Seneca was a Stoic philosopher of ancient Rome, and also a statesman, dramatist and satirist. He is best known for his moral essays and 124 letters, which are among the most important surviving sources for ancient Stoicism, and for tragedies such as Medea, Thyestes and Phaedra. Two of his works, Letters from a Stoic and On the Shortness of Life, speak to how to live well when death and public duty press close. He tutored the emperor Nero and was forced to take his own life in AD 65.
