Seneca

Seneca the Younger, born Lucius Annaeus Seneca around 4 BCE in Corduba in Hispania, was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and essayist. The son of the rhetor Marcus Annaeus Seneca, he grew up in a wealthy provincial family and received education in rhetoric and philosophy in Rome. In 41 CE, Claudius exiled him to Corsica on charges related to a scandal; he was recalled to Rome in 49 CE to become Nero's tutor and adviser.

During his career, he authored a substantial body of work, including moral essays, letters, and tragedies, which contributed to later interpretations of Stoic ethics and practical philosophy. His Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius) is among his best-known writings and presents guidance on virtue, self-control, and the pursuit of a tranquil mind.

In 65 CE he was implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy to overthrow Nero and was ordered to take his own life. According to tradition, he complied by cutting his veins, dying in Athens or Rome shortly thereafter.

Seneca's philosophical stance is characterized by a practical form of Stoicism that emphasizes the equality of all human beings before nature, the importance of living in accordance with virtue, and the notion that external events are neither good nor bad in themselves but become so through our judgments. His prose and dramatic works shaped Renaissance and Enlightenment thought and continue to be studied for their ethical reflections and literary craft.