1: Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius lived a hard, difficult life. 

“He was not strong in body,” the Roman historian Dio Cassius writes, “and was involved in a multitude of troubles throughout practically his entire reign.”

Marcus was surrounded by death and dying. 

He lost his father when he was three. In 149 AD, when he was twenty-eight, “he lost newborn twin boys,” Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman … continue reading

1: The year was 161 AD. Marcus Aurelius‘s adoptive father, Antoninus Pius, died, and Marcus was named Emperor of Rome, a position only fifteen people had ever held.

What was his first action as Emperor? 

One hundred eighty-two years earlier, when Augustus became Emperor, he was advised to “get rid of young Caesarion, the son of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra,” Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman write in … continue reading