As a proto-Christian saint , Seneca, and
Aristotle in a medieval manuscript illustration (c. 1325–35) Seneca's writings were well known in the later Roman period, and
Quintilian, writing thirty years after Seneca's death, remarked on the popularity of his works amongst the youth. The
early Christian Church was very favourably disposed towards Seneca and his writings, and the church leader
Tertullian possessively referred to him as "our Seneca". By the 4th century an
apocryphal correspondence with
Paul the Apostle had been created linking Seneca into the Christian tradition. The letters are mentioned by
Jerome who also included Seneca in a
catalogue primarily devoted to Christian writers, and Seneca is similarly mentioned by
Augustine. Otherwise, Seneca was mainly known through a large number of quotes and extracts in the
florilegia, which were popular throughout the medieval period. Medieval writers and works continued to link him to Christianity because of his alleged association with Paul. The
Golden Legend, a 13th-century
hagiographical account of famous saints that was widely read, included an account of Seneca's death scene, and erroneously presented Nero as a witness to Seneca's suicide.
Boccaccio, who in 1370 came across the works of Tacitus whilst browsing the library at
Montecassino, wrote an account of Seneca's suicide hinting that it was a kind of disguised baptism, or a
de facto baptism in spirit. Some, such as
Albertino Mussato and
Giovanni Colonna, went even further and concluded that Seneca must have been a Christian convert.
Disputed works Various other antique and medieval texts purport to be by Seneca, e.g.,
De remediis fortuitorum, but with unconfirmed authorship, they have sometimes been referred-to as "Pseudo-Seneca". At least some of these seem to preserve and adapt genuine Senecan content, for example, Saint
Martin of Braga's (d. c. 580)
Formula vitae honestae, or
De differentiis quatuor virtutum vitae honestae ("Rules for an Honest Life", or "On the Four Cardinal Virtues"). Early manuscripts preserve Martin's preface, where he makes it clear that this was his adaptation, but in later copies this was omitted, and the work was later thought fully Seneca's work.
An improving reputation ", a Roman bust found at
Herculaneum, one of a series of similar sculptures known since the Renaissance, once identified as Seneca. Now commonly identified as
Hesiod " (
illustration above) Seneca remains one of the few popular Roman philosophers from the period. He appears not only in
Dante, but also in
Chaucer and to a large degree in
Petrarch, who adopted his style in his own essays and who quotes him more than any other authority except
Virgil. In the
Renaissance, printed editions and translations of his works became common, including an edition by
Erasmus and a commentary by
John Calvin.
John of Salisbury, Erasmus and others celebrated his works. French essayist
Montaigne, who gave a spirited defense of Seneca and
Plutarch in his
Essays, was himself considered by
Pasquier a "French Seneca". Similarly,
Thomas Fuller praised
Joseph Hall as "our English Seneca". Many who considered his ideas not particularly original still argued that he was important in making the Greek philosophers presentable and intelligible. His suicide has also been a popular subject in art, from
Jacques-Louis David's 1773 painting
The Death of Seneca to the 1951 film
Quo Vadis. Even with the admiration of an earlier group of intellectual stalwarts, Seneca has never been without his detractors. In his own time, he was accused of hypocrisy or, at least, a less than "Stoic" lifestyle. While banished to Corsica, he wrote a plea for restoration rather incompatible with his advocacy of a simple life and the acceptance of fate. In his
Apocolocyntosis he ridiculed the behaviors and policies of Claudius, and flattered Nero—such as proclaiming that Nero would live longer and be wiser than the legendary
Nestor. The claims of
Publius Suillius Rufus that Seneca acquired some "three hundred million
sesterces" through Nero's favor are highly partisan, but they reflect the reality that Seneca was both powerful and wealthy. Robin Campbell, a translator of Seneca's letters, writes that the "stock criticism of Seneca right down the centuries [has been]...the apparent contrast between his philosophical teachings and his practice." This was likely intended as a mock
encomium, inverting the portrayal of Nero and Seneca that appears in Tacitus. In this work Cardano portrayed Seneca as a crook of the worst kind, an empty rhetorician who was only thinking to grab money and power, after having poisoned the mind of the young emperor. Cardano stated that Seneca well deserved death. Among the historians who have sought to reappraise Seneca is the scholar
Anna Lydia Motto, who in 1966 argued that the negative image has been based almost entirely on Suillius's account, while many others who might have lauded him have been lost. We are therefore left with no contemporary record of Seneca's life, save for the desperate opinion of Publius Suillius. Think of the barren image we should have of
Socrates, had the works of
Plato and
Xenophon not come down to us and were we wholly dependent upon
Aristophanes' description of this Athenian philosopher. To be sure, we should have a highly distorted, misconstrued view. Such is the view left to us of Seneca, if we were to rely upon Suillius alone. More recent work is changing the dominant perception of Seneca as a mere conduit for pre-existing ideas, showing originality in Seneca's contribution to the
history of ideas. Examination of Seneca's life and thought in relation to contemporary education and to the psychology of emotions is revealing the relevance of his thought. For example,
Martha Nussbaum in her discussion of desire and emotion includes Seneca among the Stoics who offered important insights and perspectives on emotions and their role in our lives. Specifically devoting a chapter to his treatment of anger and its management, she shows Seneca's appreciation of the damaging role of uncontrolled anger, and its pathological connections. Nussbaum later extended her examination to Seneca's contribution to
political philosophy showing considerable subtlety and richness in his thoughts about politics, education, and notions of global citizenship—and finding a basis for reform-minded education in Seneca's ideas she used to propose a mode of modern education that avoids both narrow traditionalism and total rejection of tradition. Elsewhere Seneca has been noted as the first great Western thinker on the complex nature and role of gratitude in human relationships. In the late 19th century, Spanish thinker
Ángel Ganivet re-appropriated and reshaped Seneca as a "Spaniard in essence" coming to embody the Spanish
Volksgeist, making this idea central to his ''''. ==In popular culture==