Читать книгу Letters from a Stoic - Donald Robertson - Страница 19

In 62 CE, Burrus, who had been a restraining influence on the emperor, died mysteriously. Suetonius mentions the rumour that Nero had him poisoned. Two new praetorian prefects were appointed, Faenius Rufus and Ofonius Tigellinus. Rufus did little to discourage Nero's excesses. Tigellinus actively encouraged them by, among other things, convincing Nero that his exiled relative Plautus and other Stoics were plotting a coup. Nero finally snapped and had Plautus assassinated.

Seneca, now in desperation, responded by trying to distance himself from his former student. He even asked to turn over his wealth to Nero so that he could retire in peace. Seneca was probably afraid that Nero might eventually have him killed in order to recover his wealth. This was a common threat hanging, like the Sword of Damocles, over the heads of conspicuously wealthy men in the ancient world.

In 64 CE, the Great Fire consumed much of Rome. Nero was suspected of starting it, or at least allowing it to burn unstopped, so that he might rebuild the city in accord with his own designs. The Christians were ultimately blamed for starting the fire and many were rounded up and executed, including St Paul.

Following the death of Burrus, Seneca had increasingly withdrawn from public life. He appears to have been continually on the move, perhaps a precaution against assassination. He focused on writing his Moral Letters, On Providence, and Natural Questions, all dedicated to his friend Lucilius. Despite obvious concerns, Seneca still found himself praising the emperor as ‘a man passionately devoted to truth, as he is to the other virtues’. By this point, such flattery must have seemed remarkably at odds with the increasingly violent and despotic nature of Nero's rule. In any case, according to Tacitus, Nero ‘in his hatred of Seneca, grasped at all methods of suppressing him’. The perfect opportunity was about to arise.