Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BCE — 65 CE). A leading philosopher and statesman of the
mid-first century, Seneca was also a playwright, whose nine tragedies celebrate stoic
resignation. As a statesman, his practice was anything but what such a philosophical
stance might indicate, for he was an activist not a conservative. He was Nero's tutor
and later acted behind the scenes to secure the emperor's power. He retired from the
court in the year 62 to devote himself to philosophy, but three years later he was
denounced as taking part in the conspiracy of Piso against the emperor. Ordered by
Nero to commit suicide, Seneca took his own life with stoic resignation and fortitude.
It is not, it would appear, in Seneca's writings but in his example that Walton looks
for comfort in his peril.