The Past Is Looking Brighter All The Time

Seneca talked about how we need to ‘choose ourselves a Cato,’ a standard to measure ourselves against. 📚 Learn more about Cato in Lives of the Stoics https://store.dailystoic.com/products/lives-of-the-stoics-signed-editionby Ryan Holiday https://store.dailystoic.com/products/lives-of-the-stoics-signed-edition 🎟️https://www.dailystoiclive.com/DAILY STOIC LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/| Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you https://www.dailystoiclive.com/! Grab tickets here https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ 🎙️AD-FREE https://dailystoic.supercast.com/| Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing toThe Daily Stoic Premium https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content:https://dailystoic.supercast.com/ ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email athttps://dailystoic.com/dailyemail -- Stop online threats before they become real-world attacks. Visit ironwall.com/DAILYSTOIC and request a free Risk Assessment to see exactly how exposed your executives are. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  So I have a bunch of traveling I'm doing through the end of the year on Daily Stoic Live Tour. I just got back from San Diego. I like to stay in the places that I'm staying. I like to book places on Airbnb so I can be like a local. I not only do some of my best writing, but I learn about things that I wouldn't have known otherwise. When I was just in San Diego, I took a walk along the water. I bumped into someone who recognized me and they told me about their favorite local bookstore, which was like two blocks from where I was staying. And I never would have known about it if it wasn't for that encounter. It was cool to me to think that I have helped facilitate that experience for many, many people coming to Austin over the years. The first house that I bought in Austin, when my wife and I first moved here, we would list it on Airbnb and it helped me make the transition from my corporate life to being a full-time writer.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  So if you're gonna be away, you should maybe think about listing your place on Airbnb. It can be a great way to earn extra cash while you travel, can offset the cost of your trip, or maybe even go towards whatever you're doing next. If you've got travel coming up, check out Airbnb. Your home might be worth more than you think and you can find out how much at Airbnb.com/host. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues—courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom—into the real world.

• 1:22Speaker 00

  The past is looking brighter all the time. There was once a time when rulers were philosophers. There was a time when the emperor of Rome sold the palace furnishings to pay down the empire's debts. There was a time when a politician like Cato would rather die than submit to Caesar. There was a time when men like Agrippinus or Rutilius would choose exile over going along with corruption. A time when Stoics like Helvidius spoke truth to power regardless of the consequences. It was long ago, but it was real, the glory that was Rome, that was classical Greece. And although we have inherited that legacy, it's not one that's lived up to.

• 2:04Speaker 00

  "If meditation is antiquity," the Soviet dissident Joseph Brodsky once said, "then it is we who are the ruins." But that example still shines for us. That's what examples are for, after all. The life of Cato, the life of Epictetus, the lives of Helvidius and Zeno are there to inspire us, to call us to our own great deeds. Indeed, Seneca talked about how we need to choose ourselves a Cato, a standard to measure ourselves against. The point is not to wish that we lived then, but to ask what their example demands of us now.

• 2:51Speaker 00

  We were looking to spruce up our, our front porch. The weather's finally getting better and we wanted to spend some time hanging out outside with the kids. So we got these awesome hammocks and we actually got them from today's sponsor, Wayfair. If you drove by our, our house, you'd see us out there with our kids reading. We've got this new kitten all hanging out in the hammocks. It's been awesome. And that's because on Wayfair, you'll find quality materials that stand up to real life. They sell furniture and decor that's built to last. And when you shop with Wayfair Verified, it's your shortcut to durable pieces that are hand-vetted by product specialists using their 10-point quality inspection. They've got thousands of products at every style and budget, whether you're simply replacing an appliance or transforming your home from top to bottom this holiday season.

