Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

140 STOICISM.all the gifts of his Imperial bounty. The flatteringanswer which was given did not blind him to hisdanger, and he withdrew thenceforth from the busyworld to spend his last days in earnest study andseclusion. Tyranny at first found other victims amongthe professors of theStoic creed, v/ho were regardedwith mistrust as disaffected to the ruling powers ;some, like Rubellius Plautus, were driven from publiclife in Rome, and struck down while in exile ;inothers, like Thrasea, abstention was counted as acrime, and it was felt that before long their turnwould come. At length an opportunity was found ;a wide-spread conspiracy against the emperor's lifehad been detected, and inor torture had extortedthe disclosures which fearthe innocent and guilty wereconfounded ; among them Seneca's name appearedupon the list, while his nephew, Lucan, certainly Avasactive in the plot. The evidence, indeed, was verymeagre, and in the bearing and answers of the accusedthere was no sign of guilty fear. But Nero wasresolved that he should die, and sent the fatal messageto announce his doom.The account of Seneca's last hours may be givenin the words of Tacitus :—" Seneca, quite unmoved,asked for tablets on which to inscribe his will, and onthe centurion's refusal, turned to his friends, protestingthat as he was forbidden to requite them, he bequeathedto them the onlybut still the noblestpossession yet remaining to him, the pattern of hislife, which if they remembered, they would win aname for moral worth and steadfast friendship. At