How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius

by Donald J. Robertson

The Stoics adopted the Socratic division of cardinal virtues into wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. The other three virtues can be understood as wisdom applied to our actions in different areas of life. Justice is largely wisdom applied to the social sphere, our relationships with other people. Displaying courage and moderation involves mastering our fears and desires, respectively, overcoming what the Stoics called the unhealthy “passions” that otherwise interfere with our ability to live in accord with wisdom and justice.

What matters, in other words, isn’t what we feel but how we respond to those feelings.

We exaggerate, overgeneralize, omit information, and use strong language and colorful metaphors: “She’s always being a bitch!” “That bastard shot me down in flames!” “This job is complete bullshit!” People tend to think that exclamations like these are a natural consequence of strong emotions like anger. But what if they’re also causing or perpetuating our emotions? If you think about it, rhetoric like this is designed to evoke strong feelings. By contrast, undoing the effects of emotional rhetoric by describing the same events more objectively forms the basis of the ancient Stoic therapy of the passions.

Marcus would tell his courtiers, “It is impossible to make men exactly as one would wish them to be; we must use them such as they are.”

Marcus’s example of acting with kindness actually entails educating the other person in two of the most important strategies he mentioned earlier: 1. Anger does more harm to us than to the person with whom we’re angry. 2. Humans are essentially social creatures; Nature didn’t intend us to fight but to help each other. He views this as another dichotomy: either we can educate the other person and change their opinions or we can’t. If we can teach them a better way, then we should do so; if not, we should accept that fact, without anger.

This final strategy is about Stoic determinism: the wise man who views the world rationally is never surprised by anything in life. It’s another standard type of Stoic argument. We already know that there are both good men and bad men in the world. Bad men are bound to do bad things. Therefore, it would be irrational to expect otherwise. “To crave impossibilities is insanity, but it is impossible for the wicked to act otherwise.” Wishing bad men never to do wrong is as foolish as wishing that babies would never cry and becoming angry with them when they do.21 We can easily imagine that Marcus had prepared for Cassius’s betrayal in this way. The Senate was shocked and caught off guard, and their hasty reaction just made full civil war more likely. Marcus, by contrast, responded calmly and confidently, as if he expected these things to happen in life.

The soldiers picture the spirit of the Danube as an ancient river god. He silently offers us all a lesson if only we pause to listen: all things change, and before long they are gone. You cannot step into the same river twice, Heraclitus once said, because new waters are constantly flowing through it.

Things external to our own character such as health, wealth, and reputation are neither good nor bad. They present us with opportunities, which the wise man uses well and the fool badly.

It must be nearing dawn outside but I can no longer tell. My eyes have grown so feeble, surrounded by darkness on every side. I won’t live to see another sunrise. It doesn’t matter.