SENECA 



SENEGAL 



313 



getting involved, through the emperor's infamous 

 wife Messalina, in a state-trial which ended in his 

 banishment to Corsica, whence he did not return 

 till after an exile of eight years. Entrusted by 

 Agrippina with the education of her son Nero, he 

 acquired over the youth an influence as strong as 

 it was salutary, and, having already at Agrippina's 

 instance become praetor, he was, at that of Nero 

 (now emperor), made consul, 57 A.D. His high 

 moral aims and intellectual gifts, possibly through 

 defect of the courtier's tact, gradually incurred the 

 aversion of the rapidly deteriorating emperor, who 

 at length came to regard him with jealousy and 

 hatred. He has been taxed by imperial apologists, 

 but unjustly, with vanity and ambition more 

 plausibly, perhaps, with love of wealth and the 

 power it brings. His wealth, accumulated under 

 Nero's profligate extravagance, excited, it is said, 

 the rapacity of the emperor, whose sinister designs 

 he anticipated by offering to refund it, with the 

 exception of a pittance on which he proposed to 

 retire. These overtures Nero rejected, whereupon, 

 under pretence of illness, he withdrew from the 

 public gaze. An attempt on Nero's part to poison 

 him having failed, he was drawn into the Pisonian 

 conspiracy, accused, convicted, and condemned. 

 Left free to choose his mode of death, he elected 

 to open his veins, and gradually succumbed to 

 syncope, 65 A.D. His second wife, Pompeia Paul- 

 lina, who wished to die with him, and actually 

 had her own veins incised for the purpose, survived 

 him a few years. 



A noble, upright character, Seneca was yet the 

 object of calumnious detraction to such a degree 

 that the utmost caution is necessary in passing 

 judgment on him. In philosophy he inclined to 

 tin' Stoic system, though not indisposed to engraft 

 n|K>n it the tenete of the Epicurean school. But 

 his moral independence is an outstanding feature 

 in his voluminous dirta, which, often profound, are 

 always sharply and distinctly reflected in the steel- 

 mirror of his style. Earnestness and self-abnega- 

 tion are their most memorable note, especially in 

 their inculcation of man's duty to himself and to 

 his neighbour. The relations of his teaching to 

 Christianity have recently evoked a number of 

 treatises, attempting to prove his correspondence, 

 if not personal association, with the apostle Paul, 

 his contemporary in Rome. The points of diverg- 

 ence, however, between him and the teacher of the 

 Gentiles are more numerous than the points of 

 coincidence (see the Dissertation in Lightfoot's Com. 

 on Philippinns). His writings, apart from much 

 that has been fathered on him, include three books 

 De-Ira; three consolatory pieces addressed to his 

 mother Helvia, to Polybius, and to Marcia (De 

 Consolatione) ; treatises De Providentia, De Animi 

 Tranyuillitate, De Constantia Sapientis, De Cle- 

 mentia (ad Neronem Cftsarem), De Brevitate Vita! 

 (ad Paulinum), De Vita Beata (ad Gallionem), De 

 Olio aut Seceatu Sapientix ; seven books De Bene- 

 finis ; 124 Kpistulm ad Lucilium, comprising free 

 speculations on philosophical questions of every 

 kind, in which his characteristic powers appear 

 to special advantage ; a scathing satire on the 

 Emperor Claudius, in the form of a parodied 

 apotheosis ( A pocoloryntosis tive Ltuliut ae Morte 

 Ccesaris) ; finally, seven books Qucestionum Natur- 

 alium, addressed to Lncilius the Younger the 

 only surviving Roman treatise on physics, if not 

 the first in Latin literature (of the same compass 

 at least). It reveals a decidedly exacter and wider 

 knowledge and a sounder critical faculty than the 

 later work of the elder Pliny. 



