Sĕnĕca, ae, m., a surname (cognomen) in the gens Annaea. The most famous are,
I M. Annaeus Seneca, a native of Corduba (in Hispania Baetica), a celebrated rhetorician in the time of Augustus and Tiberius , whose writings (Controversiae and Suasoriae) are now extant only in fragments, Quint. 9, 2, 42; 9, 2, 98; v. Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 264.—
II His son , L. Annaeus Seneca, a Stoic philosopher , instructor of Nero; of whom are extant, in prose, philosophical treatises, letters, and a satire upon the Emperor Claudius (Apocolocyntosis), Quint. 10, 1, 125 sqq.; Lact. 5, 9, 19; Tac. A. 12, 8; and in poetry eight tragedies, mostly founded on Greek originals which are still preserved, besides a few epigrams. The poetical works have been by many scholars referred to a later age, but they are now commonly accepted as authentic, Quint. 9, 2, 8; Sid. Carm. 9, 231; v. Teuffel, Röm. Lit. § 282 sqq.