Читать книгу Letters from a Stoic - Donald Robertson - Страница 14

In 48 CE, the Emperor Claudius had his wife, Messalina, executed. Ironically, she was accused of a crime of infidelity not unlike the one for which she had demanded Seneca's execution. Shortly thereafter, Claudius married Agrippina the Younger, the sister of Caligula mentioned earlier. Agrippina soon had her new husband, the emperor, recall Seneca from exile. After eight years honing his art and building his reputation as a writer, Seneca finally got his wish to return to the centre of power. But his recall would have costs.

Agrippina hired Seneca, presumably based on his growing reputation as a writer, to become the rhetoric tutor of her twelve-year-old son, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the future Emperor Nero. Claudius, after marrying Agrippina, had adopted the boy, her son from a previous marriage. As Lucius/Nero was three years older than the emperor's natural son, Britannicus, Nero effectively supplanted him and became second in line to the throne. Rival camps emerged supporting each of the boys, and Seneca's destiny was now bound to the faction supporting Nero.

Agrippina was a formidable woman who wielded considerable political influence behind the scenes. She promoted her son's status at court by, for example, dismissing the tutors of his rival Britannicus and replacing them with relative unknowns. Seneca, by contrast, was chosen to become Nero's tutor in part because his fame improved her son's public image. He was immediately advanced to the office of praetor, one of the most senior administrative positions in the Roman government. Roman adolescents would normally study literature and the basics of oratory under a grammarian. They would proceed to the more advanced study of formal rhetoric at around fifteen, with philosophy coming years later. So it's unlikely that Nero's lessons at this time focused directly upon Stoic philosophy, although Seneca presumably tried to incorporate some moral instruction.