SKETCH OF THE LIFE, &c. OF

His father, L. Annæus Seneca, who is generally distinguished from the son by the title of "the orator" or "declaimer" (c), married a Spanish lady named Helvia, a woman of great understanding and other accomplishments. He came from Corduba to Rome in the time of Augustus, and was soon after followed by his wife and children. Here he continued for some time, managing his affairs with the favor and good report of all men. I think, says Lipsius, he lived until about the latter part of the reign of Tiberius. Be that as it may, Seneca was brought to Rome in his infancy; he was of a weak and sickly constitution and remained under the care of his aunt (d).

§ II.

He had two brothers: one older, called Marcus Annæus Novatus, and the other younger, called L. Annæus Mela. The former soon after changed his name to that of Junius Gallio by adoption (e); and accordingly, in the Eusebian Chronicle, he is styled Junius Annæus Gallio, Seneca’s brother, an excellent orator. It is to him that our Seneca addressed his books De Ira (On Anger) under the name of Novatus; he also calls him "Brother Gallio" in the title of his treatise On a Happy Life, and "Lord Gallio" in his epistles. This is appropriate, as he was his elder brother, says Lipsius. Lipsius likewise observes that Annæus Mela (f), the youngest brother, was only a Roman knight (not a senator), but he was the father of Lucan, from which, says Tacitus, accrued a vast accession to his fame and splendor. These, then, were the three brothers, of whom Martial says:

"The triple house of learned Seneca must be numbered."
Meaning the three sons or families of the learned orator.

(c) Declamation was his peculiar talent; though there are many declamations under his name that were not his own, they were digested by him and distinguished with titles and annotations, and they sufficiently speak to his pleasing manner and ingenuity.
(d) As he testifies himself when praising his aunt, he says: "By her tender care was I brought unto the city, and by her pious and motherly nursing was I there recovered of a fit of sickness." (Consolatio ad Helviam, chapter 16).
(e) Of one of this name, who is often mentioned by Seneca the father in his Declamations and is called "our Gallio," either by reason of their common country, Spain, or the friendship that existed between them.
(f) Mela or Mella (as Tacitus writes it) refrained from seeking the great offices of state due to a wayward ambition, desiring that a Roman knight might be seen to rival senators of consular dignity. He also judged that acting as comptroller to the prince in the management of his private revenues was a quicker road to wealth. He was accused, however, to Nero by Fabius Romanus (a friend of Lucan, who had suffered before), and he anticipated his fate by opening his veins, which was the quickest and most frequent passage to death in those days. Ibid.