Lives of the Stoics The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius

I was thinking about one of my books that hasn't sold as well as the other books. Which one is it? Lives of the Stoics is different than my other books, but I personally used, and then also have reused stuff that I learned while writing that book almost every single day.

So I did this book a few years ago called Lives of the Stoics where instead of sort of really diving into what the stoics said, I just tried to write these biographies of who they were.

And there's even one stoic, there's a stoic named Chrysippus who died of laughter, like he was just laughing so hard he was old, he probably had a heart attack and died.

Now the stoics got married, the stoics had kids, the stoics made works of art, the stoics played sports, the stoics fought for political causes.

There was this whole generation of stoics called the stoic opposition, which was basically a series of resistance fighters who gave their lives in many cases against the tyranny of like several bad emperors in a row, including Nero.

You could read the whole story in Lives of the Stoics, but suffice to say it ended not just a chapter of his life, but the very purpose to which he thought his life was for.

If you want to dig in on Seneca's life, we have a chapter about him in Lives of the Stoics.

Rusticus censored Justin Martyr to a gruesome death, a story I talk about in Lives of the Stoics, and Marcus Aurelius allowed for the persecutions of the Christians.

Well, the history of stoicism doesn't bear this out at all as I talk a lot about in Lines of the Stoics.

I did one in Lives of the Stoics. I did my best, but he's a hard guy to get a full book out of because unfortunately, even though he was very, very famous, we don't know that much about him.

Thracia and Helvidius, as I tell in Lives of the Stoics, they gave everything in their defiance of Nero.

As I talk about in Lives of the Stoics, you should read it.

Zeno got carried away in his turf war with his former student Aristo. Junius Rusticus botched the trial of Justin Martyr and, well, he martyred the guy.

Seneca got caught up with Nero. Even the faultless Cato had his weird wife-swapping scandal. And Marcus Aurelius screwed up his succession plan.

The Stoics were people. They were in public life for a long time. In fact, most of them lived surprisingly long lives.

So it should not surprise us that they made a couple decisions that they'd probably like to do over again, that they had character flaws that turned out to seal parts of their fate that none of them had perfect records.

I tell this story in my book, Lives of the Stoics.

He said it would be like if Goethe had written Faust and was the right-hand advisor to Napoleon or Frederick the Great or something like that.

I'm going to grab this because there's a chapter on Musonius Rufus in Lives of the Stoics.

You can check out Lives of the Stoics, of course you can grab Daily Stoic, but Lives of the Stoics I'm really proud of because it's not what the Stoics said, it's what they did.

Grab a signed copy at store.dailystoic.com or come grab one at The Painted Portion, Sto Pochele, which is a bookstore named after where Zeno found Stoicism himself having a similar experience working with washing up in Athens, penniless and ending up in a bookstore.

I wrote about this a little bit in Lives of the Stoics.

And I also get into the contradictions of Seneca's character in Lives of the Stoics.

You can grab that at the Daily Stoic Store if you want me to sign your copy.

And I also get into the contradictions of Seneca's character in Lives of the Stoics.

You can grab that at the Daily Stoic Store if you want me to sign your copy.

I was I'm just writing something now for the wisdom book and I said Steve there I remember from my reading that Aristo and Clientys the two students of Zeno they had very different styles and I'm am I making up that you know one talked more than he listened and the other was sort of quiet and almost so quiet that his fellow students thought that he was dumb and teased him for being dumb and he said boom he just hit me with the perfect passages that you will see two two and a half years from now when that book comes out

we tell those stories in lives of the stoics

I actually talk about this a lot in lives of the stoics also

if you want some examples of stoics who were brave like Thrasian a grippinus and then still is who weren't brave enough Santa. And sister you can check out lives of the stoics

I got so excited thinking about antipeter again i wanted to bring you that chapter in today's episode of the podcast

you can listen to that now you can grab lives of the stoic the audiobook anywhere you get your audiobooks all into that we can grab a sign copy in the daily stoic store at store.dailystoke.com

If you don't choose whom to marry wisely your wisdom and your happiness will be sorely tested.

