I have been reading some writings on death by Seneca the Younger. It seems to me that he was thinking a lot about the topic of death. He seems to be a man who was trying to cope with the ever-impending threat of death in a violent society.
He was sentenced to death for his alleged adultery and eventually exiled. And then finally forced to take his own life at the end. Yet despite such constant threat of death and despite his ponderings surrounding death he did not attempt to flee the Roman Empire.
Given that he was such an intelligent man and that he already faced a death sentence why didn't he attempt to flee with his family from the Roman Empire to some other country?
He knew Nero was a violent man and that Nero was already executing people on a whim. Why stay beside nero and risk his life when he could have fled elsewhere? Or was it because in other countries he would be enslaved?
Hey there,
Just to let you know, your question is fine, and we're letting it stand. However, you should be aware that questions framed as 'Why didn't X do Y' relatively often don't get an answer that meets our standards (in our experience as moderators). There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it often can be difficult to prove the counterfactual: historians know much more about what happened than what might have happened. Secondly, 'why didn't X do Y' questions are sometimes phrased in an ahistorical way. It's worth remembering that people in the past couldn't see into the future, and they generally didn't have all the information we now have about their situations; things that look obvious now didn't necessarily look that way at the time.
If you end up not getting a response after a day or two, consider asking a new question focusing instead on why what happened did happen (rather than why what didn't happen didn't happen) - this kind of question is more likely to get a response in our experience. Hope this helps!