SEN 
the court of Claudius, when, at the instigation of Messalina, 
he was accused of an adulterous commerce with Julia, the 
daughter of Germanicus, and was banished to the island of 
Corsica. In that island he remained in exile eight years, 
consoling himself with the maxims of philosophy, though 
never resigned to the severity of his lot, as may be inferred 
from his complaints, and his abject application to the em¬ 
peror for pardon. 
Upon the marriage of Claudius to his second wife Agrip¬ 
pina, Seneca was, through her influence, recalled, and, 
after being raised to the prsetorship, was appointed preceptor 
to her son, the afterwards most infamous Nero ; while Bur¬ 
rhus was made his governor and military instructor. They 
are said to have acted with the most perfect, unanimity in 
restraining him from those vices, to which his situation and 
inclination prompted him ; and obtained an ascendancy over 
him, to which is attributed the flattering promise of the first 
years of his reign. 
When Nero began to display his real character, his quar¬ 
rels with his mother, who was as violent and wicked as 
her son, laid his governors under great difficulties. See 
Rome. 
At length under the pretence of Seneca’s connection with a 
conspiracy, a military tribune was sent with a band of soldiers 
to Seneca’s house, where he was at supper with his wife 
Paulina, and two friends. He was, without much cere¬ 
mony, commanded to put an end to himself. The philoso¬ 
pher heard the sentence with equanimity, and only asked 
for time sufficient to make his will. This w'as refused, and 
turning to his friends, he said, that since he was not allowed 
to shew his gratitude to them in any other way, he would 
leave them the image of his life, as the best, memorial of 
their friendship. He then exhorted them to moderate their 
grief. He embraced Paulina, and endeavoured to comfort 
her; but she refused any other consolation than that of 
dying with him. The. death which he chose was that by 
opening his veins, and he expired in the year 65, and in the 
12th year of Nero’s reign. The emperor would not suffer 
Paulina to die with her husband; but she never recovered 
the loss of blood which she had experienced, before the im¬ 
perial decree arrived. 
“ If,” says one of the philosopher’s biographers, “ a 
writer could be estimated by his works, a purer moralist 
could not easily be found; for their constant tenor is that 
of solid virtue, tempered with humanity, and exalted by 
the noblest principles of theism. They are indeed marked 
with the tumid pride inculcated by the Stoical sect, to 
which he chiefly adhered, though he freely adopted what he 
found good in others.” Of his writings which have come 
down to us, the greater part are moral, consisting of epistles, 
124 in number, and of distinct treatises on Anger, Consola¬ 
tion, Providence, &c. There are, moreover, seven books 
on physical topics, entitled “Natural Questions,”, in which 
are to be found the rudiments of some notions regarded as 
fundamental in modern physics. 
A number of tragedies are extant, under the name of 
Seneca, but they are probably not his; nor is it at all 
known to whom they ought to be ascribed. The editions 
of Seneca’s works are very numerous. Of the works, not 
including the tragedies, the most esteemed are those of 
Lipsius; the Variorum, 3 vols. 8vo.; the Leipsic, 2 vols. 
8 vo.; and the Bipontine. Of the tragedies, are the Va¬ 
riorum ; that by Heinsius, with notes by Scaliger; and the 
quarto Delphin. 
SENECA, a county of the United States, separated from 
Cayuga county, in 1804. It is bounded north by Cayuga 
county, east by Cayuga county and lake, south by Tomp¬ 
kins county, and west by Seneca lake and county. It is 
Situated about 186 miles westward of Albany, on the great 
avenue to the western counties. The surface of this county 
is either quite level, or but gently undulated with hill and 
dale: though Hector and Ulysses, the two southern towns, 
are considerably hilly. The soil is principally a calcareous 
loam, or a well mixed vegetable mould ; and may be called 
SEN 27 
a good medium, in general, for grain or grass. Population 
16,609. Chief towns Waterloo and Ovid. 
