Seneca, known as Seneca the Younger, was born around 4 BC in Córdoba, in the Roman province of Hispania. He was a Stoic philosopher, a statesman and a dramatist. In AD 41 the emperor Claudius exiled him to Corsica; he was allowed to return in 49 and became tutor to the young Nero.
In his last few years, withdrawn from court and seldom in Rome, he wrote the Moral Letters to Lucilius, 124 letters on how to live, addressed to his friend Lucilius. In 65 he was forced to take his own life over his alleged part in the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero; whether he was involved is still debated.