She was, it would turn out, a rarity. All Seneca’s other kin and associates were consumed in the inferno of Nero’s wrath. Lucan’s death followed close on the heels of his uncle’s. Though the young man had been promised amnesty in exchange for information, Nero was thoroughly sick of the poet who outshone him, and ordered his suicide. Lucan opened his veins and bled to death, retaining his literary gifts even as his limbs grew cold.
