Editing Seneca the Younger (section)

===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" />