A Guide to the Good Life : The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (6 page)

If it seems implausible that ancient philosophers would “bend” philosophical doctrines in an attempt to attract students, we should remember that this is precisely how many ancient schools of philosophy got started. For example, when Potamo of Alexandria decided to start a school of philosophy, he had a stroke of marketing genius: He decided that the best way to draw students was to cherry-pick from the philosophical doctrines of competing schools.
²⁵
Those who joined his so-called Eclectic school could, he argued, gain the best that each of the competing schools had to offer. More to the point, we should remember that Zeno himself, to concoct Greek Stoicism, bent and blended the doctrines of (at least) three different philosophical schools: the Cynics, the Megarians, and the Academy.

By highlighting tranquility in their philosophy, the Stoics not only made it more attractive to ancient Romans but made it, I think, more attractive to modern individuals as well. It is unusual, after all, for modern individuals to have an interest in becoming more virtuous, in the ancient sense of the word. (We probably
should be
interested in becoming more virtuous, but the brutal truth of the matter is that most of us aren’t.) Thus, tell someone that you possess and are willing to share with him an ancient strategy for attaining virtue, and you will likely be met with a yawn. Tell him that you possess and are willing to share an ancient strategy for attaining tranquility, though, and his ears are likely to perk up; in most cases, people don’t need to be convinced of the value of tranquility. Indeed, if asked, he might go on at length about how his life has been blighted by tranquility-disrupting negative emotions.

It is for this reason that in the following pages I focus my attention on the Roman rather than the Greek Stoics, and it is for this reason that the primary focus of my examination of the Roman Stoics is not their advice on how to attain virtue but their advice on how to attain and maintain tranquility. Having said this, I should add that readers who follow Roman Stoic advice on attaining tranquility might thereby attain virtue as well. Should this happen, so much the better!

T
HE MOST IMPORTANT
of the Roman Stoics—and the Stoics from whom, I think, modern individuals have the most to gain—were Seneca, Musonius Rufus, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius.
¹
The contributions these four made to Roman Stoicism were nicely complementary. Seneca was the best writer of the bunch, and his essays and letters to Lucilius form a quite accessible introduction to Roman Stoicism. Musonius is notable for his pragmatism: He offered detailed advice on how practicing Stoics should eat, what they should wear, how they should behave toward their parents, and even how they should conduct their sex life. Epictetus’s specialty was analysis: He explained, among other things, why practicing Stoicism can bring us tranquility. Finally, in Marcus’s
Meditations
, written as a kind of diary, we are privy to the thoughts of a practicing Stoic: We watch as he searches for Stoic solutions to the problems of daily life as well as the problems he encountered as emperor of Rome.

L
UCIUS
A
NNAEUS
S
ENECA
, also known as Seneca the Younger, was born sometime between 4 and 1
BC
in Corduba, Spain. Although we have more of his philosophical writings than we
have of any other Stoic, he wasn’t the most prolific of the Stoics. (Chrysippus was remarkably prolific, but his works have not survived.) Nor was he particularly original. Nevertheless, his Stoic writings are quite wonderful. His essays and letters are full of insight into the human condition. In these writings, Seneca talks about the things that typically make people unhappy—such as grief, anger, old age, and social anxieties—and about what we can do to make our life not just tolerable but joyful.

Seneca, like the other Roman Stoics I will discuss, was not stoically resigned to life; he was instead an active participant in it. And like these other Stoics, he was a complex individual. Indeed, even if Seneca had never written a word of philosophy, he would have made it into the history books for three other reasons. He would be remembered as a successful playwright. He would be remembered for his financial undertakings: He appears to have been a prototypical investment banker who became enormously wealthy in large part because of his financial acumen. And finally, he would be remembered for the role he played in the politics of first-century Rome; besides being a senator, he was a tutor and subsequently a principal advisor to Emperor Nero.

