Philosophical Works of Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Vol. 2

Chapter 17.) But he had already taken a wife in Rome: whom, it has not been recorded; that he did have one, however, his children prove. For he himself mentions Marcus, a most charming boy, with much praise and affection, to his mother Helvia: and it should not be doubted that he is his son. Or let his poem teach this, where among his wishes he writes:

Thus may Marcus, who now chirps in sweet speech,
Provoke his two uncles with his eloquent mouth.

For as for me listening to those who refer this to Marcus Lucanus, the reasoning does not seem sound. And yet, he makes no mention of a prior wife. Not in these books, I admit: what then? Neither does he mention by name his brother Annaeus Mela; did he therefore not have one? Although one must see whether you might not take these words as referring to a prior wife: "You know that Harpastes, the fool of my wife, has remained an inherited burden in my family." (Epistle 1, 3). For it is hardly likely that he would speak of Paulina in such a way and feel this: rather, he relegates the burden to a deceased wife, from whom it remained in the possession of the heir along with the rest of the household. But he is even clearer elsewhere: "When the light was removed, and my wife, already accustomed to my ways, fell silent." (III De Ira). Which wife? That former one; for the books De Ira seem to have been written while Gaius [Caligula] was still alive, in a place known to us. But he married Paulina only after his exile, a noble woman: who, I say, married him when he was already an old man and powerful in the palace. Which thing Dio himself, or whoever that was in Dio, thought should be used as a reproach against Seneca: namely, that being heavy with age, he had taken that young girl to wife. Such was each of them, and Seneca himself reveals it: "I said this to my Paulina, who commends my health to me. It comes into my mind that in this old man there is also a young person, who is being spared." (Epistle civ). A young person? Paulina herself. Truly she was loving of her husband, as he boasts there at greater length: nor falsely, and he showed it in his death, to which she went to be joined (as far as it was in her power). We shall see of this later. So much for those wives: and as for his other life, quiet and almost without offense, I exclude that great misfortune of exile. For under Claudius, in the first year of his reign, when Julia, the daughter of Germanicus, was accused of adultery (O Gods and Goddesses, by Messalina!), she was driven into exile; and Seneca, as if among the adulterers, was relegated to Corsica. Whether the guilt was true, I will not say: I would not wish it to be, and Tacitus perhaps would agree with me; who, when [writing] of...