Absolute power of the kind exercised by Roman tyrants in those fateful 42 years (AD54, the year Nero became emperor to AD96, when Domitian died) is so remote that the examples of Seneca and Agricola appear to be obsolete. Why should this ancient succession of disasters concern anyone living in the modern world dominated by democracy? The malady is oligarchy working behind a façade of democracy. After ensuring the death of his kin, rivals and all his close advisers, the emperor turned on his teacher, forcing him to commit suicide. But in the end, he wanted to renounce political life or as the Romans would said, seek otium. Notionally a stoic, Seneca was very much a worldly man. In the end, after decades of enrichment, complicity in crimes and contentment, the stoic found himself hollow, an empty shell.
He used his talents to justify every action of his masters-Agrippina first and then Nero-even the murder of one by the other, in this case that of Nero getting his mother killed. The philosopher’s first crime was his complicity in the murder of the emperor by his wife Agrippina. Seneca was a political ally of the ambitious Agrippina and along with Burrus Afranius, the head of the Praetorian Guard, one of the three most powerful persons after the emperor Claudius (10BC-AD54), the adoptive father of Nero. The book begins with Seneca being recalled from exile by Nero’s mother Agrippina to guide her teenage son. Famous for writing stoic treatises, Seneca was a philosopher who enjoyed life and wealth. As Nero's adviser, Seneca was presented with a more complex set of choices, as the only man capable of summoning the better aspect of Nero's nature, yet, remaining at Nero's side and colluding in the evil regime he created.Romm deals carefully with the difficulty in assessing Seneca’s career. But with time, as Nero grew vain and disillusioned, Seneca was unable to hold sway over the emperor, and between Nero's mother, Agrippina and Nero's father, how long could the young Nero have been contained?ĭying Every Day is a portrait of Seneca's moral struggle in the midst of madness and excess. We see how Seneca was able to control his young student, how, under Seneca's influence, Nero ruled with intelligence and moderation, banned capital punishment, reduced taxes, gave slaves the right to file complaints against their owners, pardoned prisoners arrested for sedition. Romm writes that Seneca watched over Nero as teacher, moral guide, and surrogate father, and, at seventeen, when Nero abruptly ascended to become emperor of Rome, Seneca became, with Nero, the ruler of the Roman Empire. James Romm seamlessly weaves together the life and written words, the moral struggles, political intrigue, and bloody vengeance that enmeshed Seneca the Younger in the twisted imperial family and the perverse, paranoid regime of Emperor Nero, despot and madman.
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