Seneca was born in Cordoba, Spain, and was sent to Rome at an early age. By A.D. 32, he was a noted orator. Caligula, the mad Roman emperor, was so jealous of Seneca's oratorical skills that he contemplated executing him but in the end only exiled him for 2 years, hoping that he would die abroad. Seneca was later exiled again, for 7 years, by Messalina, wife of the emperor Claudius, on the charge of adultery with the emperor's niece, which is not often believed. Many scholars believe that it was actually for political reasons.
In 49AD, Seneca was recalled to Rome by Agrippina, Claudius's new wife, to be tutor to her son, Nero. When Nero became emperor in 54, Seneca became one of his chief advisers, running the government for 5 years and amassing a fortune. He fell from power in A.D. 62, and in A.D. 65 the emperor ordered him to commit suicide, and Seneca, ever the philosopher and stoic, complied.
Nine plays by Seneca -The Trojan Women, Medea, Oedipus, Phaedra, Thyestes, Hercules on Oeta, The Mad Hercules, The Phoenician Women, and Agamemnon-are the only surviving examples of Roman tragedy based on Greek myths. Scholars, however, believe that Seneca's plays were never meant to be staged, that he wrote them purely for his own enjoyment, and is a closet playwright.
On the surface, Seneca's plays appear to be similar to Greek tragedies. His plots are rewrites of Greek tales. But his tragedy is quite distinct. Scenes which the Greeks would have banished from the stage -stabbings, murders, suicides are often the climactic onstage moments in Seneca's works. This interest in violent spectacle has later historical parallels, of course. Seneca does not exploit violence; he relates it to his themes and to the tragic circumstances of his characters.
Seneca's tragedies had a tremendous influence on Renaissance playwrights. His plays were written in Latin and there for more accessible than the Greek plays for people were unable to translate Greek for many years, thus they only hade Roman authors to work from. Other elements of Senecan tragedy admired in the Renaissance included the use of supernatural characters, such as ghosts and witches, the depiction of violence onstage, and the use of soliloquies and asides. Shakespeare, for example, was greatly influenced by Seneca's dramatic style; Hamlet, which presents much onstage violence, includes soliloquies, and has a supernatural character, the ghost of Hamlet's father, is often described as a Senecan revenge tragedy.