Cordoba is the land of caliphs, poets, painters and philosophers known worldwide, and a name that leaves no one indifferent is the Hispano-Roman philosopher Lucio Anneo Seneca, also known as Seneca the Younger to distinguish him from his father Marco Anneo Seneca or Seneca the old. Our great philosopher was born in Cordoba, or Corduba as it was called then, between the years 4 and 1 a.C. and will be educated in Rome, emphasizing in philosophy, poetry, pedagogy and politics. In the capital of the Empire, he will hold various positions, among which are the one of quaestor and praetor, although Seneca's path in political life will not be easy. He holds the position of senator being Emperor Caligula, at which time he is condemned to death, some say that because of the emperor's envy at the oratory of the Cordovan, others say that due to the impertinence of the philosopher. Whatever the reason, the sentence was never enforced due to Seneca's poor state of health, which seemed to augur a short life. Once Caligula dies, Emperor Claudius will exile him to Corsica in the year 41 AD. Despite the fact that popular gossip associates this exile with adultery with Caligula's sister, Julia Livila, the causes of her expulsion from Rome are not known with certainty. Eight years later he will return to Rome, continuing his career in this case as tutor of the future Emperor Nero.
Turned Nero into emperor, Seneca will return to political life. For various reasons he will lose the favor of the emperor, to the point that in the year 65 he was accused of being involved in a conspiracy against Nero himself, who will sentence him to death through suicide. This time Seneca's health is not going to free him from condemnation, a fact that our philosopher agreed to cut his veins.
Although the political life of Seneca was very abrupt, his philosophical and poetic work is one of the most important of his time. Within a Stoic considered principles, his line of thought can be followed throughout all his writings where his concern for ethics and morals applied to daily life and not as an example of abstract theory. Seneca, well versed in Greek philosophy, will understand wisdom as the highest end of existence and the pursuit of virtue as the path to happiness, based on being part of a whole and following the laws of nature as example to follow to reach these goals. In his work he has wanted to see a connection with the principles of Christianity.
Although its complete work has not been conserved, this one can be divided in four great sections: the moral dialogs, the letters, the tragedies and the epigrams, and we can emphasize somewhere to follow its philosophical current: Medea, Fedra, Letters to Lucilio, Troyanas and of course the satire he writes against the Emperor Claudius, among many other creations.
In the letter that he writes to Lucilio before dying, he will perfectly reflect how he applies his ideas to his own life, extracting a phrase from Seneca's point and ending to end this brief tribute to the philosopher who was born in our old Corduba: "In what It concerns me, I have lived long enough and it seems to me that I had everything that belonged to me. Now, I wait for death"
If you want to meet the Cordovan characters who have left their mark on the story, do not hesitate to join our guided tours. Our free tours need a previous reservation that can be done from https://cordobafreetour.es/
