Though retired from public life, the Spanish-born ‘Roman Socrates’ had been implicated in the Pisonian Conspiracy of AD 65 against his former pupil. As befits a senior Roman figure, he had been ‘invited’ to take his own life. The veins of his arms, wrists and legs were opened and he stepped into the warm water, eventually bleeding to death.
tortuous
Note: full of twists and turns: the route is remote and tortuous. excessively lengthy and complex: a tortuous argument.
In the 16th century a classical marble statue was unearthed in Rome, which is now on display in the Louvre. Carved from shimmering black stone, it appeared to show an elderly man, grimacing with pain, the veins of his limbs bulging. It was claimed straight away that this was an image of the dying Seneca, the name by which the work came to be known.
The influence of Lipsus on Rubens’ composition becomes obvious. On Seneca’s left, a physician severs the Stoic’s arteries with a scalpel. This is not how Tacitus described the scene. In the Annals, the Roman historian claims that a physician had prepared poison for Seneca. But, given that in a Christian society in the 17th century suicide was a mortal sin, Seneca’s fate is massaged. It is another hand that takes his life – and so this proto-Christian hero may yet be saved from eternal damnation.