All the saints salute you
The members of the church at Rome,
chiefly they that are of Caesar's household;
for by means of the apostle's bonds, which were made manifest in
the emperor's palace, Christ was made known to some there
likewise; though Nero, the then reigning emperor, was a very
wicked prince, and his court a very debauched one, yet the grace
of God reached some there: who these were cannot be said; as for
the conjecture that Seneca the philosopher, Nero's master, was
one of them, it is without foundation; the eight letters of his
to the Apostle Paul, and the six letters of the apostle to him,
are spurious, though of ancient date, being made mention of by
Austin and Jerom F7: a like groundless conjecture is
that, that Lucan the poet, Seneca's brother's son, was another;
for there is nothing in his writings, or in any account of him,
any more than in the former, that shows him to be a Christian.
Torpes, a man in great favour and dignity in Nero's court, and
Evellius his counsellor, who both suffered martyrdom under him,
according to the Roman martyrology, are also mentioned.