The Daily Stoic - The Virtue That Made Marcus Aurelius So Great

Episode Date: November 13, 2022

Marcus Aurelius did not come out of the womb a leader. Nor was he an emperor ‘by blood.’ In fact, when first told he was to be king, he wept—thinking of all the bad and failed kings of ...history. So how did he get from there to philosopher king? Book 1 of Meditations shows us. The first ten percent of the book—Debts and Lessons—thanks people who groomed him into one of history’s greatest leaders. He knew it—without his philosophy teachers and rhetoric teachers and, most importantly, his mentor Antoninus Pius, he wouldn’t have became who he became. In this episode Ryan Holiday recounts one of the greatest stories in human history and talks about how Antoninus Pius taught Marcus Aurelius the most important virtue of all.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, from the Stoic texts, audio books that you like here recommend here at Daily Stoic, and other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly that you're able to apply it to your actual life. Thank you for listening. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wunderree's podcast business wars. And in our new season, Walmart must fight off target, the new discounter that's both savvy and fashion forward. Listen to business wars on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another weekend episode of the Daily podcast.
Starting point is 00:01:06 Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another weekend episode of the Daily Stoke podcast. In today's episode, I'm telling in depth one of my favorite stories, one of the most incredible stories that ever was story of Marcus Arrelius and his stepfather Antoninus and how Antoninus taught embodied, modeled, and inspired Marcus in the virtue of discipline, the discipline of software scene, a self-control, temperance, moderation, and how necessary this was for Marcus at these profound levels of power and fame that he possessed, and how we can learn from that as well.
Starting point is 00:01:45 This is the story I tell in part three of the book. I'm riffing on it here. I think you'll really like it. The video version of this on YouTube has almost 100,000 views in less than three weeks. So I'm excited to bring you this. This is the virtue that made Marcus really is great and the man who taught it to him, Antoninus Pius. Talking about discipline, obviously drawing on the research and work I did in the new book, discipline is destiny, the power of self-control, which I'd love for you to read, you can pick that
Starting point is 00:02:12 up anywhere, books are sold. Since you're listening to this as a podcast, maybe that means you like audiobooks and grab it anywhere, audiobooks are sold, the audiobook is selling like crazy, which is really cool. I recorded it myself here in my office. And I can't wait for you to listen to it, read it, tell me what you think about it, and get signed copies at the painted porch, or go to dailystalk.com slash discipline. But in the meantime, here is a deep dive
Starting point is 00:02:38 into the discipline of Marcus Relius and Antoninus. For nearly 25 years, a Roman named Antoninus, Claude, fought his way to the very top of Rome's political system. There was only one man above him, this was the Emperor Hadrian, who ruled for years with wisdom, but certainly an authoritarianism. And there was an issue. Hadrian does not have a male heir. So he makes the surprise decision to name Antoninus his heir. They have no blood relations. What does he see in Antoninus?
Starting point is 00:03:18 All we know, one anecdote is that Hadrian supposedly sees Antoninus helping his elderly father and law up a flight of stairs. In a time when people would have killed their own father to get ahead, this idea of a powerful, important Roman helping an elderly frail old man, it strikes Hadrian that there is an inherent goodness in him. Hadrian says, I have found you an emperor, no-go-mile, obedient, sensible. He says, not headstrong or too young, nor careless, through old age,
Starting point is 00:03:53 Antoninus are realius. And so this is what Antoninus has wanted his whole life, a thing that almost no one in history ever has or ever will be, give it again, absolute power handed to you because you earned it through who you were. And yet this was a cruel trick. Because for everything that Hadrian had seen in Antoninus, he saw something else, even better, even more decent, and a young boy named Marcus Herilius. He finds that Marcus has this remarkable ability to tell the truth.
