244 The Rome of Claudius and Nero 



XXXI. SENECA THE YOUNGER. 



The chief literary figure of the reigns of Claudius and Nero was 

 L Annaeus Seneca, a son of the rhetorician above referred to, and like 

 his father born in Spain. His life extended fron^4BCjo_6^AD. For 

 the purpose of "tEe "present inquiry his surviving works are mainly of 

 interest as giving us in unmistakeable tones the point of view from 



r which a man of Stoic principles regarded slavery as a social institution. 

 The society of imperial Rome, in~which he spent most of his life, was 



I politically dead. To meddle with public affairs was dangerous. Even 

 a senator needed to walk warily, for activity was liable to be misinter- 

 preted by the Emperor and by his powerful freedmen 1 , who were in 

 effect Imperial Ministers. To keep on good terms with these depart- 

 mental magnates, who had sprung from the slave-market to be courted 

 as the virtual rulers of freeborn Roman citizens, was necessary for all 

 men of note. Under such conditions it is not wonderful that the wealthy 

 were tempted to assert themselves in ostentatious luxury and dissipa- 

 tion: for a life of careless debauchery was on the face of it hardly 

 compatible with treasonable conspiracy. The immense slave-households 

 of Rome were a part and an expression of this extravagance; and the 

 fashion of these domestic armies was perhaps at its height in this period. 

 Now, nothing kept the richer Romans in subjection more efficiently 

 than this habit of living constantly exposed to the eyes and ears of 

 their menials. Cruel laws might protect the master from assassination 

 by presuming 2 the guilt of all slaves who might have prevented it. 

 They could not protect him from the danger of criminal charges, such 

 as treason 3 , supported by servile evidence: indeed the slave was a 

 potential informer, and a hated master was at the mercy of his slaves. 

 Under some Emperors this possibility was a grim reality, and no higher 

 or more heartfelt praise could be bestowed 4 on an Emperor than that 

 he refused to allow masters to be done to death by the tongue of their 

 slaves. 



., g Meanwhile the slave was still legally 6 his (or her) master's chattel, 



and cases of revolting cruelty 6 and other abominations occurred from 

 time to time. Yet more humane and sympathetic views were already 



. .." affecting public sentiment, chiefly owing to the spread of Stoic doctrines 

 among the cultivated classes. Of these doctrines as adapted to Roman 

 *"' 



1 Such as Polybius the influential ireedman of Claudius, to whom Seneca addressed a 

 consolatio. 



2 Epist 77 7 is a notable passage. 3 Cf de benefiu 26. 

 4 As by the younger Pliny paneg 42 on Trajan. 



6 de benefv 18 2, 19 i, vil 4 4. 6 de clement I 18, nat quaest I 16 i. 