Scncra had also a poetical side, if we may accept 

 as his the epigrams (mainly referring to his hanisn- 

 ment) and the eight tragedies (Hercules Fureni, 

 Tkyestei, Pfutdra, (Edipui, Troades, Medea, Aga- 



memnon, and Hercules (Ettetis, along with two 

 scenes from a Thebais) usually comprised among 

 his opera omnia. These are imitations of Greek 

 models, and are distinguished by great mastery 

 of style, vigorous imagination, and keenness of 

 psychological insight. But their purely rhetorical, 

 eminently undramatic, character unfits them for 

 the stage, if indeed they were ever intended for it. 

 In versification they are ' correct ' to a fault, till 

 the monotony of their cadences becomes as weari- 

 some as their declamatory strain. 



Of editions of his prose writings that of Gronovius 

 ( 1661-82 ), of Ruhkopf ( 1797-1811 ), and, best of all, that 

 of Fickert (1842-45), still hold their place, while some 

 of his special treatises have been carefully edited by 

 Koch and Vahlen, and by Gertz. His tragedies may be 

 most conveniently read in the editions of Gronovius 

 ( 1661-81 ), of Schroder 1 1728 ), of Bothe ( 1819 and 1822 ), 

 of Peiper and Richter (1867), and of Leo (1878); 

 Minor Dialogues, translated by A. Stewart ( 1889 ). See 

 also a paper by H. A. J. Munro on Peiper and Richter's 

 edition in the Journal of Philology. A striking portrait 

 of the philosopher-statesman at Nero's court, especially 

 in relation to his assumed association with St Paul, is 

 given in Mr Hugh Westbury's novel, Actt (1890). 



Seneca Falls, a post-village of New York, on 

 the Seneca River, 10 miles from the lake and 41 

 miles by rail WSW. of Syracuse. The river falls 

 50 feet here, and the place contains a number of 

 mills, foundries, and manufactories of steam fire- 

 engines, pumps, &c. Pop. (1890) 6116. 



Seneca Lake, one of a range of narrow lakes 

 in the western part of the state of New York. It 

 is 36 miles from north to south, 2 miles in average 

 width, and 530 feet deep. Steamboats ply daily 

 from end to end. For the Seneca Indians, from 

 whom the lake takes its name, see IROQUOIS. 

 Senega (q.v.) is a form of the same word. Seneca 

 Oil is an old name for Petroleum (q.v.). 



Senecio, the most numerous genus of the 

 great natural order Composite?, having a hairy 

 pappus, a naked receptacle, and a cylindrical invo- 

 lucre of linear equal scales, with a few smaller 

 scales at their base. The species are annual, 

 perennial, and half-shrubby plants, natives chiefly 

 of the temperate and cold parts of the world, the 

 half-shrubby species being from the warmer lati- 

 tudes. Eleven species are reckoned as British, 

 and commonly known as Groundsel (q.v.) and 

 Ragwort (q.v.). S. Saracenictis, probably not a 

 true native of Britain but introduced in the middle 

 ages, has undivided lanceolate leaves, and was 

 once in repute as a vulnerary. The Fireweed of 

 North America is S. hieracifolius. It receives its 

 popular name from its appearing abundantly wher- 

 ever a part of the forest has been consumed by fire. 

 Many species of Senecio have a strong, disagreeable 

 smell. A few are rather ornamental as flowers ; 

 see CINERARIA. 



Senefelder, ALOYS. See LITHOGRAPHY. 



Senefle. or SENEF, a town in the province of 

 Hainault, Belgium, 27 miles by rail S. by W. of 

 Brussels, with a pop. of 3438, is the centre of a 

 district in which manufactures of pottery and glass 

 are extensively carried on, but is chiefly notable as 

 the battlefield on which William of Orange (III. of 

 England) was defeated after a bloody contest by 

 the Great Conde, llth August 1674. Here, too, on 

 2d July 1794 the French general Marceau defeated 

 the Austrian*. 



Senega, or SNA|CE ROOT, is the dried root of 

 Polygalii Senega, used as a cure for snake-bites in 

 America. See MILKWORTS. 



Senegal, a river of West Africa, has two main 

 sources, the Bafing which flows north from the 

 plateau of Futa-Jallon, and the Bakhoy which 

 comes from the south-east, the country of Bure, not 



