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When Absolute Power Became a Philosophical Nightmare · Chapter by Chapter — The Lost Library

0:00
Imagine having just absolute unchecked power over the entire
0:05
known world. Like total dominance.
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Right, Like every resource, every army, every conceivable
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luxury is just sitting right there at your fingertips.
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Exactly. I mean, if you want a city
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built, it gets built. If you want an enemy erased,
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they just they disappear. Yeah, you can do literally
0:20
whatever you want. Right.
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So what do you do with that kind of leverage?
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Do you construct massive golden monuments to your own glory?
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Or maybe conquer new territories just for the adrenaline rush.
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Yeah, or do you take all that infinite power, March out to a
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freezing, mud soaked tent in the middle of the war zone, and use
0:41
your time to write a private diary about how to be a more
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patient, forgiving person? I mean, it genuinely sounds like
0:47
a piece of utopian fiction when you lay it out that way.
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It really does. Because we are so conditioned to
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assume that ultimate power just completely strips away a
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person's humanity, you know? Yeah.
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Absolute power corrupts absolutely, that whole thing.
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Exactly. Yet the historical record gives
1:02
us this ruler who held the world by the throat and chose instead
1:07
to just constantly examine his own soul.
1:09
And that is the mission of our Deep dive.
1:11
We are exploring the life and the honestly incredibly complex
1:15
mind of Marcus Aurelius. Using a John C Joy's 1913
1:19
biographical study as our main source.
1:21
Right. And the goal here is to really
1:24
crack open that flawless cold marble statue image of the
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philosopher king that history handed down to us.
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Yeah, we want to find the sneezing, frustrated, you know,
1:34
fiercely struggling human being underneath all that Imperial
1:37
armor. Because he was a real guy.
1:39
But to appreciate the sheer probability of a person like
1:42
this even existing, we have to establish the reality of 2nd
1:45
century Rome. Oh, absolutely.
1:47
This was not a society that valued introspection, or
1:50
gentleness for that matter. Not at all.
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The source material actually draws this vivid comparison,
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describing Rome at this time as possessing the viciousness of
1:57
Paris without its grace, the materialism of London, and the
2:01
superstition of pecan Wow. Just a terrifying blood soaked
2:04
environment. Exactly.
2:06
I mean, people were routinely disemboweled in the arena simply
2:09
because the public was bored on a Tuesday.
2:11
Yeah, and the dominant religion was highly transactional.
2:14
You didn't like pray to the gods for moral guidance?
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Right. You bribed them with sacrifices
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to get wealth or revenge or, you know, political favors.
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So you're describing this culture of absolute
2:27
ruthlessness, yet sitting at the very top of this brutal
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hierarchy is a man who arguably represents the pinnacle of Pagan
2:35
morality. It's a massive contradiction.
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It is the friction between his internal ideals and the violent
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reality of the empire he ran is just staggering.
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And to figure out how this paradox even happened, we have
2:48
to rewind to the bizarre childhood that practically
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engineered him. And engineered is entirely the
2:53
appropriate word here, because when Marcus was born in 121 AD,
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the reigning emperor was Hadrian, right?
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Hadrian and Hadrian is a fascinating study and
3:01
contradictions himself. He was obsessed with Greek
3:04
culture, highly intelligent, but ultimately possessed this very
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cynical, frivolous attitude toward the weight of human
3:09
existence. Yeah, like on his deathbed,
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Hadrian wrote this famous, almost mocking little poem to
3:16
his own soul, calling it a wait, what was it?
3:19
A flitting, pretty naked little guest?
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That's the one. I always found that detail so
3:24
revealing. He treats life like this
3:26
fleeting amusement, yet he becomes completely captivated by
3:30
young Marcus, who was just the exact opposite.
3:33
Right, Marcus was this intensely grave, uncomfortably serious
3:37
child. So serious that he was actually
3:39
rigidly truthful. Like to the point that Hadrian
3:42
threw out his family name Varys, which means true.
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You nicknamed the boy Verisimus, right?
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Exceedingly true. Which is a heavy label for a
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kid. It is, but the boy was living
3:51
out of philosophy he barely understood yet like as a child
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he adopted a hardcore ascetic lifestyle.
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Oh yeah, the plank bed. Yes, he insisted on sleeping on
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a bare plank bed and eating subsistence rations.
