The Daily Stoic - The Life of Musonius Rufus the Unbreakable

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

Get to know Musonius Rufus, the resilient Stoic philosopher and teacher of Epictetus, in today's episode. Learn how he exemplified Stoic principles when faced with multiple exiles, adversities and in times of tyranny and hardship. The Daily Stoic New Year, New You Challenge is 3 weeks of ALL-NEW, actionable challenges, presented in an email per day, built around the best, most timeless wisdom in Stoic philosophy, to help you create a better life, and a new you in 2025. Why 3 weeks? Because it takes human beings 21 days to build new habits and skills, to create the muscle memory of making beautiful choices each and every day.Head over to dailystoic.com/challenge today to sign up.📕 Pick up a copy of Lives of the Stoics by Ryan Holiday | https://store.dailystoic.com/🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us:  Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to the daily Stoic early and ad free right now. Just join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. We've got a bit of a commute now with the kids and their new school. And so one of the things we've been doing as a family is listening to audiobooks in the car. Instead of having that be dead time, we want to use it to have a live time. We really want to help their imagination soar. And listening to Audible helps you do precisely that. Whether you listen to short stories,

self-development, fantasy, expert advice, really any genre that you love, maybe you're into stoicism. And there's some books there that I might recommend by this one guy named Ryan. Audible has the best selection of audio books without exception and exclusive Audible originals all in one easy app.

And as an Audible member, you choose one title a month to keep from their entire catalog. By the way, you can grab Right Thing right now on Audible. You can sign up right now for a free 30 day Audible trial and try your first audiobook for free. You'll get Right Thing right now totally for free. Visit audible.ca to sign up. 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, audiobooks that we like here or 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. Hey, it's Ryan. Welcome to another weekend episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. Almost said Daily Dad there, but no, this is the Daily Stoic podcast. Thank you for listening. We know that the philosopher who influences Marcus Aurelius the most is Epictetus.

It's kind of crazy. Like how does a slave become the favorite philosopher of a Roman emperor? And they just barely miss crossing paths with each other. Their lives briefly overlap. But as far as we know, Mark Shulis never meets Epictetus. But I think this brings up the question,

how does Epictetus become a great philosopher? Where does he learn it? Who's his teacher, right? Who's your favorite rapper's favorite rapper? If Epictetus is your favorite philosopher's favorite philosopher, who is his favorite philosopher? And the answer to that is Musonius Rufus. Musonius Rufus is Epictetus' philosophy teacher,

a fascinating guy. In Lives of the Stoics, I call him Musonius Rufus, the unbreakable, because he's exiled. Not once, not twice, but three times and potentially four times. The sources are unclear. So this guy is rattled by life, subjected to an unimaginable amount of stress and strain. And in that sense, he's someone we ought to learn from and understand. He's a philosopher, but also a doer. And I was telling you, I just gave a talk at the White House. And one of the things that I got asked in the Q&A, I'll probably bring in that Q&A at some point, one of the things they asked was like, the Stoics have a lot to teach us about exile,

you know, when we're driven into the political wilderness. What do we do? How do we comport ourselves? And one of the stories I told them was the story of Musonius Rufus, which comes up in Lives of the Stoics, which is what I am bringing you now. I'm bringing you Musonius Rufus' chapter from the audiobook of Lives of the Stoics. And he's just a Stoic you gotta know, because he's a fascinating guy whose life was not just filled with adversity, but filled with conquering that adversity and demonstrating what a Stoic ought to do in the face of tyranny and difficulty and pain and heartbreak

and how we still have to do our jobs. And I just didn't know really anything about Mussoni's Truth is before I wrote Lives of the Stoics. And I emerged from writing that book where he emerged for me as one of my favorite Stoics. As a result, I hope you will agree. If you haven't listened to Lives of the Stoics, you can grab the audio book on Audible.

You can grab a signed copy of Lives of the Stoics at store.dailystoic.com. And a reminder, thinking about challenging times that lay ahead. How do you prepare for 2025? Well, the New Year, New You Challenge that we're doing at Daily Stoic, I think is a great way to do that.

