It has been an ancient custom to record the actions and the writings of eminent men, with all their circumstances, and it is but a right that we owe to the memory of our famous author. Seneca was by birth a Spaniard of Cordova, (a Roman colony of great fame and antiquity.) He was of the family of Annæus, of the order of knights; and the father, Lucius Annæus Seneca, was distinguished from the son, by the name of _the Orator_. His mother’s name was Helvia, a woman of excellent qualities. His father came to Rome in the time of Augustus, and his wife and children soon followed him, our Seneca yet being in his infancy. There were three brothers of them, and never a sister. Marcus Annæus Novatus, Lucius Annæus Seneca, and Lucius Annæus Mela; the first of these changed his name for Junius Gallio, who adopted him; to him it was that he dedicated his treatise of ANGER, whom he calls Novatus too; and he also dedicated his discourse of a _Happy Life_ to his brother Gallio. The youngest brother (Annæus Mela) was Lucan’s father. Seneca was about twenty years of age in the _fifth year_ of Tiberius, when the Jews were expelled from Rome. His father trained him up to _rhetoric,_ but his genius led him rather to _philosophy;_ and he applied his wit to _morality_ and _virtue_. He was a great hearer of the celebrated men of those times; as Attalus, Sotion, Papirius, Fabianus, (of whom he makes often mention,) and he was much an admirer also of Demetrius the Cynic, whose conversation he had afterwards in the Court, and both at home also and abroad, for they often travelled together. His father was not at all pleased with his humor of _philosophy_, but forced him upon the _law_, and for a while he practiced _pleading_. After which he would needs put him upon _public employment:_ and he came first to be _quæstor_, then _prætor,_ and some will have it that he was chosen _consul_; but this is doubtful.