Seneca

About the author

Born around 4 BC in Corduba, Hispania, Lucius Annaeus Seneca — philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and satirist — stands as one of antiquity's most consequential Stoic voices. Trained in rhetoric and philosophy in Greece, he rose to become tutor and then advisor to the emperor Nero, helping to govern Rome competently in the early years of that reign. His 12 essays and 124 moral letters form a cornerstone of Stoic primary literature, while tragedies such as Medea and Thyestes shaped Renaissance drama.

Forced to take his own life in AD 65, he died with the composure he had preached.