Hi, thanks for tuning in to ancient Greece, Declassified.

Episode 49, when a philosopher ruled the world.

Marcus Aurelius is one of the most romanticized leaders in all of history.

Some have seen him as the embodiment of the philosopher king.

That's certainly how he was portrayed in the film Gladiator.

Marcus ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 AD, during which time he fought and won several

brutal wars against invading Germanic tribes in the North.

But military prowess is not his main claim to fame.

More so than previous emperors, Marcus was thoroughly educated in Greek philosophy.

He has the unusual distinction among Roman emperors in that he became a best-selling author,

and not during his lifetime, not shortly after his death, but almost 2,000 years later.

You see, in recent decades, the philosophy of stoicism, of which Marcus was a proponent,

has unexpectedly exploded in popularity.

There are probably more practicing Stoics in the world now than there have been in the past 1500 years combined.

Marcus Aurelius' diary of philosophical reflections, written in Greek and known to us as the

meditations, is one of our most important surviving sources on Stoic philosophy.

It's also perhaps the most accessible ancient work on Stoicism for modern audiences.

As a result, it is now selling by the boatload.

Penguin sold 100,000 copies in 2019, and that's just one year

by one publisher. The Meditations reinforces the image of Marcus as a selfless, dutiful, enlightened

ruler. But how much of that image reflects who he really was? And can the philosophy of stoicism live up to the needs of the modern world?

That's what we're going to find out today.

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