INTRODUCTION 



and practices of this sect not sufficiently severe, he 

 adopted those of the Pythagoreans. His father, a man 

 with a good deal of worldly wisdom, saw the dangers 

 of extreme eccentricities of this kind, which implied a 

 covert condemnation of the whole world. He exhorted 

 his son to live more like other people ; he might other- 

 wise be mistaken for a Jew (i.e. a Christian) ! The 

 young barrister's difficulties were, however, ended for a 

 time by the death of Caligula (41). Seneca, who was 

 now thirty-eight, resumed his practice at the bar, and 

 opened a school for youths of noble birth, which was 

 largely attended. About this time also he obtained the 

 quaestorship, the duties of which introduced a young man 

 into public service and enabled him to obtain some 

 insight into the financial methods of the Empire. 



His re-entry on public life was, however, destined to be 

 the prelude to another disaster. Indeed, all through his 

 subsequent life his interests were so involved with the 

 affairs of the rulers of the State that he must always stand 

 on slippery ground. The fact is, Seneca's abilities were 

 too great for his position. He was a man of the most 

 brilliant parts, "one of those ardent natures the virgin 

 soil of whose talent shows a luxurious richness un- 

 known to the harassed brains of an old civilisation " 

 (Cruttwell, Hist, of Rom. Liter, p. 378). In an age of abso- 

 lute and suspicious tyranny all eminence is obnoxious to the 

 ruling powers. It is a standing reproach to them, hence 

 a source of fear and alarm, a menace as they imagine, and 

 an incentive to disloyalty. During the very first year of 

 Claudius' reign Seneca was banished to Corsica, where the 

 next eight years find him. It was the outcome of a 

 Court intrigue. Messalina, wife of the Emperor, was 

 apparently jealous of the influence of Claudius' nieces, 

 Julia and Agrippina, whom he had just recalled from 

 banishment. Julia was again banished, and Seneca, on 

 the ground of an alleged improper intimacy with her, was 

 made to share her disgrace. His banishment was really a 

 blessing in disguise. He employed assiduously the period 

 of enforced leisure, devoting himself again to philosophy, 



