Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

CHAPTER IVEXILE IN CORSICA, A.D. 4I-49The new emperor had all his life been the objectof ridicule and contempt. He was fifty yearsold, slow-minded, awkward in his motions, weakon his legs, with tremulous head and handsand a tongue too large for his mouth, fearfulto excess, apathetic to such a degree that noinsult could rouse in him resentment nor sufferingsmove him to pity, greedy and sensuous,learned, pedantic, and absent-minded— honestwithal and well-meaning. As a child his motherAntonia described him as a monstrosity, anunfinished and abandoned attempt of Nature ;and would say of a man that he was as great afool as her son Claudius. The Emperor Augustus,noted for his grace and beauty, was ashamedof his strange young kinsman ;and sequesteredhim as much as possible from the public view.He was kept in rough hands under the disciplineof pupilage for an unusually long time, andadmitted to no public honours until after thedeath of Augustus, when Tiberius, who treatedhim with more consideration, bestowed uponhim consular privileges while still denying him