Seneca is charged with encouraging and excusing Nero's amour with Acie to prevent worse excesses. Tlie olTence was venial in comparison with other sub- serviences. This liaison, however, irritated Agriiipina. nnd iutlamed the growing hostility between the mother niid the son. I'ublic art'airs coniinued lo be conducted
(piietly and prosperously, nnd Seneca lina reaped the honor. The calm was only on the surface. A few years later, the indiclmenl of Snilliiis, under the aiiti- ipialed Cincian law, brought di.scredit upon Seneca, who .appears lo li.'ive been aclive in the prosecutiiin. Snil- liiis, ill his defence, liiriied savagely upon him— charged liim willi having been Ihe ipuestor of Cermanicus, and with having eornipled his daughter none the less; de- inanded by what wisdom or by what, precepts of ])hi- losopliy he had .'iceumiilaled such a vast estate in four years of inipcri.'il frieiiilsliip ; denounced liim for ealch- iiig rich and childless men. ;is willi a net, and for ex- li;nisting ll.aly with his usuries (Tacit. Ann. XHI, xlii). The arts of llie iiilamoiis I'opjia'a .Sjibiiia widened the breach between Agrippiua and her son, nnd the trust nnd iiillueiice of Seneca sickened with the declining au- thority of .\gripiiiiia. He w.as alarmed and jeopardized by the luiiialnral combat. The mother snslaiiied the rights of llie injured empress Octaxi.'i; the sou yielded lo llie wiles of ilie sorceress I'oppu'a .Sabiua, whose vic- tory portended the ntler overthrow of the maternal su- premacy. It was a Conflict to be terminated only by the death of Nero or of Agrippiua. 'I'he mother, by wlio.se crimes he had secured the throne, was the vic- tim. It was generally credited that Seneca and Ihirrns assented lo the matricide, though they devolved llie ex- eculion on oilier inslrimienls. .Seneca lias been acciisevl of suggesting the crime to regain Nero's conlidence. Tli.'it be defended il has never been denied, and admit.s no exculpation. A later minister of IJome welcomed death rather than slain his conscience by apologizing for a less atrocily; but the meanness of Seneca's com- plicity in the crime sustained him in his position, if not in his full asceiuieney, for a few years longer. He w.is slill the lirst siibjecl in Ihe empire, the most )ironiiiient of llie imperiid minislers, when ibe "t^)iiiu(pienniiini Neronis," llie lirst live years of the new reign, was cele- brated by the (.iuiinpiennalian games. The imaginary felicity of these years was long a memory and a regret to the Koman world, nnd posterity has accepted the im- pression which was then made. To Seneca has been .•issigned the credit of lliose halcyon day.s. Yel I'riian- nicns li.'id been suspiciously removed; Agrippiua bad been murdered by her son, •■ind .Seiieci bad Jusiilit'd the murder; l*oppa>a .Sabiiia bad snpplanlcd Oclavia, and insured her siibse(|ueiit divorce and assassination. The C^)uin(|uenninm Neronis was a theatrical illusion — a hypocrisy of brief duration. Wir+i the death of Ihirrns (A.l>. (i"J\ the scene rapidly changes. The marriage of Toppavi .Sabiiia to the emperor, the divorce .•mil mur- der of the young and innocent ein|iress Oclavia at Ihe age of nineteen, .'11111 the linal overthrow of .Seneca's in- lluence were nearly simultaneous — "Mors Ihirri iiifrcgit Seiu'ca' polcntiam" (Tacit. .1 wh. XIV, Hi, 1). About the same time. I'nnl wns brought ns a prisoner to l>ome, on his appeal to Ca'sar. Signs and iiortents, on earth nnd in heaven, terrilied the superstitious. Eartlnpiakcs and bloody comets spread distress and conslernation, and pestilence succeeded. In the second summer .'ifler the murder of Oclavia, ihe fearful contiagr.'ition which led to the per.seculion of Ihe Chrisiiaiis and Ihe martyr- dom of the apostles IVter and Taiil devastated the city for six days nnd seven nights. During these years, Seneca's iiitlueuec had vanished, and his peril had been ever before liim. The asseverations of Nero "that he would perish rather than injure him" (.Sueton. .\( ro, \\\\^ were scarcely reassuring. A convenienl ambigui- ty may be detected in the phrase. Senet'a begged for his dismissal from court ; he proposed to surrender his villas and his vast estates, his live hundred ivory-footed chairs of citron, his three or four millions of substance (Tacit. Ann. XIV, liv; Dion Cass. l.XI. xK His entreaties and his olVers were disreganled. but be sought an oslen- tations seclusion. He endeavored to conceal him.self under the garb of n philosopher; he returned to the ns- celicisms of his youth; he seemed oblivious of human afl'airs. ami to hold communion only with pliilosopliy
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SENECA
and with his God. " Deo parere, libertas est" (Seiiec. De Vit. Beat, xv, 7). To these j-ears of solicitous ob- scurity belong his best and most characteristic works — the treatises De Fruvidentia, De Brevildte Vitce, l)e Vila Beata, De Beneficiis, the Letters to Luci/ius, and the Natural Questions. The danger so long foreseen was not averted b}^ philosophical pretensions or by rhetorical homilies. Seneca, whether justly or not, was ■ believed or declared to be involved in the conspiracy of Calpurnius Piso. VVas he guilty? The recorded evi- dence is wholly inadequate. The probabilities alone convict him, and guilt in this case would be the most innocent of his criminalities. He knew his own peril; he knew the persistent and unscrupulous bloodthirsti- ness of his pupil; he knew the present and impending miseries of the Roman world when Nero's passions were unleashed ; he had been cognizant and acquiescent, per- haps active in some cases, in the murder of Claudius, of Agrippina, of Octavia, and probably in man\' more as- sassinations. There is no appeal for him from his sus- picious life to his sentimental morality, however lofty, pure, and fascinating. He was ordered to die, and the same decree was issued against his brother (iallio (but see Tacit. Ann. XV, Ixxiii) and his nephew, the poet Lu- can. The fatal mandate was promptly obej-ed, but his death was lingering and painful. Nothing in the life of Seneca became him more or was more consistent with his philosophy than his manner of leaving it. There was something of parade — something of the ros plaudite of a classic comedy; but the ancients were always actors, and the ostentation of philosophic calm and in<lifference had been the habit of Seneca's life, and could not be wholly abandoned in the last act, when the situation was so tragic and imposing, so apt for one of his own dramas. The story of Seneca's serene but lingering death is told by Tacitus Qibid. XV, lix-lxv) with elabo- rate art and with the most adroit chiar-oscuro. It is