Starting point is 00:04:29 He's like the little boy in the story of the Emperor's new clothes. He speaks truth to Hadrian when no one else will. Hadrian comes to nickname him Verismus. When Hadrian adopts Antoninus, so he can succeed him as Emperor, it comes on the condition that he in turn adopt Marcus Aurelius. And that really all Antoninus is a glorified throne warmer. Now, we know from history how something like this will go, right? And Adrian will die. And the first thing Antoninus do, Antoninus will do will be to eliminate all of his rivals to get rid of this boy
Starting point is 00:05:06 who he's not related to, who he shouldn't even care about, who's really just an impediment to Antoninus' legacy and his family line being passed on and on. We see this today in sports. Brett Farb doesn't want to train Aaron Rogers. Aaron Rogers doesn't want to prepare and train and mentor the replacement for him and that's in sports where there's so much less at stake and yet again give an absolute power and to not us can do anything he wants what does he do? Go for the next 23 years. He grooms Marcus Aurelius to
Starting point is 00:05:40 succeed him. To not just take power but more importantly to be worthy of power, to be one of the greatest emperors in history. There's this story we hear about an exchange between Antoninus and his wife. She's sort of thinking about all the things they can afford now. And he says, I'm sorry, we have even less now than we did before, believing that his wealth and his power and his obligations that now lay to the Roman people and to the boy he was to train. The one North Star for Marcus Realis' whole life is the example of Antoninus. The root word of discipline actually comes to us from the word pupil, meaning you're a student of something, conversely that you have someone who's a pupil of you. And I think this is what's so key about Marcus Aurelius' and Antoninus' relationship.
Starting point is 00:06:31 Marcus writes that he had the ability to both refrain from and enjoy the things that most people are too weak to refrain from and too inclined to enjoy. Of course, life hands Antoninus power and success and good looks in all of these things, but what strikes Marcus really is about his mentor, how gracefully Antoninus takes these things. He says, if they were there, Antoninus took advantage of them, and if not, he didn't miss them. They never let go of an issue, a topic, a decision before he was sure that he understood it perfectly. Marcus notes how he was able to defer to experts to listen to them, but also to have a strong sense of his own capacities, not just when to listen to them, but when to ignore them. He didn't
Starting point is 00:07:16 go on tangents, he didn't bore people, even though people would have put up with endless amounts from him. He never indulged that. He tolerated being questioned. He liked the back and forth. There's something striking about Antoninus that he never tours the expanse of the Roman Empire. It's not because he didn't like to travel. It wasn't because he had business. He understood even that imperial baggage train was in imposition and he didn't want to impose on people. And one thing Marcus never notices. He never sees it once, despite all the stress of the job, he never once sees Antoninus loose his temper. Hadrian at one point loses his temper with a secretary and he stabs the man in the eye with a pen. Something the emperor then
Starting point is 00:07:57 could get away with, there's no repercussions. And yet Marcus says of Antoninus that he never exhibited rudeness, he never lost control of himself, he never turned violent, a gravity without airs. He was a man of immense self-control. When Senaqa says that he is most powerful who is under his own power, that's what Antoninus was. And you really couldn't imagine then a better teacher for someone like Marcus Aurelis, right?
Starting point is 00:08:24 If you think of Marcus Aurelis and someone like Nero, they had very similar paths. They lose their parents at a very young age. They're thrust into power. They have stoic teachers, Seneca teaches Nero. Julius Rousticus teaches Marcus Aurelis, but what's the difference
Starting point is 00:08:38 than why is Nero so awful and Marcus so great? The answer is Antoninus. In 161 AD, Antoninus comes to the end of his life. Adrian probably thought he would rule for a few years. Antoninus was an old man. That was the idea of Marcus was too young. Antoninus was too old, but he does come to the end. His final words, equanimitas, or equanimity. This is what he's passing along to Marcus really.