It's 21 days of Stoic inspired challenges, three live Q and A's with me, private community, a bunch of awesome stuff. Just a couple days left to sign up. You've already been procrastinating or ignoring me talking about it. Well, maybe you should just not do that and just sign up. Dailystoic.com slash challenge.

I would love to see you in there. I'm just putting the final touches on it now and I can't wait to get started. New year, new you. Rain in 2025 with some stoic inspired challenges at DailyStoic.com slash challenge. Musonius Rufus the Unbreakable, born between 20 and 30 AD, died 101 AD. Origin Volcini Eituria Cato may have been Rome's iron man, but in the end he was challenged by only one emperor. Thrasia was utterly fearless, but his friend Gaius Musonius Rufus was also unafraid and, as it happens, endured a life so challenging as to make Thrasya's ordeal under Nero seem

fun. Born a member of the equestrian class in Volsini Eteria during the reign of Tiberius, Musonius Rufus quickly made his reputation as a philosopher and as a teacher. Even in a time and after a long history of brilliant Stoics, Musonius was considered above the rest. Among his contemporaries he was the Roman Socrates, a man of wisdom, courage, self-control, and a narrow deep commitment to what was right. It was fame that transcended his

times and we find Musonius mentioned admiringly by everyone from the Christians like Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria to Marcus Aurelius. But unlike Seneca and Cicero who relished their places at the top of the heap of Roman society, Musonius was a far more humble figure. He was not born to the senatorial rank or to great wealth. He did not marry into a well-connected family. He did not seek out fame or power. Nor, it seems, did he think these things were particularly important. He believed that praise and applause were wastes of time for both the audience and the philosopher.

When a philosopher, he said, is exhorting and persuading, rebuking, or discussing some aspect of philosophy, if the audience pour forth trite and commonplace words of praise in their enthusiasm and unrestraint, if they even shout, if they gesticulate, if they are moved and aroused and swayed by the charm of his words, by the rhythm of his phrases, and by certain rhetorical repetitions, then you may know that both the speaker and his audience are wasting their time, and that they are not hearing a philosopher speaking, but a flute player performing. To Mussonius, the sign of a successful philosopher was not the loud cheering of supporters. It was silence, because it meant the audience was actually thinking.

It meant they were wrestling with the difficult ideas that the speaker was getting across. And so we can imagine this Roman Socrates drawing large crowds, not because of his showmanship, but through the reputation of his teachings and crowds who sat in respectful silence even as he challenged their most deeply held assumptions. His most provocative belief in 1st century Rome that women deserved an education as much as men. Two of Musonius' 21 surviving lectures are that women too should study philosophy and should daughters receive

the same education as sons. These two lectures come down strongly in favor of treating women well and of their capabilities as philosophers. This was not a conventional view, but then again the right thing rarely is. It should not surprise us that Mussonius held it or that he had the courage to argue it at a time when most believed that women were no more than property. A core precept of stoic training is independent thinking, and here Musonius was illustrating an ability to see what was just outside the context of his times. It is not men alone who possess eagerness or a natural inclination towards virtue, he wrote, but women also. Women are pleased no less than men by noble and just deeds and

reject the opposite of such actions. Since that is so, why is it appropriate for men to seek out and examine how they might live well, that is, to practice philosophy but not women? And of course the Stokes were very early on equality between the sexes. Three centuries earlier, Cleanthes had written a book titled On the Thesis that Virtue is the Same in a Man and a Woman. Even Musonius' view of marriage was modern, calling for the perfect companionship and mutual love of husband and wife, both in health and in sickness and under all conditions. A good marriage, he believed, was one where a couple strove to outdo each other in devotion. He spoke of the kind of beautiful union that Brutus and Portia had, where two souls stick

