Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

MARCUS ANNAEUS SENECA 7Like most mothers of distinguished men shewas, if we may accept the description leftof her by her son the philosopher, a womanof remarkable character and intelligence. Herhusband, to whom any departure from oldRoman customs and ideas was distasteful,^ wasopposed to what we now call the higher educationof women, and would not suffer her to devotemuch time to study, a circumstance regrettedby her son, in whose judgment there were fewon whom such opportunities would have beenless likely to be wasted, or who in the little timeactually allowed could have acquired so much.He tells us that his mother took deep interestin his philosophical studies, while her delightin his society was inexhaustible ; and, on theother hand, that the very sight of her alwaysfilled him with an almost boyish gaiety andgladness. After her widowhood, which succeededwithin thirty days the death of the kindest ofbrothers, she administered with the utmost careand disinterestedness the inheritance of her threesons ; refusing all personal advantage from it asif it had been another's, and giving as much careto itsmanagement as if it had been her own.In the same way the course of honours whichtwo of her sons successfully pursued, and thefortunes they acquired, though giving her pleasurefor their sake, were a source not of profit to— herself, but of additional expense so muchbetter did she deem it to give than to receive.Novatus, the eldest of the three sons of Marcus^''Nimis majorum consuetudini deditus {Cons, ad Helv. xvi.).