SENECA, a village of the United States, in Junius 
county. New York. 
SENECA, a township of the United States, in Guernsey 
county, Ohio. Population 300. 
SENECA, a post township of the United States, in 
Ontario county, New York, on the west side of Seneca lake, 
192 miles west of Albany. It contains a glass man ufactory. 
Population 3431. 
SENECA CREEK, a river of the United States, in 
Maryland, which runs into the Potomac; 21 miles west of 
Washington. 
SENECA INDIANS, one of the Six Nations, in the 
United States. Number 1780. They inhabit on Buffalo 
creek in the township of Buffalo, on the Genesee and 
the Allegany in New York, and on French Creek in 
Pennsylvania. 
SENECA LAKE, a lake of the United States, in New 
York, from 6 to 15 miles west of Cayuga lake. It is 35 
miles long, and from 2 to 4 broad. A quarry of excellent 
marble, beautifully variegated, of an excellent quality, and. 
proof against fire, has lately been discovered on the bank of 
this lake. 
SENECA RIVER, a river of the United States, in New 
York, which flows from Seneca lake, north-east into the 
Oswego, in Cicero. Its whole course is about 60 miles, in 
which it receives the streams which flow from Cayuga, 
Canandaigua, Owasco, Skeneatiles, and Onondaga lakes. 
It affords considerable facilities for boat navigation, and 
furnishes some valuable mill seats. 
SENECAI, or Senece (Antoine Bauderon de), a French 
poet, was born at Macon in 1643. Voltaire denominated 
him “ a poet of a singular imagination,” and says, that 
his tale of “ Kaimac” is a distinguished performance. He 
also speaks in praise of his Travaux d’Appollon.” His 
tale, entitled “ La Maniere de Filer le parfait Amour," 
is much esteemed. He was also the author of “ Remarques 
Ilistoriques,” with observations on the Memoirs of Cardinal 
de Retz. 
SENECIO [of Pliny. From Senex, an old man; or se- 
nescere, to grow old; the flowers going off early, and pro¬ 
ducing their seeds crowned with a down, like gray hairs], 
in Botany, a genus of the class syngenesia, order polygamia 
superflua, natural order of composite discoidese corymbiferse 
(Juss .)—Generic Character. Calyx: common calycled, 
conical, truncate : scales awl-shaped, very many, parallel in 
a cylinder contracted above, contiguous, equal, fewer cover¬ 
ing the base imbricatewise, the tops mortified. Corolla 
compound, higher than the calyx. Corollets hermaphrodite, 
tubular, numerous in the disk. Females ligulate in the ray, 
if any present. Proper in the hermaphrodites funnel-form : 
border reflex, five-cleft. In the females, if any, oblong, 
obscurely three-toothed. Stamina in the hermaphrodites, 
filaments five, capillary, very small. Anther cylindrie, tu¬ 
bular. Pistil in both. Germ ovate. Style filiform, length 
of the stamens. Stigmas two, oblong, revolute. Pericarp 
none. Calyx conical-converging. Seeds in the hermaphro¬ 
dites solitary, ovate. Pappus capillary, long. In the fe¬ 
males very like the hermaphrodites. Receptacle naked, flat. 
—Essential Character. Calyx cylindrical, calycled, with 
the scales mortified at the tip. Down simple. Receptacle 
naked. 
I.—Flowers without a radius, 
1 . Senecio reclinatus, or grass-leaved groundsel.—Corolla 
naked. Calyx ventricose, somewhat imbricated. Leaves 
thread-shaped, smooth. Stem herbaceous, about three feet 
high, wavy, reclined and branched at the top, yellowish- 
green, round. Leaves sessile, grassy, revolute at the edge, 
rough. Flowers terminal, panicled, golden-coloured, with 
a glaucous calyx.—Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
2 . Senecio purpureus, or purple groundsel.—Corolla 
naked. Leaves lyrate, hairy; the upper ones lanceolate, 
toothed 