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He pushed himself so far that his mother actually had to
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intervene and beg him to stop punishing his own body.
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Which leads to one of the strangest images from his youth.
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I think. At just eight years old, Hadrian
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appoints this tiny, serious child as a boy Bishop in the
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College of Silly, which is wild. It's so wild now.
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For those unfamiliar, the silly were the patrician priests of
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Mars, the God of War. This wasn't just some honorary
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ceremonial title. No, not at all.
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Little Marcus had to lead grown battle hardened men in these
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ancient archaic religious dances through the streets of Rome.
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And he had to memorize complex rubrics and obscure chants in a
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version of Latin so ancient that nobody in the 2nd century even
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knew what the words meant anymore.
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I like singing in a forgotten language.
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Yeah, and he performed these rituals with terrifying
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perfection. He never even needed a prompter,
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apparently. Yeah, yeah.
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The sources point to one specific ritual where the
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priests had to throw chaplets, which are woven floral wreaths
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or crowns, onto a reclining statue of Mars, and it required
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significant physical skill. Marcus was the only one who
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actually managed to land his wreath directly on the God's
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head. I could just imagine the Roman
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elite losing their minds over that like a kid crowning the God
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of War. That is a massive Marshall omen.
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Oh, it was totally seen as a divine endorsement, but it also
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crystallized an idea in Hadrian's mind, because Hadrian
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was deeply read in Plato. Right.
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Specifically, Plato's concept that society would never know
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peace until a philosopher became king.
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Or King became a philosopher. Exactly.
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So Hadrian looks at this exceedingly true boy and decides
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to just force Plato's theory into reality.
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He essentially sets up a generational succession plan.
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He rigs the future of the civilized world.
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He really does. He chooses a highly respected
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senator named Antoninus Pious to be his immediate successor but
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attaches this non negotiable condition.
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Antoninus must legally adopt young Marcus.
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Which ensures the boy is locked into the line of succession.
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It is a grand philosophical experiment played out on a
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global scale. OK, but let me play devil's
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advocate for a moment though. When I hear about this kid
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sleeping on wooden planks, refusing to play, memorizing
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archaic war chants, and being called exceedingly true by the
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Emperor, and I have to wonder if he was just an insufferable
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robotic killjoy. Like the ancient equivalent of
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the kid who reminds the teacher to collect the homework.
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Exactly. Was he just annoying?
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Well, the source material actually addresses that exact
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tension. It draws this brilliant contrast
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between Marcus and his adopted father, Antoninus Pius.
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OK, Antoninus is described as a philosopher by nature.
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He was a genuinely genial man who loved hunting, enjoyed wine,
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laughed easily and ruled with this relaxed grace.
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He was just naturally good. Right.
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Goodness flowed out of him effortlessly.
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In fact, his dying word was equanimitas, meaning peace of
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soul. A naturally balanced human
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beings. Precisely.
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Marcus, on the other hand, was a philosopher by reflection.
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Interesting. He was not naturally serene.
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Virtue did not come easily to him.
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He was hyper aware of his own flaws, his temper, his
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anxieties, and the corrupting nature of the power he was meant
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to inherit. Oh wow, yeah, he had to work
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incredibly hard constantly policing his own thoughts just
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to be good, so that intense self scrutiny might make him look
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like a rigid killjoy from the outside.
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But internally it was a profound, exhausting human
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struggle. Exactly.
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That reframes his entire personality for me.
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He wasn't naturally cold. He was fighting his own nature.
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Yeah. So let's look at what happens
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when the grand experiment finally culminates and Tinninus
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dies. The torch has passed and at age
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40, Marcus Aurelius takes the throne.
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The moment of truth. Right.
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And if Plato's theory holds up, this should trigger an absolute
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utopia. You'd think so.
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History often labels his reign a golden age, but the reality on
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the ground was practically apocalyptic.
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Yeah, it was a mess. Instead of presiding over a
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philosophical utopia, Marcus basically inherited A ticking
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time bomb. His reign was defined by
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relentless warfare on multiple borders, catastrophic famine,
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and. Most horrifyingly, the Antonine
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Plague. Oh, the plague was devastating.
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The mechanics of how that plague hit Rome are just awful.
