Marcus The Philosopher King

What a compelling and informative book! The creative mixture of Marcus' Aurelius narrative and the lessons behind stoic philosophy was done in a cohesive manner that is easy to follow. From the actual book of Marcus Aurelius "The Meditations" and many more Donald Robertson was able to connect the capital (S)toic philosophy and was able to apply in our modern day life. The mindful techniques and tips was thoroughly explained and does justice to the title "How to think like a Roman Emperor". This is a book I'd occasionally read back a couple of times.

Hey guys. I just finished the book last May 8 and you could clearly see how much I love it in my Goodreads review as seen above. Rated 5/5. To be honest I'd like to live like Marcus Aurelius and aspire to encompass stoicism. Therefore I decided to list down here all the important chapters or passages from the book and try to synthesize and highlight on what I should actually do to Think like a Roman Emperor. This would be a long Blog post.

Credits to the Amazing Author Donald Robertson.

Got it from google.

I wanna buy it someday.

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History of Stoicism

According to the dictionary the first definition of stoicism is the endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings and without complaint.

However, Donald Robertson explained that the difference of the small letter (s)toicism and the Capitalized (S)toicism is the entire philosophy that virtue, the highest good, is based on knowledge; the wise live in harmony with the divine Reason (also identified with Fate and Providence) that governs nature, and are indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain.(Which I also got from the dictionary).

The roots of stoicism way before the time of the Protagonist Marcus Aurelius. A narrative of Zeno of citium the founder of the philosophy was a rich merchant then lost everything in a shipwreck.

Long story short:

He now has nothing therefore he decided to venture to the Orcale of Delphi and the advise : was you should "take on the color not on dead shellfish but of dead men". This means that Zeno should learn from the wisdom from generations previous to which led him to read a book he saw in the shop about the works of Socrates. "He then asked hey where do I find a man like this? Then people were like go to a man named "Crathes of Thebis" a cynics which is also a philosophy wherein people strengthen their virtue and character through "voluntary hardships" which Zeno thinks is a shortcut in learning virtue.After Zeno became a student of Crathes and studied different types of school of philosophies such as the Megarians on logic, Academics on meta physical theories and again cynics on virtue and self discipline.

Zeno decided to evolve and mix all of these philosophies in the Agora or the Painted porch where his students come to gather named Zenonians then later turned to stoics after the Stoa or porch.

Stoics also wore Tribons'.

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