Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

136 STOICISM.time, and the scholar Lipsius therefore thought itpossible, and Diderot held it to be almost certain, thatthe fragment which bears the title in his works was alater forgery of some malignant critic, who has pushedthe language of servility so far as to make it read tous like overt satire. We would gladly wish it werenot genuine, but unhappily there can be little doubtthat the letter written was unworthy, whether we havethe original or not before us.At length the fall of Messalina brought hopes offreedom to the exile. Her successor, Agrippina, soonhad him recalled, wishing, says Tacitus, to do an actof grace to one who stood so high in popular esteem,and whose gratitude might be of service to her in thefuture.She entrusted even to his care her young sonNero, though with the ominous condition that he wasnot to learn philosophy, as if its lessons could have noserious value for a future ruler. When Claudius diedsoon after and Nero stepped upon the vacant throne,Seneca became his chief adviser, or rather sharedwith Burrus, the commander of the household troops,the main moving force of the new ministry. Thefirst five years of Nero's reignwere afterwards regardedas one of the brightest epochs of Imperialrule, and the actual regents may fairly have thecredit of the good government which they secured.But Seneca's eye had soon discerned the latentferocity of Nero's temper, which was not to be charmedaway by edifying treatises like those which he addressedto him "On Anger" and "On Clemency," themoral influence of which was sadly marred by the