Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE CONSPIRACY OF PISO 151by the Senate in that year for the restraint offictitious adoptions.^The year 64, though a year of peace, was onefor Rome. From the time whenof calamityTigeUinus had succeeded to the power andinfluence of Seneca and Burrhus, the progressof Nero in the path of infamy had become evermore rapid. Early in this year he sang on thestage of the theatre at Naples, choosing thatcity for his first public appearance because itspopulation was Greek. Thence he designed togo to Greece, the home of the arts, and competefor prizes at the historical festivals; butabandoned that project for the time. He thenreturned to Rome and made preparations for avisit to Egypt but, to the great joy of the populace,who thought that his presence in Rome;secured their supply of amusements and provisions,he changed his mind as to this also and remainedin the city. Charmed with this evidence of thepopularity he always coveted, and inferring thatit was more easily and more agreeably gainedby the methods of TigeUinus than by thoserecommended by Seneca, he thereupon plungedinto the wildest excesses of luxury, extravagance,and open debauchery. He entertained thecitizens at gorgeous banquets in public places,1 It seems unlikely that Seneca should have been namedconsul by the emperor in the year of the death of Burrhus andhis own partial disgrace. On the other hand, we know thatNero refused to accept his resignation, and may at that time havedesignated him consul as a mark of continued confidence. MoreoverTrebellius, who was governor of Britain at the time of Nero'sdeath, would probably have received this appointment not verylong after holding the consulship.