Starting point is 00:09:05 It's now his turn to wear the purple to carry the load, to be the man that Adrian saw in him. Marcus is supposedly so terrified at this thought at first that he goes to bed weeping, but he has a dream that night. I think you could imagine Antoninus visiting him in this dream. Marcus sees in the dream that he has shoulders of ivory This is him realizing that he is strong enough to carry the load and in fact he has to carry the load To fill in the destiny that Adrian had set out for him all those years ago Now Antoninus had been blessed with wonderful peaceful times Antoninus does not have to spill a single drop of blood
Starting point is 00:09:44 Marcus really is his reign is marked by floods and war, invasions, a terrible plague. One thing after another one ancient historian says, Marcus really does not meet with the good fortune that he deserved. In fact, his whole reign is marked by a series of trouble. And yet the same historian says that he comes to admire Marcus's realies for the very reason that these troubles don't break him. In fact, Marcus never loses command of himself, never loses control of himself, he survives, and so does the Empire. But as cursed as he was in that sense, you would argue he was blessed with the example and the guidance and those long years of apprenticeship under Antoninus. And now it's Marcus Aurelius' time to bring those ideas into practice. Now the first thing that Marcus does is write out of Antoninus' playbook, right?
Starting point is 00:10:36 Part of a quirk of Adrian's odd, you know, unprecedented succession plan, there's this other guy, the son of someone that Adrian had once thought could succeed him. Man in Lucius Ferris. Now, Marcus Aurelius is the same age roughly as Lucius Ferris, and although it's very clear to Antoninus, who deserves to be Emperor, it's kind of not clear what to do with Lucius Ferris. Again, Marcus Aurelius could have been the bloodthirsty Machiavellian absolute tyrant that many emperors were. He could have assassinated gotten rid of his rival. Instead, he appoints Lucius Ferris his stepbrother only on paper to be co-emperer. The first thing Marcus
Starting point is 00:11:19 Aurelius does with absolute power is give half of it away. The next thing he does is give Antoninus a nickname. He names him Antoninus Pius. He deifies his stepfather and it puts down in the record just how truly great and holy and humble this man was. And then Marcus really has to get to work solving one problem after another, which he does. With the same kind of calmness and self-control and poise and dignity and goodness that he learned from Antoninus. Marcus really points out how trivial the ambitions of most emperors and powerful people actually are. He says how much more philosophical it is to take what we've been given and show uprightness and self-control and obedience to God without
Starting point is 00:12:05 making a production of it. In the depths of Rome's Antonin plague, what does Marcus do? He sells off the palish furnishings. He doesn't spend the treasury's money like it's his. He protects it. He reaches into his own pocket so other people don't have to suffer. The work of Marcus's life is to be like Antoninus. He writes in meditations that he wants to never be swayed by pleasure or pain, he wants to be purposeful when an action free from dishonesty or dissimulation, and it's his never-dependent on action or inaction from anyone else. He wants to be self-reliant in that true sense, he wants to cultivate a certain kind of indisputable immunity from the dice rolls of fortune. And even as an old man, he continues to learn and study philosophy
Starting point is 00:12:52 to try to be the man that Antoninus wanted him to be. There's a story about Mark Sures leaving the palace. Friend stops him and says, Mark, it's where you go. And he says, I am off to see sex as the philosopher to learn that which I do not yet know. The man is amazing. This is one of the wisest, most powerful men in the world, and he's taking up his tablets and books and going to school like an ordinary student.
Starting point is 00:13:13 But this was the kind of humility and grace that Marcus had learned from Antoninus. This was his interest in what other people had to say. This was his interest in experts during the the depths of the Antenine plague, right going back to Anteninus and the ability to defer and listen to experts, the first thing Marcus does is a point one of Rome's great medical minds, his doctor, Galen, to be in charge of the response.
