Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers

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Seneca: His Character and Environment
and this he besought them to keep
in faithful remem
brance. He implored his weeping wife to restrain
the expression of her grief, and bade her seek in the
recollection of the life and virtues of her husband a
solace for her loss.
It was the fortune of Seneca not only to be well
born, but also to be well brought up and carefully
educated. That he appreciated the high worth of his
mother is evident from the words,
best of mothers,
with which he addressed her in the Consolation to
Helvia. His father, though wealthy, was a man of
rigid morality, of temperate habits, of great industry,
and possessed very unusual literary attainments.
His older brother, better known as Junius Gallio
from the name of the family
into which he was
adopted, was for some time procounsul of Achaia,
in which capacity he is mentioned in
the Acts, xviii,
12-17. Seneca s younger brother was the father of
Lucan, the well-known author of the poem, Pharsalia.
Both his mother and his aunt, he was an
especial favorite of the latter were not only women
of exalted character, but they had acquired an intel
lectual culture that was very uncommon for their
sex in their day.
Our authorities for a life of Seneca and for an es
timate of his character are fairly ample and have
been variously interpreted. Nothing can be gained
by taking up the controversy anew. To some of his
contemporaries even, he was more or less of an
enigma.
Others, again, regarded him as a time=server,
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