• 3:33Speaker 00

  Wayfair's got great reviews as well, so you can find more than 20 million verified five-star reviews from real shoppers. Find pieces made for real life and get even more value with Wayfair Rewards. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5% back on every purchase. Head over to wayfair.com to shop all things home, W A Y F A I R dot com.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 4:00Speaker 02

  When your workday is constantly disrupted, your workflow isn't flowing. It's come to a grinding halt. You don't need an assistant, you need superpowers. Superhuman Go, from the makers of Grammarly, is built for how you actually work. No new tabs, no switching apps, no losing your place. Go handles busy work like finding documents or summarizing email threads, so you can focus on the work only you can do. Try Superhuman Go, from the makers of Grammarly. Find out more at superhuman.com.

• 4:36Speaker 00

  Every few generations, or perhaps every few centuries, a man is born with an iron constitution that consists of harder stuff than even his hardiest peers. These are the figures who come to us as myths and legends. "My God," we think, "how did they do it? Where did that strength come from? Will we ever see a person like that again?" Marcus Porcius Cato was one of these men. Even in his own time, it was a common expression, "we can't all be Catos." This superiority was almost in his blood. He was born in 95 B.C. to a family that, despite its early Plebeian origins,

• 5:21Speaker 00

  was by his birth firmly entrenched in Rome's aristocracy. His great-grandfather, Cato the Elder, began his military career as a military tribune and rose through the ranks as quester, edile, and praetor, all the way to consul in 195 B.C., all the while earning a fortune in agriculture and making his name fighting for the ancestral customs, the mos maiorum, against the modernizing influences of an ascendant empire. Ironically, the one influence most important to Cato that his great-grandfather fought most stridently against with his conservative zeal was philosophy.

• 6:03Speaker 00

  It was he, after all, who wanted to throw the Athenian philosophers from Diogenes's diplomatic mission out of Rome back in 155 B.C. How perfect it is that his great-grandson, known as Cato the Younger, would become a famous philosopher, though we should note that Cato the Younger was no Carneades or even Chrysippus. There would be no clever dialectics for him. He was cut from a different cloth than even a genius like Posidonius. Nearly every Stoic before and after was in part famous for what they said and wrote. Alone among them, Cato would achieve towering fame, not for his words, but for what he did and for who he was.

• 6:46Speaker 00

  It was only on the pages of his life that he laid down his beliefs as a monument for all time, earning fame greater than any of his ancestors or philosophical influences. Not that you would have expected it at first. As with Cleianthe's before him and Winston Churchill nearly 2,000 years after, Cato's early school days were underwhelming. His tutor, Sarpedon, found him obedient and diligent, but thought he was sluggish of comprehension and slow. There were flashes of brilliance. What Cato did understand stuck in his mind like it had been carved into stone. He was disruptive, not behaviorally.

• 7:28Speaker 00

  One struggles to imagine this disciplined boy ever acting out. But with his imperious and intense demeanor, he demanded an explanation for every task that was assigned to him. And luckily, his tutor chose to encourage this commitment to logic rather than to beat it out of his young charge. Physical force would have never worked on Cato anyway. There is a story about a powerful soldier visiting Cato's home to argue over some citizenship issue during his childhood. When the determined soldier asked Cato to take his cause up with his uncle, who was serving as a guardian as well as tribune of the plebes, Cato ignored him. The soldier, disliking Cato's lack of deference, attempted to frighten him.

• 8:11Speaker 00

  Cato, only four years old, stared back, unmoved. The next thing he knew, the soldier was holding him by the feet over a balcony. Cato remained not only unafraid, but wordless and unblinking. And the soldier, realizing that he had been beaten, set the boy down, saying that if Rome was filled with such men, he'd never convince anyone. It was the first of a lifetime of battles of political will for Cato, and also a preview of the lengths his frustrated opponents would be forced to go if they ever were to best him. It was clear that beneath this determination, there was also an intense, almost radical commitment to justice and liberty.

