Lucius Annaeus Seneca, born at Corduba (Cordova) c.4 BCE, of a prominent & wealthy family, spent an ailing childhood & youth at Rome in an aunt's care. He became famous in rhetoric, philosophy, money-making & imperial service. After some disgrace during Claudius' reign he became tutor & then, in 54, advising minister to Nero, some of whose worst misdeeds he didn't prevent. Involved (innocently?) in a conspiracy, he killed himself by order in 65. Wealthy, he preached indifference to wealth; evader of pain & death, he preached scorn of both; & there were other contrasts between practice & principle. We have his philosophical or moral essays (10 traditionally called Dialogues) on providence, steadfastness, the happy life, anger, leisure, tranquility, the brevity of life, gift-giving, forgiveness & treatises on natural phenomena. Also extant are 124 epistles, in which he writes in a relaxed style about moral & ethical questions, relating them to personal experiences; a skit on the official deification of Claudius, "Apocolocyntosis" (Loeb #15); & nine rhetorical tragedies on ancient Greek themes. Many epistles & all speeches are lost.