Seneca - College of Stoic Philosophers

62 SENECAyoke. He began by heaping honours on themother to whom he owed the Empire. Sheaccepted these honours as her due, and wasimprudent enough continually to remind himof his obligations. The assassination of Silanus,Proconsul of Asia, gave early proof of what mightbe expected from the continuance of her power.Silanus had owed his safety in the preceding reignsto his inactivity and notorious lack of ambition,but as a descendant of Augustus he had beenspoken of as a possible rival to Nero, and he wasthe brother of another Silanus for whose deathunder Claudius Agrippina had been responsible.Agrippina, therefore, caused him to be poisonedat his own table, employing as her agents twomen charged with the management of the imperialestate in the province. The crime was committedwith so little attempt at concealment that it wasa secret to none. Narcissus, too, who had opposedher marriage with Claudius, was imprisoned withsuch severity that he took refuge in self-destruction.Other executions would have followed but forthe interposition of Seneca and Burrhus. Nero,who was innocent of the murder of Silanus andhad been opposed to the punishment of Narcissus,was glad to support his two ministers, and in sodoing to satisfy his vanity by earning a reputationfor clemency and good government. Moreover,the man who had most influence with Agrippinawas the fabulously rich freedman Pallas, herparamour, whose moroseness and arrogance hadmade him universally detested. The destructionof the power of the freedmen was a preliminary