Lucius Seneca

[Octavia]

Hello everyone. I know Nero's tutor was Lucius Seneca. I don't know too much about him, only that he wrote plays and such. Do you all think that he was one of the good people in the empire and that he was a good adviser to Nero? Someone like Nero would be hard to take control of!

[M. Porcius Cato]

Seneca the Younger was a great man--but he would have served his country better had he cut out Nero's liver and given it to Thrasea Paetus. Instead, the greatest men in Nero's day--Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, Thrasea Paetus, and Piso--were either put to death or forced to commit suicide.

[Titus Maccius Plautus]

I read somewhere that during Caligula's reign he would strongly criticize the extravagant way of life led by the Emperor and his court, as opposed to the traditional more conservative Roman every-day existence, though I'm not really sure how accurate this information is.

[ASCLEPIADES]

I read somewhere that during Caligula's reign he would strongly criticize the extravagant way of life led by the Emperor and his court, as opposed to the traditional more conservative Roman every-day existence, though I'm not really sure how accurate this information is.

What I found about LA Seneca and Gaius (aka Caligula) is considerably different:

 

Here comes Cassius Dio, "Roman History", Book LIX, Ch. 19, sec. 7-8:

"On the other hand, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who was superior in wisdom to all the Romans of his day and to many others as well, came near being destroyed, though he had neither done any wrong nor had the appearance of doing so, but merely because he pleaded a case well in the senate while the emperor was present. Gaius ordered him to be put to death, but afterwards let him off because he believed the statement of one of his female associates, to the effect that Seneca had a consumption in an advanced stage and would die before a great while."

 

And here comes Suetonius, "Vita Caius", Ch. LIII, sec. 2:

"...and he had such scorn of a polished and elegant style that he used to say that Seneca, who was very popular just then, composed "mere school exercises," and that he was "sand without lime"."

 

I hope this stuff may be useful.

[Titus Maccius Plautus]

I read somewhere that during Caligula's reign he would strongly criticize the extravagant way of life led by the Emperor and his court, as opposed to the traditional more conservative Roman every-day existence, though I'm not really sure how accurate this information is.

What I found about LA Seneca and Gaius (aka Caligula) is considerably different:

 

Here comes Cassius Dio, "Roman History", Book LIX, Ch. 19, sec. 7-8:

"On the other hand, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, who was superior in wisdom to all the Romans of his day and to many others as well, came near being destroyed, though he had neither done any wrong nor had the appearance of doing so, but merely because he pleaded a case well in the senate while the emperor was present. Gaius ordered him to be put to death, but afterwards let him off because he believed the statement of one of his female associates, to the effect that Seneca had a consumption in an advanced stage and would die before a great while."

 

And here comes Suetonius, "Vita Caius", Ch. LIII, sec. 2:

"...and he had such scorn of a polished and elegant style that he used to say that Seneca, who was very popular just then, composed "mere school exercises," and that he was "sand without lime"."

 

I hope this stuff may be useful.

 

Hey, many thanks for those!

[ASCLEPIADES]

Hey, many thanks for those!

 

Non est, quod gratias agas, TMP

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

Seneca the Younger was a great man--but he would have served his country better had he cut out Nero's liver and given it to Thrasea Paetus. Instead, the greatest men in Nero's day--Seneca, Lucan, Petronius, Thrasea Paetus, and Piso--were either put to death or forced to commit suicide.

 

And what a slow and painful suicide it turned out to be......

 

 

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.

 

This is certainly not how a great man deserved to die.

[M. Porcius Cato]

This is certainly not how a great man deserved to die.

 

What a wimp--try ripping out your own bowels sometime!

[Gaius Paulinus Maximus]

This is certainly not how a great man deserved to die.

 

What a wimp--try ripping out your own bowels sometime!

 

Haha no thanks, I'm quite happy with my bowels the way they are thank you very much!

 

Ripping out your own bowels? Now that's got to tickle a bit!

 

Which poor soul has chosen this form of suicide before?

Edited August 21, 2007 by Gaius Paulinus Maximus