What would you think of a man who amassed a huge personal fortune as he tutored and advised a disastrous dictator—all the while saying that virtue was the only thing that mattered? Call him a hypocrite and dismiss him? Associate Professor of Classical Studies Emily Wilson asks us to think again.
In her book The Greatest Empire: A Life of Seneca, Wilson tells the story of the Roman philosopher, writer, and political figure. Born around 3 B.C., Seneca earned a reputation as an orator while still in school, then gained prestige in Rome’s courts and as a writer of essays and tragedies. He was exiled after accusations of an adulterous affair with a member of the imperial family, but invited back to Rome eight years later and appointed tutor to future emperor Nero. Upon Nero’s succession, he became an unofficial chief minister, and was one of the richest people in Rome.
As a Stoic, Seneca argued in his writings that virtue was the most important thing in life. “He was writing all these things saying ‘This doesn’t matter’ about his own wealth,” says Wilson. His work De Clementia (On Mercy), which described why it was important for rulers to not abuse their powers, was written right after Nero had his stepbrother Britannicus murdered—a crime in which Seneca may have been complicit.
Wilson points out that Seneca was the first to acknowledge that he was not the perfect man. “He’s teaching himself as much as his readers, and wondering whether education can be successful, either for his readers or for Nero. He had a choice in coming back from exile. I think there must have been a part of him that thought ‘Maybe it can work, maybe I can be a force for good.’ Perhaps he also thought ‘Maybe I can make a lot of money and become very powerful.’”
Even in his philosophical writing, Seneca mixed in the political, saying, “The greatest empire is to rule oneself.” Wilson says, “He appropriates the language of empire and shows us how deeply embedded he was in the political system. On some level he’s setting himself up as rival to Nero.”
Today when we believe public figures don’t practice what they preach, we label them hypocrites. “Just like us, [Romans] were interested in whether people can be whole: Can he be both a public person and true to his principles?” asks Wilson. “It was a society of spectacle, with gladiatorial combat and chariot racing. Now we have TV watching, internet watching. In a society like that you have the problem of what the public or viewed self is and what the inside self is, or what you might want it to be.”
In A.D. 65 Seneca was accused of being complicit in a conspiracy against Nero, condemned to die, and committed suicide as an honorable gesture. “I focus on the complex psychic position people can be in, about compromise and the experience of being successful, whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing,” says Wilson. “It’s an issue many, many people have: How do you feel good about yourself? If you don’t, how do you spin it to yourself and other people to make it okay, to make it possible to go on living in a completely compromised position?”
