Seneca the Elder | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 54 BC Corduba, Hispania (present-day Spain) |
| Died | c. 39 AD (aged c. 92) |
| Language | Latin, Greek |
| Genre | Rhetoric, Silver Age of Latin, history |
| Notable works | Oratorum et Rhetorum Sententiae Divisiones Colores Historiae ab Initio Bellorum Civilium |
| Spouse | Helvia |
| Children | Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger Marcus Annaeus Mela |
Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder (/ˈsɛnɪkə/ SEN-ik-ə; c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, six books of which are extant in a more or less complete state and five others in epitome only. His principal work, a history of Roman affairs from the beginning of the Civil Wars until the last years of his life, is almost entirely lost to posterity. Seneca lived through the reigns of three significant emperors; Augustus (ruled 27 BC – 14 AD), Tiberius (ruled 14–37 AD) and Caligula (ruled 37–41 AD). He was the father of Lucius Junius Gallio Annaeanus, best known as a Proconsul of Achaia; his second son was the dramatist and Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger (Lucius), who was tutor of Nero, and his third son, Marcus Annaeus Mela, became the father of the poet Lucan.