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Lucius Annaeus Seneca

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Seneca, in full Lucius Annaeus Seneca, by name Seneca the Younger, (born c. 4 BCE, Corduba (now Córdoba), Spain—died 65 CE, Rome [Italy]), Roman philosopher, statesman, orator, and tragedian. He was Rome’s leading intellectual figure in the mid-1st century CE and was a virtual ruler with his friends of the Roman world between 54 and 62, during the first phase of emperor Nero's reign.

Seneca was the second son of a wealthy family. His father, Seneca (Seneca the Elder), had been famous in Rome as a teacher of rhetoric. His mother, Helvia, was of excellent character and education. His elder brother was Gallio, who met St. Paul the Apostle in Achaea in 52 CE, and his younger brother was the father of the poet Lucan.  

An aunt took young Seneca as a boy to Rome. There he was trained as an orator and educated in philosophy in the school of the Sextii, which blended Stoicism with an ascetic Neo-Pythagoreanism Seneca’s health suffered. He went to recuperate in Egypt, where his aunt lived with her husband, the prefect, Gaius Galerius. Returning to Rome about the year 31, he began a career in politics and law. Soon he fell foul of the emperor Caligula who was deterred from killing him only by the argument that his life was sure to be short.

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On the Shortness of Life

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