Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

Why did Marcus Aurelius write his meditations? It wasn't for an audience or to practice his Greek.

After all, he was already pretty accomplished in those areas. Instead, we should think about what was going on around Marcus while he was

writing it. Conflicts threatened just beyond the border. Economic troubles shook Rome's foundations.

A plague had ravaged the nation's populist,

and that's not even mentioning all the political corruption and the backstabbing and the chaos within palace walls.

And yet, Marcus doesn't seem to mention any of these events or his reactions to them.

Instead, Marcus Aurelius explores himself in the pages of meditations.

He spends all of book one reflecting on what he's learned from various influential individuals

in his life. Dets and lessons as it's titled is 17 entries spanning nine pages in more than

2,000 words, nearly 10% of the book. And there's the

fact that almost every page after contains a quote, a story, or a reference to some bit of ancient

philosophy. This seems a little odd, doesn't it, that the Emperor of Rome, the most powerful man on the

planet, was staying up at night exploring the idea of virtue and wisdom,

primarily when and how he saw it embodied in others.

But then when we come across a passage in book six, it begins to make more sense.

When you need encouragement, he writes, think of all the qualities of the people around you.

This one's energy, this one's modesty, and others' generosity, and so on.

Nothing is as encouraging as when the virtues are visibly embodied in the people around us

when we're practically showered with them.

It is good, he says, to keep this in mind.

Marcus Aurelius was writing to encourage himself during trying times.

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