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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,

audio books that you like here, 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 Holiday. Welcome to another weekend episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast. Today we are doing a deeper dive into a Stoic that I think more people need to know about. As I said before, we might not have Marcus Reales with them. We certainly would not have Epic Titus without them. And was incredibly well known in his time.

Musoneus Rufus was known as the Roman Socrates. He was so wise. And it wasn't just wise, but he was such a prominent, powerful figure that he's exiled by the Emperor for different times.

Just an absolutely fascinating figure who taught slaves and kings alike. And some of his essays were collected by a few of his students. And today's episode features two of these lectures slash fragments. One is about what's more effective theory or practice.

The other, which is one of my personal favorites is about the question of whether kings should study philosophy, which Musoneus certainly believed there's a wonderful translation of Musoneus that I would recommend calls that one should disdain hardship. We carry it at the painted porch. So I'll link to that in today's show notes.

But in this one, because the essays are in the public domain, you can grab them. We had an awesome voice over actor put them together for you in your listening pleasure. So I will bring you two meditations essays from the great Musoneus Rufus, the teacher of Epic Titus, the Roman Socrates. Enjoy it.

That Kings also should study philosophy. When one of the kings from Syria once came to him, for at that time there were still kings in Syria, vassals of Romans, amongst many other things he had to say to the man with the following words in particular.

Do not imagine, he said, that it is more appropriate for anyone to study philosophy than for you, nor for any other reason than because you are a king.

For the first duty of a king is to be able to protect and benefit his people, and a protector and benefactor must know what is good for a man and what is bad, what is helpful and what is harmful, what is advantageous, and what is disadvantageous.

In as much as it is plain that those who ally themselves with evil come to harm, while those who cleave to good and joy protection, and those who are deemed worthy of help and advantage, enjoy benefits, while those who involve themselves in things disadvantageous and harmful suffer punishment.

But to distinguish between good and bad, advantageous and disadvantageous, helpful and harmful is the part of none other than the philosopher who constantly occupies himself with this very question, how not to be ignorant of any of these things, and has made it his art to understand what conduces to a man's happiness or unhappiness.

Therefore, it appears that the king should study philosophy. Furthermore, it is fitting for a king, or rather, it is an absolute necessity for him to arbitrate justice as between subjects so that no one may have more or less than his just desserts, but may receive honor or punishment as he deserves.

But how would anyone who was not just ever be able to manage this, and how would anyone ever be just if he did not understand the nature of justice?

Here again is a reason the king should study philosophy. For without such study, it would not be plain that he knew justice and the just.

For one cannot deny either that the one who has learned it will understand justice better than the one who has not learned it, or that all who have not studied philosophy are ignorant of its nature.

The truth of this statement appears from the fact that men disagree and contend with one another about justice, some saying that it is here, others that it is there.

Yet, about things of which men have knowledge there is no difference of opinion, as for example about white and black, or hot and cold, or soft and hard, but all think the same about them and use the same words.

In just the same way, they would agree about justice if they knew what it was, but in their very lack of agreement, they reveal their ignorance.

Indeed, I am inclined to think that you are not far from such ignorance yourself, and you ought therefore more than anyone else to concern yourself with this knowledge.

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