Two miles farther is [S. Severa], where the horses are changed and the passengers breakfast. From S. Severa, a road ramifies 10 m. W. to Pino on the other side of the peninsula by the valley of the Luri, with vineyards and orange groves, passing the village of Luri 3½ m., with good inn, the [Col de S. Lucie] 7 m., 1363 ft., and Saronese 9¾ m. From the Santa Severa inn, Seneca’s tower is distinctly seen, at the head of the valley, on the summit of a precipitous peak, rising from the S. side of the Col, 1355 ft., from which a steep, stony path leads up
to it, by a forsaken Franciscan convent. The view is grand. To this tower, one of the many watch-towers built in the 12th cent., Seneca could never have been sent, but to the Roman colony of Mariana, then used as a place of banishment for political offenders.
Seneca.
Lucius Annæus Seneca was born at Cordova in Spain, just before the commencement of the Christian era. His eldest brother was A. Seneca Novatus, which name was altered afterwards to that of his adopted father, Junius Gallio. This brother was the proconsul of Achaia, before whom St. Paul was arraigned (Acts xviii. 12). While Seneca was still a child he was brought by his aunt to Rome, where he had for teachers Sotion, Papirius Fabianus and Attalus the Stoic. Although weak in body he was a most diligent student, which, joined to his powerful memory, enabled him to obtain at an early age important offices. Before his banishment, A.D. 41, he had already served as quæstor. Having irritated Caligula, he would have been put to death, had not one of the mistresses of the emperor assured him that it was not worth while, as Seneca was so consumptive he would soon die a natural death.
In the first year of the reign of Claudius, his wife Messalina having become jealous of the influence his niece Julia, daughter of Germanicus, had over Claudius her husband, succeeded in getting rid of her by imputing to her improper intimacy with Seneca, then a married man. For that reason Seneca was banished to Corsica A.D. 41.
During his exile he wrote his consolatory letter to his mother Helvia, as well as a panegyric on Messalina and a consolatory letter to Polybius, ostensibly to condole with him on the loss of his brother; but in reality to get that powerful freedman to exert his influence with the emperor, to recall his sentence of exile. This letter is full of fulsome flattery and expressions unworthy of an honest man.
After the death of Messalina, Claudius married his niece Agrippina, sister of Julia and mother of Nero by a former husband. Through her influence Seneca was recalled A.D. 49 and appointed a prætor and tutor to Nero, then 11 years old. In A.D. 51 Agrippina poisoned her husband.
[ Macinaggio.—Rogliano.—Botticella.]
From S. Severa, the diligence, resuming its journey, passes Meria 20½ m., and halts again at the port of Macinaggio 2½ m. more. [From this commences the steep ascent up to Rogliano] 1300 ft., a town built in groups on the side of the mountain, among vineyards and olive and chestnut trees, the inn being in the second highest group, near the post-office.