Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

6oSENECAlaid aside/ Nero made his entry into the Senatehouseand announced the pohcy of the new reignin a speech composedfor him by Seneca. Afterreminding his hearers that his boyhood had beenpassed in no scenes of civil or domestic discord,and that he had consequently no injuries to avengeor hatreds to satisfy, he proceeded to touch onthe abuses of the late regime and to explain thenew system of government which he proposed tofollow. The reign of law, he said in effect, wasto replace that of caprice. He did not propose tobusy himself personally in the trial of offenders ;the scandal of the secret investigations in theCabinet where accusers and accused alone werepresent was to end the court was no;longer to bea market where offices, privileges, and pardonswere sold to favourites his ; private fortune mustbe distinguished from the public revenue, hishousehold from the ministers of the republic.The Senate were to be reinstated in its ancientfunctions, and consular tribunals to be restoredto Italy and the senatorial provinces, with theright of appeal to the Senate.^ Let the Senate,he said in conclusion, address themselves to theadministration of the republic he himself would;take thought for the armies committed to his care.This speech was heard with exultation by1 'Peractis tristitiae imitamentis ' {Ann. xiii. 4).-This refers to the division of the provinces into imperialand senatorial provinces made by Augustus— the latter beingadministered by the Senate, the former directly by himselfthrough procurators. Under Claudius the distinction had beenpractically abolished, and the whole Empire, with a few exceptions,sucli as Achaia, governed by the emperor's procuratorswho, like FeUx in Judaea, were often freedmen.