'', 4.141</ref> [[Boccaccio]], who in 1370 came across the works of Tacitus whilst browsing the library at [[Montecassino]], wrote an account of Seneca's suicide hinting that it was a kind of disguised baptism, or a ''de facto'' baptism in spirit.<ref>{{Harvnb|Ker|2009|pp=221–222}}</ref> Some, such as [[Albertino Mussato]] and [[Giovanni Colonna (cardinal, 1295–1348)|Giovanni Colonna]], went even further and concluded that Seneca must have been a Christian convert.<ref>{{Harvnb|Laarmann|2013|p=59}}</ref>