with each other through the adversity of life and inspire each other to greater virtue. What was Musonius's marriage like? We don't know, but it would be incredible to think that a man who wrote so movingly about the benefits of this kind of marriage would not be speaking from experience, and more impossible still that Musonius could have endured the belief in the importance of hard work and endurance. He was a man cut from the same cloth as Cleanthes, who centuries before had supported his philosophical studies with manual labor. In a lecture entitled, What Means of Livelihood is Appropriate for the Philosopher, Musonius would speak highly of that kind of hard work, believing very little was beneath our dignity if done well and with the right work ethic. Hardship, he believed, was simply a part of life. In

order to support more easily and more cheerfully those hardships which we may expect to suffer in behalf of virtue and goodness, he said, it is useful to recall what hardships people will endure for unworthy ends. Thus, for example, consider what intemperate lovers undergo for the sake of evil desires, and how much exertion others spend for the sake of making profit, and how much suffering those who are pursuing fame endure, and bear in mind that all of these people submit to all kinds of toil and hardship voluntarily. So if we are going to suffer, ought we not suffer

in a way that gets us somewhere worth going? Suffer and endure toward virtue, that's the core of Musonius' teachings. As he said, And yet would not anyone admit how much better it is, instead of exerting oneself to win someone else's wife, to exert oneself to discipline one's desires, instead of enduring hardships for the sake of money, to train oneself to discipline one's desires, instead of enduring hardships for the sake of money, to train oneself to want little, instead of giving oneself trouble about getting notoriety, to give oneself trouble about how not to thirst for notoriety, instead of trying to find a way

to injure an envied person, to inquire about how not to envy anyone, and instead of slaving, as sycophants do, to win false friends, to undergo suffering in order to possess true friends. It is fitting that he would write and speak so much of this topic because he, like many of the Stoics, would find that life had challenges and hardships in store. Musonius' first brush with trouble came from his association with the Stoic opposition, including Gaius Rubelius Plautus, for whom Nero's paranoid delusions made him a marked man. It was Musonius who would accompany Plautus into exile in Syria in 60 AD. It was Musonius'

first brush with the capriciousness of fate and by no means his last. Musonius would advise his dear friend to have courage and await death and was likely there when Plautus fell to Nero's angry sword. Musonius was allowed to return to Rome briefly, but in 65 AD, when the fallout from the Pisonian conspiracy claimed Seneca, Musonius was banished by Nero to the desolate island of Gaira. It was there that Musonius sat some 700 miles from home, wondering if he would need to follow his own advice and courageously wait for death. Why did he not kill himself,

as he had suggested Thrasia do? He had reminded Thrasia that there is no reason to choose a heavier misfortune if we can make do with the one in front of us. We can train ourselves to be satisfied with the difficulties fortune has chosen to give us. Besides, Musonius believed he still had living to do. One who by living is of use to many, he said, has not the right to choose to die unless by dying he may be of use to more. So he lived and studied as we must, as long as it was in his control to keep doing so well and for the greater good.

Gaera is a very dry, harsh island that today is unpopulated, but Musonius seized every opportunity he could to live by his teachings and to be of use to those around him. According to one source, he discovered an underground spring on the island, earning him the eternal gratitude of his fellow residents, most of whom were also political exiles. It's clear that he believed that exile was not an evil or a hardship, but merely a kind of test, a chance to move closer to virtue if one so chose. So he did, rededicating himself to teaching and writing, playing advisor to the philosophers and dignitaries who visited him from across the Mediterranean.

A testament to Musonius's growing fame and the inspirational example he cast in those dark times is seen in the fictional letters of a man named Apollonius. In one exchange, Apollonius says he dreams of boldly rescuing Musonius from the island. Musonius writes back to say that he won't need it because a true man undertakes to prove his own innocence and therefore has control of his own liberation. Apollonius replies that he worries that Musonius will die like Socrates.