I did this book a few years ago called Lives of the Stokes where instead of sort of really like diving into what the Stokes said I just tried to write these biographies of who they were

It was this loose cohort of stoics, and I tell their stories in the book Lives of the Stoics, that was heroic and incredible as virtue always is.

lives of the stoics is a book I'm super proud of, but I probably learned the most about the stoics writing.

So check it out, you can grab lives of the stoics, anywhere books are sold, but you can also grab a sign copy at store dot daily stoke dot com.

in lives of the Stoics I put all the Stoics their biographies in one place

The problem with most philosophy books that this one I think is a little bit different than is that they focus on what the philosophers said, what they thought.

This is of course all very interesting and can be important but what really matters is what the philosophers did, who they were, how the ideas were applied to their life.

Actually the Stoic's talked about not having much respect for the so-called pen and ink philosophers, just the writers. They were interested in the doers, how they lived up to the ideals.

And some of the Stoics did a great job. You will get Marx's release. He's not corrupted by absolute power.

That's the premise of lives of the Stoics, the art of living from Xeno to Marx's release which I happen to know the author of.

Since Plato it had been the dream of wise men that one day there might be such a thing as a philosopher king although the stoics have been close to power for centuries none of them had come close to wielding supreme command themselves

take care not to be seasrified or died in purple

waste no more time talking about what a good man is like be one

Few now care about the marches and counter marches of the Roman commanders what the centuries have clung to is a notebook of thoughts by a man whose real life was largely unknown who put down in the midnight dimness not the events of the day or the plans of the morrow but something of far more permanent interest the ideals and aspirations that are rare spirit lived by

be tolerant with others and strict with yourself

So, Cresipus who I talk about in lives of the Stoics as well he says this is the very thing which makes up the virtue of the happy person in a well flowing life when the affairs of life are in every way tuned to the harmony between the individual divine spirit and the will of the director of the universe.

They're actually who I profile in lives of the Stoics the art of living from Marcus who really is to Zeno being the founder of Stoicism which also might not have totally landed with you.

The book came out in 2020 it so right at the depths of the pandemic so maybe it got lost for you but I really wanted to look at who the Stoics were what they did how they lived where they lived up to the philosophy where they fell short that's what lives of the Stoics is about

when I sign it and I usually have signed copies in the Daily Stoke story I usually write Acta non-verba which means deeds not words which I think is a really important thing when it comes to Stoicism how do you practice the stuff how do you live up to it that's what the book's about and I'd love for you to check it out if you haven't already.

do check out lives of the stoics you can grab a sign copy in the daily stoke store or here at the painted porch it's a book I'm very proud of when I sign it to people I write actin on verba deeds not words

if you don't know Senka's life story it's pretty incredible

There's this haunting scene I tell it in "Lives of the Stoics." Hosea Donius, one of the great Stoics, is there for the death of Marius.

his death was particularly interesting and certainly contradicts one of the images that we have of the stoics which is actually why I wrote lives of the stoics right what the stoic said and who they were.

in today's episode i'm bringing you an excerpt from lies of the stoics my chapter on Crasipus I call him Crasipus the fighter.

this is me reading the audiobook chapter of lives of the stoics the art of living from Xeno to marks relis I did this in collaboration with the one and only Steve Hanselman who did the translations on the daily stoke. He did the translations for this book pulled together the research on this book and I did the writing and the reading of the audiobook so check out lives of the stokes if you haven't or just sit back now and listen to the life of Crasipus the fighter.

If there had been no precipice it reads there would have been no stoa or rather we would likely not be talking about it the same way today.

he hosted he interviewed me for I think the launch of lives of the Stoics

I wrote in my book Lives of the Stoics I talk about the the trial of of Justin or Justin martyr you know the the the judge in that case is is rusticist whose markets are really his philosophy teacher this brilliant wise man that Marcus writes in meditations about how thoughtful and loving and kind he is yeah then you you have him you know bringing down the full power of the Roman state on this guy who's basically brought up on sort of not just trumped up charges but also kind of pointless charges like the the offense is so much more minor than say Jesus's offense yes and you know it ends in in the same gruesome way

I call him Seneca the striver because inside this sort of a steer Stoic, there's also this person inside Seneca that wants to be great, be famous, be remembered forever.

