I was watching this video (link at the bottom) and according to it Nero's tutor was Seneca. I find this really interesting and have some questions:
Why did Nero need a tutor? Was Nero particularly uneducated? For some reason that seems to be a bit strange if he were, after all he is a Roman emperor? Or might my idea of a tutor during the time of the Roman Empire be quite a bit different to what I understand as a tutor today? Haha!
Also according to the video Nero ordered Seneca to kill himself. Why on earth did this happen (if it did happen), did Nero find Seneca to be a terrible tutor?
And lastly, what do we know about Nero's relationship with Seneca? Did they get along, and did Seneca prove useful for Nero and helping him become more educated?
Thank you for reading my post and I look forward to learning more.
Edit: THE LINK!
According to Suetonius, Seneca began Nero's education when Nero was eleven, so it's not remedial education. Seneca was a private teacher with just one student. Nero would have been fantastically educated. Those kinds of student-teacher relationships can become life-long bonds (some of my old teachers are now dear friends) so it's not so surprising that Nero relied on Seneca later in life. Suetonius does say that Seneca tried to keep Nero from reading orators, so that Nero would value Seneca's oratory so much more. Suetonius is a gossip so I don't know how much I trust that bit.
About the suicide, Seneca unfortunately got wrapped up in an assassination plot, along with his nephew Lucan among others. This was the Pisonian Conspiracy. According to Tacitus someone said Seneca was part of an assassination plot. This is what Tacitus bk 11 says
Natalis however, taking the initiative, knowing as he did more of the whole conspiracy, and being also more practised in accusing, first confessed about Piso, next added the name of Annaeus Seneca, either as having been a messenger between him and Piso, or to win the favour of Nero, who hated Seneca and sought every means for his ruin. Then Scaevinus too, when he knew the disclosure of Natalis, with like pusillanimity, or under the impression that everything now divulged, and that there could be no advantage in silence, revealed the other conspirators. Of these, Lucanus, Quintianus, and Senecio long persisted in denial; after a time, when bribed by the promise of impunity, anxious to excuse their reluctance, Lucanus named his mother Atilla, Quintianus and Senecio, their chief friends, respectively, Glitius Gallus and Annius Pollio.
Whether Seneca was actually part of the conspiracy, I don't think we have a way of telling.