Theological Quarterly (Volume 20); Published by the Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and Other-States (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1916. Excerpt: ... Theological Quarterly. Vol. XX. OCTOBEE, 1916. No. 4. SENECA AND NERO. II. In 62, Burrus died, and Seneca knew that the newer and coarser favorites (Tac. Ann., 14, 52) were incessantly intriguing against him, charging particularly against him the enormous wealth he had amassed, the magnificence of his parks and villas, and that he disapproved of Nero's appearing in musical monologs and in horse-racing. The emperor was old enough, they urged, to dispense with his preceptor. Seneca requested permission to retire from public affairs. The emperor accepted his resignation, but refused to take back to himself the wealth which he had bestowed upon him who had been foremost in his affections (praecipuus caritate). But three years were left to the brilliant Corduban, years which he largely spent far from the madding crowd and from the insincerities of a courtier's life. More than half of Seneca's extant prose writings, inclusive of his enquiries into physical phenomena (Qudestiones Naturales), were composed by the retired minister of state in these three years. He resided often on his estate near Nomentum, not far from Rome, or on the Gulf of Naples. He was now indeed an old man, and was bent on living what little span there might be largely in company with his better self, and cheered by the company of his second wife, Paulina, a lady sprung from the aristocracy of Rome. The greater and better part of these readings must deal with the thinker and moralist, and largely be made up from his own thoughts and utterances. Of these latter I beg to cite from. (Epist. Moral, 26, 1 sqq.) "I was just telling you that I was in sight of old age; I now fear that I have left old age behind me. A different term befits my years, assuredly befits my body. Since, indeed, old age is...