• 8:54Speaker 00

  He did not stand for bullying, even in childhood games, and would step in to defend younger boys from older ones. Once, after visiting the house of Sulla, Cato asked his tutor why so many people were there paying homage and offering favors. Was Sulla really this popular? Sarpedon explained that Sulla received these honors not because he was loved, but because he was feared. "Why then didn't you give me a sword?" Cato said, "so I could free my country from slavery." It was likely this intensity and a temper that Plutarch described as inexorable that led Sarpedon to introduce Cato to Stoicism, hoping that it would help the young boy to channel his rage and his righteousness properly.

• 9:38Speaker 00

  Centuries later, inspired by and in fact cribbing from a play about Cato, George Washington would speak often of the work required to view the intrigues of politics and the difficulties of life in the calm light of mild philosophy. Washington, born with the same fiery temper, knew the importance of subsuming his passions beneath a firm constitution.

• 10:03Speaker 00

  Most strong-willed leaders have a temper. It's the truly great ones who manage to conquer it with the same courage and control that they deal with all of life's obstacles. Cato would study under Antipater of Tirae, who taught him the basics of Stoicism. But unlike many Stoics of his time, the young Cato studied not only philosophy, but also oratory. Rutilius Rufus had been quiet in his own defense that would never be Cato's way. Still, he did his great-grandfather proud with his circumspection and bluntness. "I begin to speak," Cato once explained, "only when I'm certain what I'll say isn't better left unsaid."

• 10:45Speaker 00

  When Cato did choose to break his silence, he was compelling. "Cato practiced the kind of public speech capable of moving the masses," Plutarch tells us. "The rage and fury that had frightened Sarpedon was channeled through his training in Stoic philosophy and rhetoric into a fierce advocacy for justice that would stand out as a defining feature of his personal and political character." As Plutarch put it, "Above all, he pursued the form of goodness which consists in rigid justice that will not bend to clemency or favor." Armed with a resolute or fearless character, Stoic ethical principles, and a powerful proficiency in public speaking, Cato would become a formidable political figure and

• 11:30Speaker 00

  a rare one in that all knew his vote could never be bought. But before he made his name as a politician, Cato was a soldier. In 72 B.C., he volunteered for service in the Third Servile War against Spartacus. It would have been unconscionable to let someone else serve in his place. To Cato, it was the actions one took, the sacrifices one was willing to make, especially at arms defending one's country, that made you a philosopher. And so in that war, as in the battles he fought in, he was fearless and committed, as he believed every citizen was obligated to be. Fresh from this crucible, he was ready in 68 B.C., at age 27, to stand for military

• 12:13Speaker 00

  tribune, the same position his father had served in before him. In fact, the Basilica Portia, the public forum where the tribunes conducted their business, was named after its builder, his great-grandfather. Pregnant with respect for this legacy and always deeply committed to what he felt was proper, Cato would be the only candidate who actually adhered to the canvassing restrictions in campaign laws. Corruption may have been endemic to Rome, but Cato was never one to buy the argument that everyone else was doing it. It was a strategy that won him respect. At the very least, it made him stand out. As Plutarch recounts, "The harshness of his sentiments and the mingling of his character

• 12:56Speaker 00

  with them gave their austerity a smiling graciousness that won men's hearts." That included the troops he led over the next three years as his military service took him across the empire, exposing him to the provinces. Some thought visits to these exotic locations might soften the man or his iron grip on himself, but they were mistaken. And this in part is why he was so well-liked, because he carried himself like a common soldier. War, although it began as a grand adventure, would soon break Cato's heart. In 67 B.C., a letter brought word that his beloved brother, Capio, was ill. Cato and Capio had always been different.

• 13:38Speaker 00

  Capio favoring luxuries and perfumes that Cato would have never allowed himself. But sometimes, when it's your brother, you look the other way. Cato did more than that. He idolized Capio, and hearing that he was near death, rushed to his side, braving wild and dangerous seas that nearly killed him, in a tiny boat with the only captain he could convince to take him. Life is not fair, and it cares little for our feelings and our plans. Cato had seen this wisdom written countless ways in the books of the philosophy he loved, but he landed in Thrace after a perilous journey to discover that he had missed by hours his brother's death. It was a crushing blow, and Cato mourned almost without restraint.

