Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE CONSPIRACY OF PISOi6ikeep up their habits of intercourse.' To this Seneca'had replied:Frequent meetings and conversationswould do neither of them any good: but his own welfaredepended on Piso's safety.'Gavius Silvanus, Tribune of a Praetorian Cohort,was ordered to take the report of this incident to Seneca,and to ask him, ' Whether he admitted the correctnessof the question of Natalis, and of his own answer to it ?Either by chance or purposely, it happened that Senecawas returning on that day from Campania, and hadhalted at a suburban villa four miles from Rome. Thither,towards evening, the tribune proceeded and having;surrounded the house with soldiers, he delivered theemperor's message to Seneca when he was at tablewith his wife Pompeia Paulina and two friends,'Seneca's reply was : Natalis had been sent tocomplain on behalf of Piso that he was not permittedto visit him ;and he had tendered in excuse the stateof his health and his love of quiet. As to his reasonfor regarding the welfare of a private individual as ofmore value than his own safety, he had had none. Hewas not a man addicted to flattery: and that no oneknew better than Nero himself, who had more oftenfound him too free than too servile in his utterances.'On receiving this report from the tribune in the presenceof Poppaea and Tigellinus, who formed the emperor's'inner council of cruelty, Nero asked, Was Seneca preparingto put an end to himself '? The tribune declaredthat he had observed no sign of alarm or dejectionin Seneca's face or language. He was therefore orderedto go back and tell him he must die. Fabius Rusticusstates that the tribune did not return by the sameroad by which he had come, but that he went out ofhis way to see Faenius, the prefect and; having shownhim Caesar's order, asked him, ' Should he obey it ? 'and that Faenius, with that fatal weakness which hadcome over them all, told him to execute his orders.For Silvanus himself was one of the conspirators, andhe was now adding one more crime to those which heM'