of the Christian sera. He was removed to Rome in his infancy,where he was educated in the most liberal manner, under the bestmasters. He learned eloquence from his father; but his geniusrather leading him to philosophy, he put himself under the StoicsAttalus, Sotion, and Papirius Fabianus , three celebrated philoso-phers, of whom he has made honourable mention in his writings.In the first year of the reign of Claudius , when Julia, the daughterof Germanicus, was accused of adultery by Messalina , and ba-nished, Seneca was banished too, being charged as one of theadulterers. Agrippina being married to Claudius , upon the deathof Messalina, she prevailed with the emperor to recal Seneca frombanishment; and afterwards procured him to be tutor to her sonNero , whom she designed for the empire. Afranius Burrhus, apratorian prefect, was joined with him in this important charge;and these two preceptors, who were entrusted with equal autho-rity, had each his respective department. By the bounty and ge-nerosity of his imperial pupil, Seneca acquired that prodigiouswealth which rendered him iri a manner equal to kings. Ilishouses and walks were the most magnificent in Rome . His villaswere innumerable ; and he had immense sums of money placedout at interest in almost every part of the world. The historianDio reports him to have had 250,000 1 . sterling at interest in Bri-tain alone ; and reckons his calling it in all at a sum, as one ofthe causes of a war with that nation. All this wealth, however, to-gether with the luxury and effeminacy of a court, does not appearto have had any ill effect upon the temper and disposition of Se-neca . He continued abstemious, exact in his manners, and,above all, free from the vices so commonly prevalent in suchplaces, flattery and ambition. “I had rather (said he to Nero )offend you by speaking the truth, than please you by lying andflattery : maluerim veris offendere, quant placere adulando.”How well he acquitted himself in quality of preceptor to hisprince, may be known from the five first years of Nero ’s reign,which have always been considered as a perfect pattern of goodgovernment; and if that emperor had but been as observant of hisWaster through the whole course of it, as he was at the beginning,he would have been the delight, and not, as he afterwards proved,the curse and detestation, of mankind. But when Poppi'a and Ti-gellinus had got the command of his humour, and hurried himinto the most extravagant and abominable vices, he soon grewWeary of his master, whose life must indeed have been a constantr ebuke to him. Seneca , perceiving that his favour declined atcourt, and that he had many accusers about the prince, who werePerpetually whispering in his ear the great riches of Seneca , hismagnificent houses and fine gardens, and what a favourite he wasgrown with the people, made an offer of them all to Nero. Nero refused to accept them; which, however, did not hinder Seneca from changing his way of life; for, as Tacitus relates, “ he keptn o more levees, declined the usual civilities which had been paidfr* him, and, under a pretence of indisposition, or some engage-ment or other, avoided as much as possible appearing in public.”^ero, in the mean time, who had dispatched Burrhus by poison,could not be easy till he had rid himself of Seneca also: for Bur-rhus was the manager of his military concerns, and Seneca con-ducted his civil affairs. Accordingly, he attempted, by means of“‘.eonicus, a freedman of Seneca , to take him off by poison ; buthis not succeeding, he ordered him to be put to death, upon an■Formation that he was privy to Piso’s conspiracy against his per-■ 0n - Not that he had any real proof of Seneca ’s being concernedin i' S but only that he was glad of any pretence for destroy-
n g him. He left Seneca, however, at liberty to choose his man-j®r of dying; who caused his veins to be opened immediately.haH W 'k Puuhna, who was very young in comparison of himself,u yet the resolution and affection to bear him company, andj^reupon ordered her veins to be opened at the same time; butero g av e orders to have her death prevented; upon which hersav U "i Weie k° unc * up, and the blood stopped, just in time toW a 6 i’ ^’ ou gb» as Tacitus says, she looked miserably pale andslow * * * ler *'^ e a fr er - In the mean time, Seneca , finding his deathhim - an | { * ' ln S er > n g, desired Statius Annams , his physician, to giveCa - a l ' os e of poison ; but this not having its usual effect, he wassteam l< i, a llot -bath, where he was at length stifled with thefotirH " - ” e d' e d, as Lipsius thinks, in the sixty-third or sixty-reiffti ^ ear *'' s a S e > a nd in about the tenth or eleventh of Nero ’s
SENECIO, Groundsel; in botany, a genus belonging to theclass syngenesia, and order polygamia superfiua; natural order,Composiiaj. Receptacle naked ; pappus simple ; calyx cylindri-cal, calyculated ; scales equal, contiguous, so as to seem entire.There are seventy-fivespecies.