Musonius says he has no intention of going so quietly. Socrates died because he was not prepared to defend himself, Musonius supposedly said, but I will. Another exchange captures Musonius's fighting spirit. We are told that Demetrius the cynic who had been with Thrasya during his last moments, encountered Musonius bound in chains and digging with a pickaxe on a chain gang for one of Nero's canals. Does it pain you, Demetrius? Musonius was said to reply, If I dig the isthmus for the sake of Greece, what would you have felt if you'd seen me playing the flute like Nero? The dates on this encounter make it hard to trust, but these stories

nonetheless give us an insight into the reputation of Musonius' character. Whether he was providing for thirsty islanders or digging a canal for the benefit of Greece, the hardship of exile was not enough to break the will of a true philosopher. But what of all the comforts he was deprived of, Musonius chose to think about what he still had access to, the sun, water, air. When he missed the amenities of Rome, friends, or the freedom to travel, he reminded himself and his fellow exiles that when we were home we did not enjoy the whole earth, nor did we have contact with all men.

And then he got back to spending his time on the island doing what he did best, finding opportunities to do good. Because for a Stoic, the chance is always there, even in the worst circumstances, as bad as exile or any adversity is, it can make you better if you choose. So for this tour I was just doing in Europe, we had, I think, four days in London and I was with my kids, my wife and my in-laws. So we knew we didn't want to stay in a hotel. We'd spend a fortune, we'd be cramped.

So we booked an Airbnb and it was awesome. As it happens, the Airbnb we stayed in was like this super historic building. I think it was where like the first meeting of the Red Cross or the Salvation Army ever was. It was awesome. That's why I love staying in Airbnbs. To stay in a cool place, you get a sense of what the place is actually like. You're coming home to your house,

not to the lobby of a hotel every night. It just made it easier to coordinate everything and get a sense of what the city is like. When I spent last summer in LA, we used an Airbnb also. So you may have read something that I wrote while staying in an Airbnb. Airbnb has the flexibility in size and location that work for your family.

And you can always find awesome stuff. You click on guest favorites to narrow your search down. Travel's always stressful. It's always hard to be away from home. But if you're gonna do it, do it right. And that's why you should check out Airbnb. It's always hard to be away from home, but if you're gonna do it, do it right. And that's why you should check out Airbnb. Exile transformed Diogenes from an ordinary person into a philosopher, he said later,

speaking not of the stoic but of the famous cynic from before Zeno's time. Instead of sitting around in Sinope, he spent his time in Greece, and in his practice of virtue he surpassed the other philosophers. Exile strengthened others who were unhealthy because of soft living and luxury. It forced them to follow a more manly lifestyle. We know that some were cured of chronic illnesses in exile. They say that others who indulged in soft living were cured of gout, even though they had previously been laid low by it.

Exile by accustoming them to live more austerely restored their health. Thus, by improving people, exile helps them more than it hurts them with respect to both body and soul. Musonius would have never been so conceited as to claim he was improved by his own exile, but the fact of the matter is that he was. Where did this incredible strength and skill come from? Musonius believed that we were like doctors, treating ourselves with reason, the power to think clearly, to get to the truth of a matter. That was what nursed that rock-hard, unbreakable citadel of a soul

that he had. He was not interested in shortcuts, he said, or smelling salts that revive but do not cure the disease. And he was a serious proponent of the manly life that exile necessitated. When he was in Rome, even at the height of his powers, Musonius sought out cold, heat, thirst, hunger, and hard beds. He familiarized himself with the uncomfortable feelings that these conditions brought about and trained himself to be patient even happy While experiencing them by this training He said the body is strengthened and becomes capable of enduring hardship sturdy and ready for any task Exile did come and he was ready body and soul good times returned as well and for this he was ready, too

when Galba succeeded Nero in 68 AD Good times returned as well, and for this he was ready too. When Galba succeeded Nero in 68 AD, Musonius was allowed to return to Rome and resume his teachings. His stature would grow over the next decade, and eventually Epictetus, a long-suffering former slave of one of Nero's secretaries, would be added to the ranks of his students. Could a teacher who had experienced less adversity, who was less determined and self-sufficient, have reached a student like that, who had had such a difficult life? When the student is ready, the teacher appears,

and sometimes the perfect student is exactly what is needed to bring out the best in a teacher. Musonius had a habit of turning away students to test their resolve. We can imagine him trying this tactic on Epictetus, who after three decades of being told what he could and could not do, would have risen to the challenge. A stone, because of its makeup, will return to earth if you throw it up in the air, Epictetus recounts Musonius telling him. Likewise, the more one pushes the intelligent person away from the life he was born for, the more he inclines toward it. Like Epictetus, Musonius had cultivated a distinct distaste for the rich and the corruptions of their money, so he liked to taunt them.

