the lessons of my Seneca
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BCE -- 65 CE). A leading philosopher and
statesman of the mid-first century, Seneca was also a playwright, whose
nine tragedies celebrate stoic resignation. As a statesman, his practice
was anything but what such a philosophical stance might indicate, for he
was an activist not a conservative. He was Nero's tutor and later acted
behind the scenes to secure the emperor's power. He retired from the court
in the year 62 to devote himself to philosophy, but three years later he
was denounced as taking part in the conspiracy of Piso against the
emperor. Ordered by Nero to commit suicide, Seneca took his own life with
stoic resignation and fortitude. It is not, it would appear, in Seneca's
writings but in his example that Walton looks for comfort in his peril.
