There was no precedent for this plight amid the galleries of historical exempla in which Seneca often roamed. In the Greek world, philosophers had been banished, outlawed, or even killed by rulers they had sought to instruct; none had been retained at court against his will. Only Octavia, before her fall, furnished an analogue to Seneca’s situation: an outsider whom the princeps did not like or trust yet could not set free. But Octavia’s grim end did not bode well for Seneca. And her absence now made it harder for him to withdraw, for Nero could ill afford to lose both his most visible badges
...more