We're told by one witness that Musonius once awarded a thousand sestiches to a charlatan posing as a philosopher. When someone stepped in to say that this man was a liar and unworthy of such a gift, Musonius was amused. Money, he replied, is exactly what he deserves. One might think that after two painful exiles, Musonius would have spent some time lying low. That's certainly how Seneca or Cicero would have played it.

Rome was in a state of flux and fear. Three more emperors would follow Galba within months, but Musonius made no effort to hide what he thought was the right way to live. In fact, his entire approach was to be indifferent to whom was in power. In the waning days of Vitellius' reign with the looming threat of Vespasian's armies marching on Rome, Musonius agreed to serve as an emissary to forestall the conflict. His partner in that mission, Arlinius Rusticus,

who Thrasya had advised was some of his last words, was wounded in a scuffle. Tacitus tells us that Musonius threw his own body into the fray and was nearly trampled to death by the troops he was attempting to warn against engaging in civil strife. Mussonius's calls went unhealed, in fact he was heckled, and soon blood flowed in the streets. Vitellius was torn limb from limb by an angry mob not far from where his predecessor Galba had died. Now Vespasian was the emperor and Rome was yet again under the command of a strongman.

Would Vespasian hold Musonius' service to the previous emperors against him? Would he be exiled once more, or finally killed for his association with the Stoic threat? None of these considerations had stopped Musonius from trying. None of it would break his commitment to what was right. This commitment to justice as it had for Cato played no favorites. Not long after escaping with his life from the civil conflict between Vitilius and Vespasian, Musonius engaged in civil conflict of his own, in this case against a fellow Stoic. Sometime around 70 AD, he undertook the prosecution of a Stoic who had been an informant for Nero

against other Stoics and contributed to the prosecution of a stoic who had been an informant for Nero against other stoics and contributed to the execution of another one. It was an epic case that pitted Musonius not only against a stoic traitor but also against Demetrius the cynic who had chose to represent the man. It was a hard-won victory for justice in a time where such a thing had become rare. A remaining fragment from Musonius captures justice in a time where such a thing had become rare. A remaining fragment from Musonius captures why he would have pursued such a case. If one accomplishes some good, though with toil, the toil passes, but the good remains, he said.

If one does something dishonorable with pleasure, the pleasure passes, but the dishonor remains. We must do the right thing, no matter how difficult, Mussonius was saying. A Stoic must avoid doing the wrong thing, even if the reward for it is great. Mussonius must have known that this justice would come at a cost. No matter the verdict, to attack an informant of an emperor, even one as reviled as Nero, was a risky move. Perhaps wishing to be rid of the Stoics entirely, a year or so later Vespasian would issue a blanket banishment to all philosophers. Although Musonius was originally exempted, he would not long after be exiled personally by Vespasian for a term of three years. The good Musonius had done remained while he himself was sent away.

For what? We do not know, but it is fitting, because Musonius would have shrugged off the reasons anyway. Was he angry? He certainly deserved to be. Now for the third time he was being driven away from his home, returning to life as a refugee, and why? Because a desperate decreed that he must? Even this, Musonius found a way to be philosophical about. Another surviving fragment gives us

a sense of his view. What indictment can we make against tyrants when we ourselves are much worse than they? For we have the same impulses as they, but not the same opportunities to indulge them. Or perhaps he recalled how his exile had gone before and the good that had come from it. Do not be irked by difficult circumstances, he once said, but reflect on how many things have already happened to you in life in ways that you did not wish, and yet they have turned out for the best. Once again in Syria, far away from home, Musonius held court and taught. Once again he did what a Stoic seeks always to do, to make the best of a bad situation.