SENEF, orSENEE'F, a town of Austrian Brabant, 4 miles S.of Nivelle, and 13 N. W. of Charles sur Sambre.
SENEGAL, a large river of Africa , in Negroland, formerlyreckoned the same with the Niger , but now found to be quite dis-tinct. See Niger .
Senegal, a small island, sometimes called St. Louis , in themouth of the Senegal , and, according to Maskelyne’s Tables, si-tuated in Lat. 15. 53. N. Lon. 10. 31. W. There is not a moreforlorn situation on the inhabited globe, or a place in which thecommon necessaries of life are procured with greater difficulties.Water is here not potable. Wells are dug in the sand to the depthof five or six feet; but the water thus obtained ever retains abrackish taste. This is the cause of most of those maladies whichcarry off the Europeans so rapidly, that at the end of every threeyears the colony needs a fresh set of inhabitants.
Senegal, or Senegambia, a kingdom or territory of Africa ,in Negroland, seated between the Senegal and the Gambia , andcomprehending several other kingdoms and states.
SENEZ, a town'of France , in the department of the LowerAlps, and province of Provence , 6 miles N. W. of Castellane, and49 N. W. of Nice.
SENFTENBERG, a town of Upper Saxony, in the margra-viate of Meissen, 32 miles N. E. of Meissen , and 64 S. S. E. ofBerlin.
SENL1S, an ancient city of France , in the department of theOise, and province of the Isle of France , 20 miles N. of Meaux,and 27 N. E. of Paris .
SENN, a kind of itinerant cow keeper in Switzerland , particu-larly in the canton of Appenzell. These men do not grow somuch hay themselves as they require for their cattle during; the win-ter-season, and some of them have no grass-lands at all. 1 o supplythis deficiency, they employ agents throughout the canton, whoare to inform them where good hay may be obtained, which far-mers made it in favourable weather, &c. and then thesenn, or thegreat cow-keeper, who is in want of fodder, makes his agreementsfor the winter with the wealthier farmers, to whom he successivelydrives his cattle as soon as they return from grass. Thus the itine-rant senn, with his cows, often visits five different places during thewinter-season.
SENNA, is the leaf of the cassia senna of Linnsus. SeeCassia.
SENNAAR, a country of Africa , bordering upon Abyssinia,with the title of a kingdom ; the present government of which wasestablished in the sixteenth century by a race of negroes, named,in their own language, Shillock. This country, together with allthe northern parts of Africa, had been over-run by the Saracen ;during the rapid conquests of the khalifs; but instead of erectingany distinct principalities here, as in other parts, they had incor-porated themselves with the old inhabitants called,shepherds, whomthey found at their arrival, had converted them to their religion,and become one people with them,
Sennaar, the capital of the above kingdom, stands, accordingto Mr. Bruce, in E. Lat. 13° 34' 36" N. Lon. 33° 30' 30" E. closeupon the W. bank of the Nile .
SENNACHERIB, king of Assyria, succeeded his father Sal-manasar, about B. C. 714. Hezekiab, king of Judah, having re-fused to pay him tribute, though he afterwards submitted, he in-vaded Judea with a great army, took several forts, and' after re-peated insolent and blasphemous messages besieged Jerusalem ;but his army being suddenly smitten with a pestilence, which cutoff 185,000 in a night, he returned to Nineveh , where he wasmurdered in the temple of Nisroch by his sons Adrammelech andSharezer, and was succeeded by his other son, Esar-ltaddon. He-rodotus tells us, that he also attempted to invade Egypt , but wasdefeated by an army of rats.
SENONES, in ancient history and geography, a people ofGallia Celtica, situated on the Sequana to the south of the Parisii,near the confluence of the Jeavana or Yonne with that river.
SENS, an ancient city of France , in the department of theYonne, and province of Burgundy, seated on the river Yonne , at
its