Robert Drew Hicks

“ The school is remarkable for its anticipation of modern ethical conceptions, for the lofty morality of its exhortations to forgive injuries and overcome evil with good; the obligation to universal benevolence had been deduced from the cosmopolitan principle that all men are brethren. In Seneca, in addition to all this, there is a distinctively religious temperament, which finds expression in phrases curiously suggestive of the spiritual doctrines of Christianity. ”

“ We must, however, regard the general tendency of Seneca's measures; to judge him as a Stoic philosopher by the counsels of perfection laid down in his writings would be much the same thing as to apply the standard of New Testament morality to the career of a Wolsey or Mazarin. He is the type of the man of letters who rises into favour by talent and suppleness (comitas honesta) , and is entitled as such to the rare credit of a beneficent rule. In course of time Nero got to dislike him more and more ”

“ Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 54 B.C.–A.D. 39) , called Seneca “the elder” or “the rhetorician,” belonged to a well-to-do equestrian family of Corduba. His praenomen is uncertain, but in any case Marcus is an arbitrary conjecture of Raphael of Volterra. During a lengthy stay on two occasions at Rome he attended the lectures of famous orators and rhetoricians, to prepare for an official career as an advocate. His ideal orator was Cicero, and he disapproved of the florid tendencies of the oratory of his time. ”