Lucius Seneca, born at Corduba, now Cordova, was the son of Marcus the orator, and uncle to the poet Lucan. He was himself an orator, a philosopher, a historian, and a poet, on the presumption that the tragedies were written by him, which however has been doubted, as it has been supposed that there was a third Seneca. But as they passed under his name we shall consider them as his.* There is no name in antiquity, respecting which inore difference of opinion has prevailed, both in a personal and literary point of view. It must be confessed that he did not set out very well in life. The passage at the head of this article, informs us, that he was appointed tutor to Nero by Agrippina, who recalled him from banishment. His first notorious exploit, for which he was driven into that banishment, was corrupting Julia the daughter of Germanicus. Lord Bolingbroke did not philosophise more vain-gloriously on magnanimity and patience, than this Stoical seducer on so honourable an occasion of his exile. He flattered Claudius, and still more grossly his favourite Polybius, to obtain the repeal of his sentence. When he had succeeded, he forgot the latter, and betrayed the former. But it is after his return that it is worth our while to trace him. His great abilities introduced him to the joint tutorship with Burrus. The latter was his instructor in military science, and endeavoured to communicate his own se * Seneca the philosopher had two brothers: Annæus Mela, the father of Lucan; and Annæus Novatus, who was afterwards adopted by Gallio, and took that name. The death of Mela is mentioned in the Annals of Tacitus. + Claudius banished him for this alleged intrigue to the island of Corsica, A. U. C. 794. dateness and gravity of manners. Elegant accomplishment, taste for the arts, and polite address were Seneca's province. Among other tutorial employment, he composed Nero's speeches. The first, a funeral oration for Claudius, was unfortunate in its effect, according to Tacitus:-"Postquam ad providentiam sapientiamque flexit, nemo risui temperare, quamquam oratio, a Seneca composita, multum cultus præferret: ut fuit illi viro ingenium amœnum, et temporis ejus auribus adcommodatum."-Lib. xiii. cap. 3. Nero's next harangue, probably also written by Seneca, though Tacitus does not say so, gave universal satisfaction. It was delivered on his first appearance in the senate, and promised a reign of moderation. Seneca, we may suppose, seized the opportunity, in putting a popular inauguration speech into the young prince's mouth, to impress his mind also with a lesson on the true arts of government. Dio says that this address was ordered to be engraven on a pillar of solid silver, and to be publicly read every year when the consuls entered on their office. Seneca soon obtained an exclusive influence over his pupil, and engaged Annæus Serenus, who stood high in his esteem and friendship, to assist him in the means, not very creditable, of preserving his ascendency, by supplying Nero with a mistress, and persecuting his patroness Agrippina, whose indignation rose far above high-water mark. Tacitus put into her mouth a few emphatic words, said to be uttered in the emperor's hearing. They have been finely imitated and expanded by Racine, in his tragedy of Britannicus; and Gray, in his short fragment of Agrippina, has done little more than translate Racine: how closely and how well, the passage from the French poet will show : Pallas n'emporte pas tout l'appui d'Agrippine : Et de Germanicus on entendra la fille. De nos crimes communs je veux qu'on soit instruit ; Je confesserai tout, exils, assassinats, Poison même. Agrippina regained a temporary influence, and succeeded in punishing some of her accusers, and rewarding her friends. Among the promotions obtained by her, was that of Balbillus to the province of Egypt, It seems strange, that a person so highly spoken of by Seneca, should have been patronised by Agrippina at this juncture. "Balbillus virorum optimus, in omni litterarum genere rarissimus, auctor est, cum ipse præfectus obtineret Ægyptum, Heracleotio ostio Nili, quod est maximum, spectaculo sibi fuisse delphinorum a mari occurrentium, et crocodilorum a flumine adversum agmen agentium, velut pro partibus prælium." -Annai Senecæ Natural. Quæst. lib. iv. It was not till Suilius had too justly upbraided, but at the same time coarsely reviled Seneca, that the latter incurred any large portion of popular censure. Among the grounds on which Suilius attacked him, were those of usury, avarice, and rapacity. That he was avaricious is beyond all question; but his practices must have been exorbitant to justify so violent an invective as that recorded by Tacitus :"An gravius existimandum, sponte litigatoris præmium honestæ operæ adsequi, quam conrumpere cubicula Principum feminarum ? Qua sapientia, quibus philosophorum præceptis, intra quadriennium Regiæ amicitiæ, ter millies sestertium paravisset? Romæ testamenta et orbos velut indagine ejus capi. Italiam et provincias inmenso fenore hauriri." - Annal. lib. xiii. cap. 42. The only historical authority on which Seneca's memory is loaded with this strong charge of usury, is that of Dio, who says that the philosopher had placed very large sums out at interest in Britain, and that his vexations and unrelenting demands of payment had been the cause of insurrections among the Britons. But Dio's veracity has been suspected on some occasions; and as for the colour given to the imputation by the passage quoted from Tacitus, it must be remembered that it occurs as proceeding from the mouth of an enraged enemy. These imputed faults could scarcely escape a hint from Juvenal, although he had made use of him before as a contrast to Nero, and seems generally favourable to his character : Temporibus diris igitur, jussuque Neronis, Sat. 10. Seneca's share in the death inflicted on Agrippina by her son, and a strong suspicion that he drew up the palliative account of it, bear still harder on his fame. The savage mode of the assassination, and the meanness of the posthumous honours paid to her, a circumstance of infinitely more importance than modern ideas attach to it, as affecting the future happiness and condition of the departed spirit, reflect indelible disgrace on all concerned, The murder took place in the neighbourhood of Baiæ. Seneca, in his epistles, describes the villas of Marius, Pompey, and Cæsar, as built on the ridges of the neighbouring hills :-— Adspice quam positionem elegerunt, quibus ædificia excitaverunt locis, et qualia: scias non villas esse, sed castra."-Ep. 51. An humble monument was erected by her domestics in this sequestered spot, difficult of access, that the busy world might have nothing to remind it of the parricide. In a plausible letter addressed to Nero by the senate, in which the public saw the hand of Seneca, allusion is made to that politic interference on the part of the adroit preceptor, which, under the show of suggesting filial piety, prevented the attempt of the mother to share the tribunal with her son, at the audience of the Armenian ambassadors. Retribution soon overtook these unworthy compliances with the will of a wicked master. Nero, to whom, in the usual descent from bad to worse, the slightest infusion of virtue was an offence, listened to evil counsellors, and with complacency allowed the most respectable of his adherents to be traduced. Tacitus says, "Hi variis criminationibus Senecam adoriuntur, tanquam ingentes et privatum supra modum evectas opes adhuc augeret, |