Starting point is 00:13:37 He doesn't think he knows everything. He doesn't let politics get in the way. He tries to listen to the people who know what they're talking about. And there's another passage in meditations that echoes of Ant in the way, it tries to listen to the people who know what they're talking about. And there's another passage in meditation that echoes of Antonyas, Mark's releases, concentrate every moment like a Roman. Right? Is this concentrate on the task in front of you
Starting point is 00:13:53 like it's the most important thing in your life? Like it's the last thing you're doing in your life. If you had asked Markus to define what a Roman was, she would have defined Antonyas. It's one of the most remarkable stories in all of history, two consecutive emperors, not related by blood, who manage to not just be decent and good at their job, but to not be corrupted by the unlimited power in front of them. Ah, the Bahamas.
Starting point is 00:14:23 What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the day and partying at night with your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other people's money, but he allegedly stole. Many thought Sam Bankman Freed was changing the game as he graced the pages of Forbes and Vanity Fair. Some involved in crypto saw him as a breath of fresh air, from the usual Wall Street buffs with his casual dress and ability to play League of Legends during boardroom meetings. But in less than a year, his exchange would collapse. An SPF would find himself in a jail cell,
Starting point is 00:14:58 with tens of thousands of investors blaming him for their crypto losses. From Bloomberg and Wondering, comes Spellcaster, a new six-part docu-series about the meteoric rise and spectacular fall of FTX and its founder, Sam Beckman-Freed. Follow Spellcaster wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, prime members, you can listen to episodes Add Free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today. Now, why haven't you heard of Antoninus? Download the Amazon Music app today. Now, why haven't you heard of Antoninus? It's a good question. If he was so great, why don't you know who he is?
Starting point is 00:15:31 Well, in some ways, Antoninus is really a victim of his own success. First off, he is eclipsed by Marcus Aurelius. Keith Marx really says, so beloved that he overshadows the man who trained and cultivated him and protected him. If that hadn't happened, Antinitis could have been remembered for all of history if that was something that mattered to him.
Starting point is 00:15:53 Think of the month's August in July, these are named after Augustus and Julius Caesar. Well, the Senate so loved Antinitis in his own time that they offered him the chance to name a month after him and his wife. This was preposterously egotistical to Estelle, it's also utterly meaningless who cares. But in truth, Antoninus' real legacy was his life. You know, there's that expression that no man is a hero to his valet. Marcus really is closer to Antoninus than his valet, and yet, he not just sees him as a hero. He adores him, he loves him, he worships him, he was his hero. Because Antoninus did the hardest thing there is to do
Starting point is 00:16:32 in philosophy, actually lived by what he talked about. He lived up to the standards he set for himself and believed in. And more importantly, he gave Marcus a realist the tools to do the same. And this was true multi-generational impact. Tragically, impact that Marcus really is not even able to replicate in his own life. We see his son, Comedis Fall, terribly shamefully short of the standards that Marcus set for himself. Marcus isn't able to be the kind of father, or guardian, or mentor that Antoninus was for him. And what sets Marcus really up to be so great, it's that he
Starting point is 00:17:09 had this North Star superior to all the masters and teachers that he was given. The historian Ernest Fernand says, Marcus had a single master whom he revered above all, and that was Antoninus. It was because Marcus really has had by his side the most beautiful model of a perfect life, one whom he understood and loved, that he became who he was. You know, when we think of discipline, we think of discipline as working out, eating well, controlling your temper, and of course it's all these things, but but the deeper most profound level of discipline, the magisterial discipline as I call it in the book is this. It's one thing to not do stuff that you
Starting point is 00:17:53 shouldn't really do. But so much of what we don't do or we judge and others we're not even in a position to do. Marcus Aurelius and Antoninaus have unlimited power that can put people to death, they can start wars, they can build enormous monuments to themselves, they do none of this. They focus on the job, they focus on doing their best, they focus on being the best people that they could possibly be. And that's their legacy, that's what discipline is really about. That's what we have to cultivate in our own lives. Ultimately, that's what stoicism is about as well. I hope you liked this video. I hope you subscribe. But what I really want you to subscribe to is our daily
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Starting point is 00:18:47 and I hope to see you there at dailystoke.com slash email. Hey, Prime Members! You can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.

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