There’s a reason why subsequent societies have sought to preserve the work of ancient philosophers right up until the current day: their wisdom is timeless.
Think about it, today we’re applying principles that were first recorded and popularized more than 2,000 years ago. At various stages of those 2,000 years (for example during the Renaissance), the ideas were revived and passed on to new generations.
When the founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium, was starting out on his philosophical journey, he was advised by the Oracle of Delphi to “take on the color of dead men.” He would later understand what this advice meant: that he should study the teachings of philosophers from past generations.
It’s inspiring that we have the same connection to ancient wisdom today. We can converse with the dead and get their advice whenever we need to.
Seneca wrote that our ability to glean wisdom from past ages is invaluable:
Of all men they alone are at leisure who take time for philosophy, they alone really live; for they are not content to be good guardians of their own lifetime only. They annex every age to their own; all the years that have gone before them are an addition to their store.
Seneca, On the Shortness of Life XIV
For the Renaissance philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, his time with the ancients was a very personal pursuit and he described it beautifully as follows:
When evening comes, I return to my home, and I go into my study; and on the thresh-hold, I take off my everyday clothes, which are covered in mud and mire, and I put on regal and curial robes; and dressed in a more appropriate manner I enter into the ancient courts of ancient men and am welcomed by them kindly, and there I taste the food that alone is mine, and for which I was born; and there I am not ashamed to speak to them, to ask them the reasons for their actions; and they, in their humanity, answer me; and for four hours I feel no boredom, I dismiss every affliction, I no longer fear poverty nor do I tremble at the thought of death; I become completely part of them.
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Letters of Machiavelli
So today, don’t be afraid to speak to those whose wisdom has left an indelible mark through the ages.
They would be proud of your commitment to practicing philosophy and taking on their color.
That instruction may sound somewhat vague but there is also a useful, practical technique we can use to make this a little less abstract. It comes to us courtesy of Seneca:
Happy is the man who can make others better, not merely when he is in their company, but even when he is in their thoughts! And happy also is he who can so revere a man as to calm and regulate himself by calling him to mind! One who can so revere another, will soon be himself worthy of reverence. Choose therefore a Cato; or, if Cato seems too severe a model, choose some Laelius, a gentler spirit. Choose a master whose life, conversation, and soul-expressing face have satisfied you; picture him always to yourself as your protector or your pattern. For we must indeed have someone according to whom we may regulate our characters; you can never straighten that which is crooked unless you use a ruler.
Seneca, Letters 11.9
The premise is simple: you are free to select specific role models against whose standards you can judge your own behaviour.
Seneca’s first suggestion was Cato, the philosopher who stubbornly defended the Roman republic, eventually preferring death over being ruled by Julius Caesar. His constant embodiment of Stoic principles could be used, in Seneca’s words, as a ruler to make crooked straight.
Cato, Seneca concedes, may be too severe a model to follow. You’re free of course to choose models from among all the other Stoics. Here are some simple steps you can take to adopt a suitable Stoic role model, talk to them in times of need, and take on their color:
- Choose a figure whose Stoic principles and actions you admire. (e.g. Marcus Aurelius)
- Learn more about your chosen figure by reading not only their work but also reliable biographies about them. If we are to learn from the principles of our chosen role model, it is important to know in detail what those principles are. (e.g. Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations / Donald Robertson’s How to Think Like a Roman Emperor )
- When faced with difficult situations or decisions, consider what your role model would do when faced with the same circumstances. In this way, you’re essentially getting advice from your role model even if you have no opportunity to ever meet them.
Like Macchiavelli, you can ask your chosen role models the reasons for their actions; and if you’ve studied them closely enough then they, in their humanity, will answer you.
