Who was Seneca?
Seneca was one of the great writers of the Julio-Claudian period in Rome. He was born in the Roman province of Spain about 3 BC. But his aunt took him to Rome during the reign of the emperor Claudius, so Seneca could get a good education. Seneca became the teacher of Nero, when Nero was a little boy (little sons of the emperor didn’t go to school; they had private teachers of their own at home). When Nero grew up, though, he didn’t like having his old teacher still hanging around telling him what to do. In the end he made Seneca kill himself. Seneca got in a warm bath and slashed open his own wrists and bled to death, with his friends around him, discussing philosophy.