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So Marcus had appointed his adopted brother Lucius Veris as
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Co emperor right? Lucius goes off to fight the
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Parthians in the East, basically spends the campaign partying in
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Antioch, and when his legions finally March back to Rome, they
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bring a completely novel disease with them.
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And it ravages the population. We are talking about 2000 people
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dropping dead every single day in the capital alone.
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Cartloads of bodies rolling through the streets, yeah.
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And in the middle of this societal collapse, Marcus is
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desperately trying to weave his philosophical ideals into the
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machinery of government. Like he forces through
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legislation that limits the absolute power masters held over
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their slaves. Yes, and he expands property
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rights for women. He also establishes vast social
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safety Nets like the Puelli Faustiniana, the little maidens
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of Faustina. It was a massive foundation for
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orphan girls named after his wife.
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And as he's doing this, we see Stoicism become this bizarrely
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popular trend among the Roman elite.
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Which is so funny to me. It's fascinating to see how high
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society reacts to crisis. Because Rome is literally dying
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of plague and war. The wealthy elites start
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adopting Stoicism as his psychological shield.
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It becomes a luxury status symbol.
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Exactly. You have high society ladies
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rolling up to the Temple of Peace in their ornate sedan
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chairs dripping in jewels to consult these bearded austere
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philosophers like modern day life coaches.
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The source mentions a popular joke from the time.
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Actually someone said his beard is worth 10,000 sisterses.
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We shall have to pay goats a salary next.
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That's amazing. But when a gritty survival
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philosophy, if he becomes a fashion statement, it kind of
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loses his teeth. It does, but Marcus actually
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lived it. His devotion to the state over
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his own comfort had severe practical consequences.
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How so? Well, the defensive wars against
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the northern tribes were completely draining the
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treasury. Add to that the fact that
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Marcus, trying to be benevolent, had given massive bonuses to the
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soldiers and the public. So the Empire was effectively
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bankrupt. Exactly.
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And rather than raising taxes on a population that was already
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starving and dying of plague, Marcus does something that still
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shocks me. He holds a yard sale.
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Literally a yard sale. I mean, think about a modern
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head of state needing to fund a military defense so they just
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drag the nation's priceless antiques onto the lawn and
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auction them off. It's unimaginable today, right?
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Marcus takes the accumulated treasures of the Imperial
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Palace, crystal vases, solid gold dinner services, masterwork
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paintings, crown jewels, and even his late wife's intricately
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embroidered silken robes. And sells them to the public.
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The auction lasted for two solid months.
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Two months. The psychological impact of a
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deity emperor pawning his furniture to spare the taxpayers
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must have been staggering. It is a beautiful gesture,
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absolutely, but it also highlights the tragic flaw of
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his administration. His policies were driven by
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immense empathy, but they were often disastrously impractical.
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Like bankrupting the state through generosity.
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Right. Another example is how he deeply
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despised the gladiatorial games. The senseless slaughter of
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humans and animals just disgusted his philosophical
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mind. But he still went to them,
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right? He would attend out of political
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obligation, yeah, but he refused to actually watch.
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He would sit in the imperial box reading or signing state papers.
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Didn't. He also make them fight with
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dull swords. He did.
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He forced the gladiators to fight with blunted weapons while
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he was present, and the source details an incident where a boy
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performing on a tightrope fell into the arena and was badly
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injured. Oh no.
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Marcus instantly mandated that safety Nets and mattresses had
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to be used for all aerial performances across the Empire
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from that day forward. OK, but the obvious question is,
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if you hold absolute power and you hate the games that much,
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why not just ban them entirely? Because he recognized the limits
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of his own power, he lacked the ruthless, tyrannical stream
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required to force an unwilling society to abandon its core
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entertainment. A culture built on blood cannot
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be legislated into enlightenment overnight without sparking a
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massive revolt. As Marcus himself wrote, without
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a change of principles, what else is there than the slavery
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of men who groan while they pretend to obey?
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Wow, so he was trapped by the expectations of the mob?
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He really was. And I think that feeling of
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being trapped makes his private life so crucial to understand he
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needed an escape. Yes, his sacredomis, his sacred
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house, his inner circle. Right.
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And it's here, mostly through his preserve letters to his old
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rhetoric Tudor fronto, that the marble statue completely
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shatters. The guy behind closed doors is
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wonderfully, refreshingly normal.
