Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CHAPTER IIITHE PRINCIPATE OF CALIGULA, A.D. 37-42We know little of the life of Seneca during theclosing years of Tiberius and the principate ofCaligula. Tiberius died in 37, and the elderSeneca at a great age some years earlier, probablyin Spain, as his three sons were absentfrom his death-bed ^ and we know that hiswidow administered with care and sagacity theirrich inheritance. Writing in the first year ofClaudius, the younger Seneca speaks of themoney reputation and honours lavishly bestowedon him by fortune of which exile had deprivedhim and of the public honours earned bythe industry of his brother Gallio. For thesedistinctions the philosophical Mela had scornedto compete ; but he too isspoken of as wealthy. ^Seneca was married and the father of a boy,whom he thus described to his mother :1 ' Carissimum virum, ex quo mater trium libeforura eras,extulisti, Lugenti tibi luctus nuntiatus est, omnibus quidemabsentibus liberis ; quasi de industria in id tempusconjectis malistuis ut nihil esset ubi se dolor tuus reclinaret ' {Consol. ad Helv. ii.).Lucius Seneca wrote a biography of his father with the titleDe Vita Patris. Of this only the fragment of a sentence remains.»His son Lucan was born in the year 39 at Corduba andbrought to Rome in 40 when seven months old. The author ofthe ancient life of Lucan who tells us this says also that Melawas known at Rome through his brother Seneca, 'a man famousfor every virtue,' and through his love of a quiet life (' propterstudium vitae guietioris ').