Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION 21Through several of his illnesses, and probablythrough this one, Seneca was nursed byaunt— hisa half-sister of Helvia and the widow ofVetrasius Pollio, for sixteen years governor of^Egypt under Tiberius. It was she who hadbrought him as a child from Spain to Rome;and he regarded her with especial admirationand respect. He relates in her honour anincident of which he was himself a witness.Her husband died at sea ;there was a storm ;the ship's tackle was destroyed and the ship ingreat danger the only thought of the widow;was for her husband's body from which nodanger could separate her and which shesucceeded in saving. At a later date, thoughnaturally modest and retiring with a dislike ofpublicity of any kind that stood out in strongcontrast to the general tone of the fashionablewomen of her time, she exerted all her influenceto obtain for her nephew the quaestorship andbecame, as he wrote to his mother, ambitiousfor his sake.^Towards the end of the principate of Tiberius,Lucius Seneca, at the desire of his father,abandoned for a time the schools of philosophyand practised with success at the Bar, Thiswas the usual beginning for those who wereambitious to succeed in an official career and toraise themselves through the various ascending1 It was the custom of Tiberius to continue in their civiland military governments and offices for long periods of years,and sometimes for life, those whom he thought worthy of hisconfidence.*Consol. ad Helviam,