Nero Ordered Seneca To Kill Himself. Seneca Asked For A Pen First.

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:00]The emperor's guards arrived with the death order.

[00:00:04]Seneca did not argue.

[00:00:06]He did not beg.

[00:00:08]He asked for one thing before complying.

[00:00:11]They handed him a pen.

[00:00:15]65 AD Emperor Nero had decided the Pisonian conspiracy [music] needed to be answered with deaths.

[00:00:25]Seneca, his old tutor, his political rival, the second richest man in Rome, was on the list. [music] The Centurion came to Seneca's villa with the order.

[00:00:37]You will end your own life.

[00:00:39]Seneca asked [music] to amend his will.

[00:00:42]The Centurion refused.

[00:00:45]Seneca [music] turned to his friends gathered around him and said, "Since I cannot give you what I had wished, I leave you the only thing of value that remains to me.

[00:00:55]The example of my own life."

[00:00:59]Then he sat down at his desk, called his secretary, and asked for a pen.

[00:01:05]He cut his veins.

[00:01:07]The wounds bled slowly. He was old. He drank hemlock. It did not work. He was carried [music] to a hot bath. All the while, he was still dictating philosophy to the [music] secretary.

[00:01:22]His final words became part of the philosophical record.

[00:01:27]"The Stoic," he wrote, "does not fear death.

[00:01:30]He composes in front of it."

[00:01:33]Subscribe. Forge the mind.