What is more important for a thinker to serve his people in the service of the state or to serve him with his philosophical works? This dilemma throughout his life tried to solve the Roman, Stoic philosopher, educator of Nero, poet and statesman Lucius Seneca (Latin Lucius Annaeus Seneca), born in the city of Corduba in 4 BC.
He belonged to the class of horsemen, in childhood he was taken by his father to Rome, where he studied the works of the Pythagoreans. He created a set of laws for humanity
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What is more important for a thinker to serve his people in the service of the state or to serve him with his philosophical works? This dilemma throughout his life tried to solve the Roman, Stoic philosopher, educator of Nero, poet and statesman Lucius Seneca (Latin Lucius Annaeus Seneca), born in the city of Corduba in 4 BC.
He belonged to the class of horsemen, in childhood he was taken by his father to Rome, where he studied the works of the Pythagoreans. He created a set of laws for humanity in the field of ethics, which was expressed in the treatises “Research on Nature”, “On Benefits” and “Moral Letters to Lucilius”. Seneca was convinced that "a monarchy under a just king can be a guarantee of the welfare of the state." These postulates he sought to follow himself, tried to attach to them and those in power, which caused their irritation.
For the first time this irritation was caused by Seneca’s speech in the Senate, when Caligula himself became envious of the oratorical abilities of the thinker and wanted to kill him. Seneca was saved only by the disparaging remark of one of the emperor’s concubines that Seneca would soon die of old age.
Then followed a reference to Corsica, and from it Seneca returned the wife of Emperor Claudius Agrippina, who wished that the philosopher became the mentor of her son and future Emperor Nero. The lust for power prompts Agrippina to poison Claudius, sixteen-year-old Nero ascends the throne, and Seneca becomes his mentor, consul of the empire, his fortune during this period reaches 300 million sesterces. Seneca tries to teach Nero to be a gracious and reasonable ruler, and for a while the bloodshed in the empire ceases. However, natural tendencies prevail, and in 59 BC. e. Nero kills his mother, and Seneca has to write for the emperor the text of a speech before the Senate justifying this act.
Gradually Seneca begins to retire from state affairs, in 62 BC. e. he submits a petition for resignation and returns to Nero the accumulated fortune. But Nero is still afraid of his mentor, and a conspiracy case is fabricated against Seneca. Despite the fact that there is no evidence of treason, Nero orders (65 BC) his mentor to voluntarily die. Seneca does not resist, he opens his veins and dies. He also committed suicide with his wife Pauline. /