• 14:23Speaker 00

  There are times, his biographers Jimmy Sony and Rob Goodman would write of Cato at his brother's deathbed, "When the mask will slip, when our resolve will fail, when our attachments will get the better of this." Yet much closer to Cato's time, Plutarch believed that those who found inconsistency in Cato's grief missed how much tenderness and affection was mingled in with the man's inflexibility and firmness. Historians too seem to have overlooked how the loss of his parents and then his cherished brother, without an opportunity to say goodbye, might have hardened an already hard man. Certainly, it did not soften his incorruptibility and commitment to his ideals. Even as Cato grieved, he politely declined expensive gifts that friends sent for the

• 15:08Speaker 00

  funeral rites and repaid out of his own pocket what others sent in the form of incense and ornaments. The inheritance went to Capio's daughter without a penny deducted for funeral costs. Cato covered the expenses himself. Emerging from his grief, Cato was already at age 30, firm and without illusions, to stand for the office of Cester. It was his first entrance into the Senate, and more importantly, a larger platform for his intractable dedication to eliminating corruption and returning Rome to its core values. He used his term to overhaul the treasury, ousting corrupt clerks and scribes, and seeking to redress the ill-gotten gains under sullen prescriptions and to track down deadbeat debtors.

• 15:53Speaker 00

  He was the first to show up for work each morning and the last to leave, and seemed to relish saying no to the pet projects of politicians, to needless diversions, and to state-funded luxuries. His commitment was so legendary that it became almost political cover for his less stringent colleagues. Plutarch tells us, "It's impossible," shrugging politicians would tell their constituents lobbying for handouts. "Cato will not consent." Did this strictness create enemies? Yes, it was inevitable. Like Cicero, he was at odds with Catalina and other powerful figures vying for control in an increasingly kleptocratic state. Biographers tell us that powerful people were hostile to Cato nearly all his life

• 16:38Speaker 00

  because his very essence seemed to shame them. Even when Cicero aligned with Cato, there was a distinction, for there was never a sense that Cato was benefiting from these reforms, or that he was quietly accumulating his own wealth through them. In fact, despite his public positions and his wealthy family, Cato often looked like he had no money at all. He rejected the extravagant, brilliant-colored purple robes that were fashionable in the Senate and wore only a plain, ordinary dark robe. He never put on perfume. He walked Rome's streets barefoot and wore nothing under his toga. While his friends rode horses, he declined and enjoyed walking alongside them. He never left Rome while the Senate was in session.

• 17:22Speaker 00

  He threw no lavish parties and declined to gorge himself at feasts, and was strict about reserving the choicest portions for others. He lent his friends money without interest. He declined armed guards or an entourage, and in the army, he slept in the trenches with his troops. He was a man, Cicero would say, "who acted as if he lived in Plato's Republic, not among the dregs of Romulus." Cato's iron constitution may have been partly given to him at birth, but it's unquestionable that his choices forged additional armor plating and prepared him for the ordeals he was to face in the future. Plutarch says that Cato was accustomeding himself to be ashamed only of what was really

• 18:06Speaker 00

  shameful and to ignore men's low opinion of other things. "We naturally care what people think of us. We don't want to seem too different, so we acquire the same tastes as everyone else. We accept what the crowd does, so the crowd will accept us. But in doing this, we weaken ourselves. We compromise, often without knowing it. We allow ourselves to be bought without even the benefit of getting paid for it." Of all the Stoics, it was Cato who most actively practiced Aristotle's ideas about being indifferent to everything but virtue. Public opinion, keeping up with appearances, his brand. Cato could have lived in great luxury, but he chose the Spartan life. And while there might have been a sliver of haughtiness to his demeanor, we are also

• 18:51Speaker 00

  told that his walks through the streets of Rome were filled with polite salutes to everyone he met and many unsolicited offers to help those in need. Reputation didn't matter; doing right did. 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 Porches. Stoic Pocile.