He may not have been able to reach or help the deranged sovereigns who controlled Rome, but he did find willing students abroad. In a lecture that kings should also study philosophy, Musonius refers offhandedly to a Syrian king whom he advised. Just as comfortable lecturing freed slaves as he was the grandson of Herod the Great, Musonius kept his teachings the same no matter how powerful or powerless his students. As he had learned from his own struggles, there is no position so high or so low that it is not improved by the four virtues, justice, temperance, wisdom, and courage. The ruin of the ruler and the citizen

alike, Musonius told this king, is wantonness. And so he spoke to this king at length about the power of self-control, the danger of excess, and the need for justice. These were things he had experienced firsthand. In fact, it was these exact deficiencies in the parade of incompetent emperors that had brought him to Syria in the first place, so his lessons must have been convincing and deeply personal. No doubt the king listened with the rapt silence that Musonius had long ago defined as the sign of a student whose mind was being blown. Is it possible for anyone to be a good king unless he is a good man? Musonius asked. No, it is not possible. But given a good man, would he not be entitled to be called a philosopher?

Most certainly since philosophy is the pursuit of the ideal good. When Musonius wrapped up his lectures, the young king was spellbound, and unlike those Roman emperors who had been so cruel to Musonius, he was grateful. As a thanks, he offered him anything, wealth, power, pleasure, that was in his power to offer. The only thing I ask of you, Musonius replied, is to remain faithful to this teaching, since you find it commendable. For in this way and no other will you best please me and benefit yourself.

Eventually, Musonius was recalled from exile by Vespasian's son Titus in 78 AD. Within a year, Titus was emperor and within three he was dead. His successor Domitian was another king who could have listened to the lessons Mussonius had given to the Syrian king. Instead, Domitian chose to be violent, ruthless, and paranoid. Mussonius persevered, now taking Epictetus on as a student and training him to become an equally formidable Stoic teacher. Yet once again, an emperor had the Stoics in his sights. Eventually, in 93 AD, Domitian ordered a death sentence for Aurelinus Rusticus for his support of Thrasya many years earlier. He murdered the son of Helvidius Priscus, and then he killed the secretary who had owned Epictetus and helped Nero kill himself 25 years earlier. Domitian even banished every philosopher from

Rome including Epictetus. If Musonius was still alive by this point it would have marked his fourth exile. Whether he survived until this final trial of fate or had died shortly beforehand we don't know. Considering the murderous tyrants he had lived under, it is incredible that he survived this long, into his 70s or 80s. Countless people and situations had conspired to break him, but each had failed. He was repeatedly deprived of his country, he said, but no one would take away his ability to endure exile. No one can take away our ability

to remain undaunted, which is why Musonius was committed to what he believed up until he drew his last breath wherever he drew it, in Rome or on whatever rock he was sent to. Philosophy is nothing else than to search out by reason what is right and proper and by deeds, put it into practice. Musonius had said this, but more important, he had lived it. As an exile, as a teacher, as a husband and a father, and finally as a dying man. However old he lived to be, simple longevity had never been Musonius's goal. Since the fates have spun out the lot of death for all alike, one of his fragments explains,

he is blessed who dies not late but well. Undoubtedly, whenever the end did come for Musonius, he was ready and ready to die well. The man who had witnessed the end of so many other Stoics, who had advised them in some cases to go when it was their time and others to hold on because they still had work to do, would have known that eventually his number would come up. He tried to live that way, saying, it is not possible to live well today unless one thinks of it as his last. And now his number was up and Musonius passed from this earth with the same dignity and poise with which he had faced all the adversity in his life.

faced all the adversity in his life. Thanks so much for listening. If you could rate this podcast and leave a review on iTunes, that would mean so much to us and would really help the show. We appreciate it. I'll see you next episode. If you like The Daily Stoic and thanks for listening, you can listen early and ad free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts. Prime members can listen ad free on Amazon Music. And before you go, would you tell us about yourself by filling out a short survey on

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