I'm actually bringing you a whole excerpt of me doing... I'm bringing you The Life of Seneca. My version of Seneca's life in Lives of The Stoics which I co-wrote with my dear friend and creative partner, Steve Hanseman who I did The Daily Stoic with.

I'm really proud of this book. Seneca was one of the people I really sunk my teeth into. I think that'll come across here.

I tell Kato's story in Lives of the Stokes which I suggest you read and definitely listen to Josiah's episode of The Daily Stoke Podcast.

He was at least partly involved in the piezo conspiracy to unseat neuro as I talk about at length in lives of the stoics

A worst joke in this regard is the infamous Dio Timis, also profiled in lives of the stoics who caught up in some sort of philosophical feud, fabricated a number of letters designed to destroy the reputation of his epicurean rivals.

It's one thing to say don't be overcome by your emotions. You look at someone like Cicero and he loses a child. How could he not be affected by that? Was he affected by that?

That's obviously the idea behind lives of the Stoics, the art of living from Xeno to Mark Cerelyz which is a book I wrote with my collaborator Steve Hanselman a couple years ago.

You wonder why it's called Stoicism and not Xenoism?

I made a prosperous voyage when I suffered shipwreck for it was a shipwreck that sent Xeno to Athens and on the path to creating what would become stoic philosophy.

the goal of life is to live in harmony with nature...which means to live according to virtue because nature leads us to virtue

If you can read some of the pages in Gibbons decline and follow the Roman Emperor empire. You just see that comedists is just unimaginably bad.

Okay so notebook 11, 33 and 34.

Okay so this is no book 11, 33 he says it's crazy to look for figs and winter and it's no less crazy for someone to look for his child when it's no longer possible and then notebook 11, 34.

He says, Epititus used to say that when you kiss your child you should silently tell it tomorrow you will die but that's an inauspicious thing to say no he says it's not at all inauspicious but it expresses a natural process otherwise it would be inauspicious to talk of wheat being harvest harvested.

The idea being that Marcus is devastated by this loss and I would suspect that this both clouds his judgment and puts him in an utterly impossible impossible situation as a parent and leader.

And if you haven't read lives of the Stoics, we do a deep dive into Christ's Sippas there as well.

when I was riding lives of the stoics I got to look at the stoics from a different way not the stoics as people who wrote certain things or said certain things but what did the stoics do right who were they as people so Marx really says the impediment to action advances action it stands the way it becomes the way that's the obstacle is the way but Zeno when he suffers a shipwreck and loses everything it opens up this whole new path of his life instead of being defeated or despondent instead of breaking instead of giving up he turns to philosophy starts a new philosophy rebuilds his life step by step right that's him acting out that idea even if he never actually said that thing so we want to study the lives of the stoics not just the writings of the stoics and I think you know dipping into Marx really is an epictetus but also lesser known stoics like a grippiness or Zeno, Clientis, Cricypus, Musoni's Rufus who's epictetus is teacher like they give you a whole new way of looking and thinking about the stoics which is mostly in where did the stoics live up to what they said did they live up to what they believed where did they fall short of what they believed of what they said and how can we learn from both the inspiration and the cautionary tale element

We talk about him quite a bit in lives of the Stoics.

In lives of the Stoics I present him as the apostle Zeno being the prophet.

In today's episode I'm going to bring you Diogeny's Learitis' biography of Clientis and I'll let you listen to that. We had this excerpt read by Michael Reed, it does a great job and then if you want to dig in more on Clientis check out lives of the Stoics and enjoy it.

if you want to dig deeper into Zeno himself you can grab my book Lives of the Stoics which takes staggneys and many other sources I think it's a little more readable but this is just for listening today enjoy this and I'll be back next week with part two

well i thought that's so portia kato who i talked about in lives of the stokes is like everyone knows about Julius Caesar and they know that rudus assassinated Julius Caesar but it wasn't until i sat down to write that book that i was like oh wait his wife was the driving force of all of it and you're like that's how did this not come up

The more austere and disciplined stoics, agrippinus and thoracia, they did far better than the high living senica which you can read about in lives of the stoics.