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The fronto correspondence strips away the imperial purple
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completely. We don't see a detached sage, we
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see a man who is constantly exhausted, highly affectionate,
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and just managing the mundane annoyances of a human body.
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I love these letters, he writes to Fronto, complaining about
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catching a cold because he walked around the palace in his
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slippers. Yes, he talks about reading
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agricultural manuals in bed. He outlines his morning routine,
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waking up soothing his sore throat with honey water, eating
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a tiny scrap of bread while watching his family devour these
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heavy meals of beans and onions. And he even writes about taking
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a bath, rolling over and loudly snoring.
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The supreme ruler of the known world, just snoring the
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afternoon away. It is a vital reminder that
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philosophy isn't practiced by ethereal beings, right?
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It's practiced by people with sore throats and bad habits.
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Absolutely. Oh, and there's one story he
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tells Fronto that is pure physical.
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Comedy. The sheep.
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The sheep So young Marcus is out riding his horse in the
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countryside. He spots a massive flock of
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sheep. OK.
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The shepherds see this wealthy horseman approaching and start
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yelling. Look at these horsemen.
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They do a deal of robbery. They think he's a bandit, right?
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So Marcus, feeling a bit mischievous, claps his spurs to
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his horse and charges straight into the flock.
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Just to mess with them. Exactly.
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The source describes the sheep fleeing and bleeding in every
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direction. The shepherds don't just cower,
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they fight back. Oh boy.
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One of them hurls A pitchfork. It strikes the rider right next
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to Marcus, and the future emperor of Rome is forced to
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gallop away, fleeing for his life from angry sheep farmers.
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I am. The humor is wonderful, but the
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depth of feeling those letters reveal also points to his
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greatest source of agony. How so?
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Because Stoic philosophy demands indifference to natural
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affection. It teaches that everything is
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temporary. You are supposed to look at your
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family, recognize they are mortal, and remained emotionally
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undisturbed by the threat of losing.
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And he feels it this spectacular.
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He really does. The irony is incredible.
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The man whose entire philosophical brand is built on
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emotional detachment is writing these panicked letters, fussing
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over his children's fevers and his own sneezing.
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Fits. He intellectually understood the
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theory of indifference, but his heart just refused to comply.
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He harbored an intense, almost crushing anxiety over his
15:14
Children's Health history. Was unimaginably cruel to him in
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this regard. Most of his children died very
15:20
young. He was repeatedly shattered by
15:22
grief. And the one son who did survive
15:24
to adulthood, Commodus, grew up to be a vain, cruel tyrant who
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completely despised philosophy and preferred playing gladiator
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in the arena. Which had to break Marcus's
15:34
heart. Oh, absolutely.
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Then you have his wife, Faustina.
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She was famous for her vibrant, restless energy.
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She loved the game, she loved the spectacle, and the Roman
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rumor mill was just vicious toward her.
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They were awful. The gossip suggested she was
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wildly unfaithful, like sneaking out to consort with sailors and
15:51
gladiators. But regardless of the truth of
15:53
those rumors, Marcus adored her. He fiercely protected her
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reputation against the Senate and the public.
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Yeah, in his meditations, he explicitly thanks the universe
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for granting him a wife. So obedient, so affectionate, so
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simple. Think about that for a second.
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Yeah, if you're a listener dealing with circumstances
16:11
totally outside your control, a difficult family member, a toxic
16:15
rumor, A profound loss, how do you reconcile that?
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How did Marcus process the reality of a terrible son and
16:23
the vicious gossip about his wife without completely losing
16:26
his mind? Right.
16:27
How did he cope? This is the exact mechanism of
16:29
his stoicism. It wasn't some unfeeling void,
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it was a dam he constructed to manage his overwhelming
16:35
emotional floods. Interesting.
16:37
He analyzed the failings of his family and the cruelty of the
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Roman public through a lens of strict fatalism.
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He repeatedly asked himself the question, Does a man gather figs
16:46
from thistles or grapes from thorns?
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Meaning you don't look at a thorny Bush and get angry that
16:52
it isn't giving you sweet fruit, you just accept its nature.
16:54
Exactly that. If a person's nature is to be
16:56
cruel or frivolous or treacherous, getting angry at
17:00
them is as irrational as yelling at a Thistle.
17:02
They're just accepted as part of the ecosystem.