Seneca’s involvement with the imperial court got him into trouble. When Claudius became emperor, he condemned Seneca to death for (allegedly) committing adultery with Claudius’s niece Julia Livilla. The sentence was commuted to banishment and confiscation of all property, and so in the year 41, Seneca, then in his forties, was sent off to the “barren and thorny rock” that we call Corsica.
²
During this time, he read, wrote, made a study of the island—and presumably practiced his Stoicism.

In 49, Agrippina married Claudius and talked him into recalling Seneca from banishment so he could act as tutor for her son Nero, who was then eleven or twelve. Thus it was that after eight years of banishment, Seneca returned to Rome. Again ensconced in Roman society, he became, we are told, “the most renowned citizen of his time: the greatest living writer in prose and verse, the greatest name in literature since the golden age at the beginning of the century, and the favorite of the imperious empress.”
³
Seneca was as surprised as anyone by his success in life: “Is it I,” he asked, “born in the station of a simple knight and a provincial, who am numbered with the magnates of the realm?”
⁴

When Nero became emperor, Seneca was promoted to the job of counselor. Indeed, he and Sextus Afranius Burrus, the prefect of the Praetorian guard, became Nero’s inner circle. At first, Seneca and Burrus did a good job of keeping Nero’s licentious tendencies in check, and the Roman empire enjoyed five years of good government. Seneca also flourished during this period: He became incredibly wealthy. This wealth has given rise to the charge that Seneca was a hypocrite, that he advocated Stoic restraint while living a life of extreme affluence. Readers need to keep in mind, though, that unlike Cynicism, Stoicism does not require its adherents to adopt an ascetic lifestyle. To the contrary, the Stoics thought there is nothing wrong with enjoying the good things life has to offer, as long as we are careful in the manner in which we enjoy them. In particular, we must be ready to give up the good things without regret if our circumstances should change.

After the death of Agrippina in 59—Nero had her killed—Nero began to chafe at the guidance of Seneca and Burrus. In 62, Burrus died, either from illness or as the result of being poisoned. Seneca realized that his days at court were numbered, and he attempted to retire from politics, pleading ill health and old age. Nero finally agreed to let him retire, but the retirement was short-lived. The counselors who replaced Seneca convinced Nero that Seneca had been involved in a conspiracy against him, and in 65, Nero ordered Seneca’s death.

When the friends who were present at his execution wept over his fate, Seneca chastised them. What, he asked, had become of their Stoicism? He then embraced his wife. The arteries in his arms were slit, but because of age and infirmity, he bled slowly, so the arteries of his legs and knees were also severed. Still he did not die. He asked a friend to bring poison, which he drank but without fatal consequences. He was then carried into a bath, the steam of which suffocated him.
⁵

S
ENECA’S ESSAY
“On the Happy Life” was written for his elder brother Gallio—the same Gallio, by the way, as is mentioned in Acts 18:12–16 of the New Testament for his refusal to try St. Paul in Corinth. In this essay, Seneca explains how best to pursue tranquility. Basically, we need to use our reasoning ability to drive away “all that excites or affrights us.” If we can do this, there will ensue “unbroken tranquility and enduring freedom,” and we will experience “a boundless joy that is firm and unalterable.” Indeed, he claims (as we have seen) that someone who practices Stoic principles “must, whether he wills or not, necessarily be attended by
constant cheerfulness and a joy that is deep and issues from deep within, since he finds delight in his own resources, and desires no joys greater than his inner joys.” Furthermore, compared to these joys, pleasures of the flesh are “paltry and trivial and fleeting.”
⁶

Elsewhere, we find Seneca telling his friend Lucilius that if he wishes to practice Stoicism, he will have to make it his business to “learn how to feel joy.” He adds that one of the reasons he wants Lucilius to practice Stoicism is because he does not wish Lucilius “ever to be deprived of gladness.”
⁷
Those who are accustomed to thinking of the Stoics as a glum bunch might be surprised by such comments, but these and other remarks make it clear that the phrase “joyful Stoic” is not an oxymoron.
⁸

G
AIUS
M
USONIUS
R
UFUS
, the least well-known of the four great Roman Stoics, was born in around 30
AD
. Because of his family’s standing, Musonius could have gone far in politics, but instead he started a school of philosophy. We know little about Musonius in part because he, like Socrates, didn’t bother to write down his philosophical thoughts. Fortunately, Musonius had a pupil, Lucius, who took notes during lectures. In these notes, Lucius often begins by talking about what “he,” Musonius, said in response to some question. It therefore seems likely that the lectures Musonius gave in his school weren’t monologues; rather, he carried on a two-way Socratic conversation with his students. It is also likely that Musonius used these conversations both to instruct his students and to assess their philosophical progress.