If you want to read more about Cicero, you can check out his profile in lives of the Stoics.

As Ryan explains in Lives of the Stoics, these paradoxes are designed to question commonly held beliefs in order to promote reflection and discussion.

So Cicero is one of the most interesting writers about the Stoics as you know, not the greatest practitioner but if it were not for Cicero we would not have so much of the Stoic writings.

In 46 BC Cicero published the Stoic paradoxes dedicated to Marcus Brutus who himself had Stoic leanings.

In what was a more rhetorical exercise than a serious philosophical treatment, he explored six of the primary Stoic paradoxes.

And these are not paradoxes in the logical sense only that they flew in the face of common sense. And it's the counterintuitiveness of each of these ideas that the Stoics leaned on to catch people's attention.

Cicero loved noodling with the prompts that had been laid down by Xeno, Enclientes and Risto and all the early Stoics.

I talk a little bit about this in lives of the Stokes.

And then as if you've read my book Lives of the Stoics, Nero plays a large part in the life of Thracia.

as I was writing about Cicero in lives with the Stoic, I don't say that he's a Stoic. I say that he's a fellow traveler.

In 46 BC Cicero published the Stoic Paradoxes dedicated to Marcus Brutus who himself had strong Stoic leanings.

In what was a more rhetorical exercise than a serious philosophical treatment he explored six of the primary Stoic Paradoxes.

in lives of the stoics i put all the stoics their biographies in one place

As I detail in Marcus's chapter in Lives of the Stoics which is actually in the back of the new leather bound edition of meditations that we have in the Deoistoke store, the life of Marcus are really this one that teaches us how to live well and because he lived well Marcus's stories also one that teaches us how to go out well with grace, with strength, with empathy with the comfort from knowing that he lived a good life as a good man.

if you don't know Sennaka's life story it's pretty incredible

is that when you when you understand the history you realize a lot of these as you said a lot of these lines and meditations you understand that it's not just this throw away observation there's a there's a life experience behind it

He talks, he studied all different kinds of philosophical schools.

i have a whole chapter about her in lives of the stoics

you can read about the lives of the stoics that i was talking about in lives of the stoics

We study the lives of the people who went before us so we can learn easily what they learned with great difficulty, so we can pick up where they left off so we don't have to learn by trial and error.

As I write in the lives of the Stoic, when one of the first Stoic philosophers from Greece first lectured in Rome as part of a diplomatic mission in 155 BC, Cato the elder, Cato's great grandfather was horrified.

You can read about them in the lives of the stoics actually.

lives of the stoics I thought it was a fantastic book and gave me a great perspective on how many sort of philosophers stoics there were and sort of how they um trained and taught one another but what i'm struggling with is maybe it's the you know what we're just talking about translators is uh all of the the the the storytelling from generation to generation and then I guess now translated a translator i see it as a big spider web of opinions and uh i'm struggling with how do I define or distill all of that and uh think of uh okay this guy's opinion of marcuses meditations and there's this guy's opinions and then there's this guy's opinion uh do you have a framework or a methodology that could help me out

I talk about poor Shokato in Lives of the Stoics, one of my favorite people to write about.

There after what Poseidonius and early Stoic told the great Roman general Pompey, as I talk about in lives of the Stoics, their goal is to be best, not the best, but best.

The purpose of my book, The Lives of the Stoics, for instance, was not just hero worship, but also sober assessment.

The Stoics got a lot wrong. This was bad for them and the victims of their injustices and failures. But centuries later it is good for us because we can learn as much about what not to do from the Stoics as we can learn what to do.

I do think you'll like lives of the Stoics. It was a really difficult book to do. A lot of research went into it. The idea is not just what the Stoics said but what did they do? How did they live these ideas? What can we learn from their lives?

Lives of the Stoics

on lives of the stokes and stillness

I'm really proud of the chapter about Musonius' rufus in lives of the Stoics Musonius is the mentor and philosophy teacher of Epictetus who in turn influences Marcus Aurelius and was also the philosophy teacher of Rousticus, we think who was Marcus Aurelius' philosophy teacher.