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So he used this fatalism as a coping mechanism to survive his
17:09
own deep love and frequent heartbreak.
17:11
He had to. But the luxury of philosophizing
17:13
in the palace didn't last. The borders collapsed.
17:17
The barbarian tribes, specifically the Marco Mani and
17:19
the Kwadi, shattered the northern frontiers.
17:22
And we aren't just talking about small border skirmishes, we are
17:25
talking about existential dread. Right.
17:27
These tribes were seen in the streets of Venice.
17:30
To the Roman psyche, this felt like the end of civilization
17:34
itself. Yeah, total panic.
17:36
So this peaceful, bookish man who hates violence is forced to
17:40
spend his final years trudging through the freezing mud of the
17:44
Danube commanding legions. And the psychological toll of
17:47
those campaigns on Marcus was profound.
17:50
While the citizens in Rome were throwing parades and cheering
17:52
his military victories, Marcus was sitting in his tent,
17:55
completely disenchanted with the mechanics of empire.
17:58
He wrote that quote right about the spider.
18:00
Yes, he wrote, a spider is proud when it has caught a family and
18:03
another one he has taken Sarmatians.
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Wow, he saw no glory in Conquest.
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It was just organized robbery. A bloody chore he was obligated
18:11
to finish. He was actually so desperate for
18:13
manpower during these wars that he drafted the gladiators out of
18:17
the arenas and put them in the army.
18:19
Which the Roman mob was furious about.
18:21
They literally complained in the streets, saying he wants to
18:24
steal our amusements to compel us to be philosophers.
18:26
They didn't care that the Empire was on the verge of
18:28
annihilation, they just wanted their afternoon blood sports.
18:31
It highlights his profound isolation.
18:34
He was saving a society that actively resented him for
18:37
interrupting their entertainment.
18:39
It's tragic, really it. Is yet out of these miserable,
18:43
grueling campaigns comes one of the most famous historical
18:47
events of his reign, the Miracle of the Thundering Legion.
18:51
Oh, this is such a wild event. The logistics of this are crazy.
18:55
So the Roman army is surrounded by the Quadi forces in the dead
18:58
of summer. They are completely cut off from
19:00
water supplies, dying of thirst, baking in their armor, and
19:04
basically just waiting to be slaughtered.
19:06
It was a death sentence, right? But suddenly, a massive,
19:10
unnatural storm system rolls in. Torrential rain falls directly
19:14
on the Roman ranks. The soldiers are literally
19:17
catching water in their Shields and helmets just to survive.
19:20
Meanwhile, the storm drops devastating hail and lightning
19:23
strikes on the enemy lines, completely breaking the Qwadi
19:26
attack and saving the Legion. What makes this event
19:29
historically fascinating is how the human mind races to claim
19:33
ownership of the inexplicable. Everyone wanted credit.
19:37
Exactly. The pagans immediately credited
19:40
Jupiter Pluvius, the rain God, the Egyptian contingents claimed
19:44
it was the dark magic of their sorcerer Arnufus, and the
19:48
Christian soldiers within the Legion claimed the storm was the
19:51
direct, undeniable result of their prayers.
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Which brings us to the most difficult, glaring contradiction
19:57
of his entire life. Yeah, Marcus Aurelius spent his
19:59
nice writing about human brotherhood, universal charity
20:03
and self sacrifice. The Christian communities and
20:05
his empire were practicing those exact ideals.
20:08
Right. So why did this enlightened
20:10
philosopher oversee some of the most brutal, systematic
20:13
persecutions of Christians in Roman history?
20:15
It's a heavy question. To understand this, we have to
20:18
look at the mechanism of Roman state religion.
20:22
Roman religion was not about personal spiritual belief.
20:25
It wasn't. No, it was the Jenga block
20:28
holding the political and social order together.
20:30
Participating in public sacrifices was considered a
20:33
basic civic duty, a Pledge of Allegiance to the Pax Romana.
20:39
So by refusing to sacrifice to the emperor or the gods, the
20:43
Christians weren't seen as theological dissidents, they
20:45
were seen as political traitors. You've hit the nail on the head.
20:49
Marcus viewed their refusal as a dangerous, subversive obstinacy.
20:53
In a time of plague, famine and Total War, he believed the
20:57
Empire needed absolute unity. Right.
20:59
Anyone pulling at the threads of societal tradition was an
21:01
existential. Threat.