Musonius was at the height of his fame and influence at the time of Emperor Nero. He apparently aligned himself with Nero’s enemies—or rather, with people Nero took to be enemies. Nero had him imprisoned and subsequently banished him. (According to Tacitus, the real reason Nero banished Musonius was his envy of Musonius’s fame as a philosopher.)
⁹

Musonius’s banishment was particularly brutal, as banishments go. In 65
AD
, he was sent to the island of Gyara (or Gyaros) in the Cyclades, a group of islands in the Aegean Sea southeast of Greece. The island was desolate, bleak, rocky, and nearly waterless. The Greek geographer and historian Strabo describes it as “worthless,”
¹⁰
and Seneca mentions it in his list of the worst places on which to be exiled.
¹¹
(This island, interestingly, was still being used as a place of banishment in the twentieth century; it is where the Greek generals sent their political opponents in the early 1970s.)
¹²

On being exiled, though, Musonius did not fall into despair. He instead took an interest in Gyara and its inhabitants, mostly fishermen. He soon discovered a spring on the island and thereby made it more habitable. And whatever loneliness he might have experienced there was relieved by an influx of philosophical disciples.

After Nero’s death, Musonius returned to Rome. Not long thereafter, Emperor Vespasian banished all philosophers from Rome but seems to have exempted Musonius.
¹³
Later, though, Musonius was again exiled. He died in around 100
AD
.

A
CCORDING TO
M
USONIUS
, we should study philosophy, since how otherwise could we hope to live well?
¹⁴
Furthermore, he
says that studying philosophy should affect us personally and profoundly; indeed, when a philosopher lectures, his words should make those in his audience shudder and feel ashamed, and when he is done speaking, they should, rather than applauding him, have been reduced to silence.
¹⁵
According to Epictetus, Musonius himself apparently possessed the ability to reduce his audiences to silence, for when he spoke, his listeners felt as if he had discovered and laid before them those traits of which they were secretly ashamed.
¹⁶

Musonius also thought the practice of philosophy required one not to withdraw from the world, as the Epicureans advised, but to be a vigorous participant in public affairs. Musonius therefore taught his students how to retain their Stoic tranquility while participating.

Besides thinking that philosophy should be practical, Musonius thought the study of philosophy should be universal. Indeed, he argued that both women and men “have received from the gods the same reasoning power.” Consequently, women, like men, can benefit from education and the study of philosophy.
¹⁷
Because he held these views when he did, Musonius has been applauded by modern feminists.

E
PICTETUS, THE MOST FAMOUS
of Musonius’s students, was born into slavery sometime between 50 and 60
AD
. He was subsequently acquired by Epaphroditus, secretary to Emperor Nero and later to Domitian. This must have given Epictetus exposure to the imperial court.
¹⁸
It also meant that Epictetus, although a slave, was a “white-collar” slave. Romans valued those slaves who showed signs of intelligence and initiative.
They trained them so they could make the best use of their gifts, and they subsequently put their slaves to work as teachers, counselors, and administrators.

Epictetus appears to have developed an interest in philosophy early in life. As a youth, we are told, he went around asking people whether their souls were healthy. If they ignored him, he persisted in questioning them until they threatened to beat him.
¹⁹
This behavior, to be sure, suggests that Epictetus had initially been drawn to Cynicism rather than Stoicism; the Cynics, as we have seen, proselytized in a manner that the Stoics did not. Even in his mature philosophy, we can find evidence of his respect for the Cynics.