I really think you'll like the book Lies of the Stoics.

They debuted at number one on the National Besseler List.

Lies of the Stoics, the art of living from Xenonia Marks Aurelius.

And if you want to know more about Agrippinus I think it's one of the most fascinating Stoics there are. We profile him in the new book, Lives of the Stoics, The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, which is out now. People are loving it.

You know I tell this story at greater length in lives of the Stoics so I'll read you a chunk of that as well just because it's one of my favorite stories in all of Stoicism and I think it's just so fitting.

So I actually have a book coming out in September that's called Lives of the Stoics that's sort of a set of biographies of all the Stoic figures.

They even have my newest book, Lives of the Stoics, so if you've been meaning to check that out you can do that too.

how did Marcus' ideology, how did his, you know, sort of inherent conservatism keep him from questioning what was wrong?

But what I found so fascinating about them, you know, for people who don't have read lives of the Stoics, they're the two Stoic tutors slash teachers of the young future emperor Octavian.

And it's really a great book because before I'd written Lives of the Stoics, there really weren't that many biographies of the actual stoics, particularly some of these lesser known stoics.

Me, the author of The Daily Stoic, Lives of the Stoic, and the narrator of this podcast that I'm grateful you listen to, I am going to be the live instructor of this course in five live video sessions, which we're calling office hours.

And then we talk about Athena Doris and his ghost story, Athena Doris is a stoic. I talk about in my book, Lives of the Stoics.

My book, Lies of the Stoics, The Art of Living from Xeno to Marcus Cerilis is on sale right now for $1.99. Everywhere e-books are sold.

Lies of the Stoics is modeled off Plutarch. It contains 26 biographies of the most important Stoics from history. I'm really proud of it.

As far as I understand, it's the only book that has all the Stoics in one place focusing on what they did, not just what they said.

If you're looking for some great men and women to study, this is the book.

It's $1.99 but only for a couple days. So check out Lies of the Stoics.

the as well as the ego is the enemy and now the lives of the Stoics, you know, so I'm a big fan.

My last book, Lives of the Stokes, when it came out, I was just in the middle of winding down the next book and then I'm in the middle of the next one now.

In my most recent book, Lives of the Stokes, I do sort of the Bluetark rendering of the sort of Portia and Brutus arguing over, you know, the scene where she stabs herself in the leg to prove her worth to Brutus. And then and then I do the Shakespeare version and you're just like, oh, man, you you were definitely a thief, but you were so good that you that you surpassed the person you stole from.

if you actually look at the Stoics which we did in the new book, Lives of the Stoics, The Art of Living from Xenon and Marcus Reales, literally every single Stoic was political if not an actual politician.

And if you want to hear more about the story of Mussonius Rufus, it's really a fascinating one. There's a whole chapter about him in the new book, Lives of the Stoics, the art of living from Zeno to Mark's Reliefs.

And Cal has a new podcast which you should check out. And he and I did an interview about my most recent book, Lives of the Stoics, which I suggest you check out.

If you want more in Marcus, we have a whole chapter about him in the lives of the stoics book.

So I'm so excited about the new book lies of the stoics, the art of living from Zinnard and Marcus Reelius.

Lies of the stoics, the art of living from Zinnard to Marcus Reelius by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Handsome and available anywhere books are sold.

In all my other books I've been talking about the ideas, the teachings of stoicism. But this is the first time the lives of the stoics have been documented all in one place. Literally ever in history, it's how did these men and women apply the ideas of stoicism to the challenges of their lives and of their times.

I gave this talk the day the book came out, which is always a weird day.

But one of the things I say in the intro is just what a fascinating spectrum of society that the stoics cover over roughly 500 years of Greek and Roman history.

And so across these stations and backgrounds and genders and experiences, you have them all sort of struggling with the same difficulties of life.

This is my copy of meditations here and it's incredible to think that that I am reading the words that Marcus Aurelius wrote to himself 2000 plus years ago and there is real and as raw and as personal as they were the day he put them down.

It's doing great. Just getting the first week sales numbers in now and you know, it's good. I'm excited. I appreciate all the support.