21:02
Exactly. He didn't investigate their
21:04
theology. He just saw a group undermining
21:06
the state. But the irony is so thick.
21:08
It is. The profound tragedy, as the
21:10
source points out, is that Marcus was torturing the exact
21:14
people who possessed the religion of sorrow and the
21:16
spiritual relief his own exhausted, burdened soul was so
21:20
desperately searching for. He was staring right at the
21:22
antidote to his own despair, and he ordered it destroyed because
21:27
it didn't wear a Roman uniform. It was out there, in that state
21:30
of total exhaustion, that he wrote his meditations.
21:34
He wrote them purely to keep himself from losing his mind.
21:37
But you know, the ultimate test of any philosophy isn't how it
21:41
sounds on paper. No, the test is whether it holds
21:43
up when your life is genuinely imminently threatened.
21:46
And that test arrives in the form of a catastrophic betrayal.
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Avidius Cassius. Right, Avidius Cassius Marcus's
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most brilliant and trusted general in the East, the very
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man who used to mock Marcus behind his back is a
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philosophizing old woman, launched a massive military
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rebellion aiming to usurp the throne.
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I want you, the listener, to put yourself in Marcus's sandals for
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a second, OK? Think of a colleague or a friend
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you'd trust implicitly, and imagine finding out they are
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actively, aggressively trying to destroy your life and take
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everything you've built. The visceral instinct is rage.
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It's a desire for absolute destruction.
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But how does the Philosopher King react?
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He doesn't order mass executions.
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He stands in front of his gathered troops and announces
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that if it is truly better for the Roman state that Cassius
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rules, he will step down voluntarily.
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Unbelievable, he tells his soldiers.
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Perish, my children, if Avidius shall deserve more attachment
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than they. He was entirely willing to
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relinquish absolute power if it served the greater good of
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humanity. It really was.
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The rebellion, however, lacked momentum and collapsed quickly.
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Cassius was actually assassinated by his own
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officers. And the Assassins cut off
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Cassius head and carry it to Marcus, expecting a massive
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financial reward. Right.
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They thought he'd be thrilled. But when Marcus seized the
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severed head of the man who tried to ruin him, he recoils in
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horror. He actually weeps.
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He tells his staff that he has been robbed of his greatest
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desire, the opportunity to look his enemy in the eye and pardon
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him. And he proved this wasn't just
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performative grief, either. Before she died, his wife
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Faustina had begged Marcus to completely wipe out Cassius, his
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family to secure the bloodline. And Marcus ignored her dying
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wish. He did.
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He not only spared Cassius his entire family, but he placed
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them under his personal protection to ensure they were
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never harmed. It's astounding.
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In his private diary, he actually mapped out nine rules
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for dealing with people who offend or betray you.
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Oh, wow. Yeah, he wrote about recognizing
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that people do wrong out of ignorance, not pure evil.
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He reminded himself of his own flaws, but the core mechanism he
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relied on is encapsulated in his mantra.
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The universe is transformation. Life is opinion.
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Life is opinion. That phrase is the skeleton key
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to his mind. He believed that the universe is
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just a constant churn of matter changing form, an event itself,
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a plague, A betrayal. A severed head has no inherent
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emotional weight. Because it's just stuff
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happening. Right.
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It cannot harm your soul. The only thing that harms you is
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your opinion of the event. So he passed the ultimate test
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of absolute power, or not by crushing the people who defied
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him, but by dismantling his own ego.
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So we look at the totality of this man.
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He wasn't a pristine demigod. He was a guy who caught cold,
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panicked over his kids, hated his job, and possessed massive,
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tragic blind spots. Very human.
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Yet when the world was literally burning down around him, he used
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his internal philosophy to hold his mind together and treat the
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people who betrayed him with astonishing radical grace.
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Which leaves us with a fascinating paradox to consider
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as we wrap up. We rely heavily on the cliche
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that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts
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absolutely, but Marcus Aurelius stands as a historical defiance
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of that rule. He demonstrates that the tools
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required for a noble life are entirely internal.
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It really makes you wonder, does absolute power actually change a
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person's character at all? Or does having ultimate
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authority simply strip away all of your societal constraints and
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excuses, leaving you with nothing to hide behind,
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revealing the exact unalterable shape of your own soul?