A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

was a native of Corduba (Cordova) in Spain. The time of his birth is uncertain; but it may be approximated to. He says (Contr. Praef. i. p. 67) that he considered that he had heard all the great orators, except Cicero; and that he might have heard Cicero, if the Civil Wars, by which he means the wars between Pompeius and Caesar, had not kept him at home (intra coloniam meam). Seneca appears to allude in this passage to some of Cicero's letters (ad Fam. 7.33, 9.16), in which Cicero speaks of Hirtius and Dolabella being his "dicendi discipuli" (B. C. 46). It is conjectured that as Seneca might be fifteen in B. C. 46, he may have been born on or about B. C. 61 (Clinton, Fasti), the year before C. Julius Caesar was praetor in Spain. Seneca was at Rome in the early period of the power of Augustus, for he says that he had seen Ovid declaiming before Arellius Fuscus (Contr. x. p. 172). Ovid was born B. C. 43. Seneca was an intimate friend of the rhetorician M. Porcius Latro, who was one of Ovid's masters. He also mentions the rhetorician Marillius, as the master of himself and of Latro. He afterwards returned to Spain, and married Helvia, by whom he had three sons, L. Annaeus Seneca, L. Annaeus Mela or Mella, the father of the poet Lucan, and Marcus Novatus. Novatus was the eldest son, and took the name of Junius Gallio, upon being adopted by Junius Gallio. Seneca was rich, and he belonged to the equestrian class. The time of his death is uncertain; but he

probably lived till near the end of the reign of Tiberius, and died at Rome or in Italy. It appears that he was at Rome early in life, from what has been stated as to Ovid; and he must have returned to Spain, because his son Lucius was brought to Rome from Spain when he was an infant. (L. Seneca, Consol. ad Helviam. )

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