Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

134 STOICISM.Fabianus, who also denounced with energy the vicesof the age, not deaHng much with abstract thought,but giving a rhetorical expression to the doctrines ofthe Porch. Seneca devotes a whole letter to thecriticism of his style, but lays no stress on anyspecial tenets on which he may have heard him dwell.^After some time spent in the lecture-rooms of thesephilosophers, he chose the Bar for his profession, atwhich he soon made himself a name, pleading sobrilliantly on one occasion before the EmperorCaligula, that the mad despot was moved to murderousenvy, but listened happily to the suggestion that theyoung lawyer seemed far gone in a decline, and thatit was surely needless to cut short a life w^hichhung already on so frail a thread. From that timeSeneca became a marked figure in the world offashion, but in those days of absolute rule, dangerfollowed closely on the steps of all who rose to highestate.The Imperial household was not large enough tohold in peacethe wife and sister of the dotardClaudius, but the former ere longsucceeded in destroyingthe influence and reputation of her rival,who was driven with tarnished honour from the court,while Seneca was denounced as the partner of Julia'sshame, and hurried off to Corsica to spend eightyears in exile. The charge came with an illgracefrom the profligate Messalina, who only cared tocompass the destruction of her rival, and such wasthe mockery of justice under Claudius that the'Ep. loo.