How to Think Like a Roman Emperor
If you have anger issues, this one is a great tool (h/t mindyourbusiness.
Today’s lesson comes from: Musonious Rufus’s Lectures
We don’t know much about Rufus’s life, he was born between 20-30 AD. By the rein of Nero he was a leading Stoic teacher. He was banished twice under different Emperors. His most famous student was Epictetus and like him, Rufus did not write any of his own lessons. The lessons and fragments that remain were written by his students. We do not now when he died, but in 101 AD Pliny mentions him as deceased.
Disclaimer: I’m not your Supervisor. These are my opinions after reading through these books a few times.
That exile is not an evil Part IV
9 But tell me, my friend, when Diogenes was in exile at Athens, or when he was sold by pirates and came to Corinth, did anyone, Athenian or Corinthian, ever exhibit greater freedom of speech than he? [11]And again, were any of his contemporaries freer than Diogenes? Why, even Xeniades, who bought him, he ruled as a master rules a slave. But why should I employ examples of long ago? Are you not aware that I am an exile? [12]Well, then, have I been deprived of freedom of speech? Have I been bereft of the privilege of saying what I think? Have you or anyone else ever seen me cringing before anyone just because I am an exile, or thinking that my lot is worse now than formerly? No, I’ll wager that you would say that you have never seen me complaining or disheartened because of my banishment, for if I have been deprived of my country, I have not been deprived of my ability to endure exile.[13]
I don’t think Diogenes was bothered by exile. When you live on almost nothing, it might not matter where you are. For others being cut off from home and family might be more of a challenge. You are as free as you want to be. Once all hope is lost there is no incentive to play along. I am not at that point, and try to live under the constraints of our modern life.
10 The reflections which I employ for my own benefit so as not to be irked by exile, I should like to repeat to you. It seems to me that exile does not strip a man entirely, not even of the things which the average man calls goods, as I have just shown. But if he is deprived of some or all of them, he is still not deprived of the things which are truly goods. Certainly the exile is not prevented from possessing courage and justice simply because he is banished, nor self-control, nor understanding, nor any of the other virtues which when present serve to bring honor and benefit to a man and show him to be praiseworthy and of good repute, but when absent, serve to cause him harm and dishonor and show him to be wicked and of ill-repute. Since this is true, if you are that good man and have his virtues, exile will not harm or degrade you, because the virtues are present in you which are most able to help and to sustain you. But if you are bad, it is the evil that harms you and not exile; and the misery you feel in exile is the product of evil, not of exile. It is from this you must hasten to secure release rather than from exile.
When things happen that I would prefer not happen, that is not “evil” or “bad”. My reactions to them is where the true good or bad can be found. If I were exiled, that might be a situation where the anticipation is worse than the actual event. I would like to think I could use the adversity as a means to improve myself, but it would be easy to give in to despair and anger. In my daily life, I don’t have any major hardships, but I still find things to get upset about.
11 These things I used to repeat to myself and I say them to you now. If you are wise, you will not consider that exile is a thing to be dreaded, since others bear it easily, but evil. It makes wretched every man in whom it is present. And neither of the two necessary alternatives is a just cause for repining. For either you were banished justly or unjustly. If justly, how can it be right or fitting to feel aggrieved at just punishment? If unjustly, the evil involved is not ours, but falls upon those who banished us,—if in fact you agree that doing a wrong (as they have done) is the most hateful thing in the world, while suffering a wrong (as has been our fate) in the eyes of the gods and of just men is held a ground not for hate but for help.
I was having trouble understanding this sentence. “If you are wise, you will not consider that exile is a thing to be dreaded, since others bear it easily, but evil.” I think he is saying to watch out for your reaction to misfortune and dread that becoming evil more than you should dread the misfortune happening, but the translation might be a little unclear. If I deserve for a bad thing to happen to me, either through bad decision making or actual malice then I have no right to be upset about it. If it were an unfair punishment, I’m sure it would be more difficult to deal with.
I honestly think Diogenes was mentally ill more than anything. Of course it’s a little difficult to diagnose from thousand year old secondhand sources that have been translated from another language. But the signs are there.
Never thought of that, but it would explain a lot.
Well, if nothing else, Diogenes would certainly go crazy looking for an honest man (or woman) among today’s political class.
So Diogenes was a Glib?
UCS, I left the response below on your inquiry on the dead thread:
Threedoor is not going to be happy with your seed oils.
Using fairly simple mechanical mechanisms, I think the easiest would be a crank pin/connecting rod/piston. Large mechanical advantage at the end of the stroke, end of stroke is limited, and it automatically reverses. With a screw press, the screw needs to reverse direction to release it. It could be done but would be more complicated. Also a mechanism for stroke limit is also required with the screw press.
👍
Since the narrator isn’t likely to need to go inside the mill, I think knowing it’s not absurd is good.
I showed UnCiv technology that was used in medieval Europe. Not to unlike the setting for his world (as best as I can recall the story).
You only need power assist to lift the beam, gravity can do the work on the way down.
So you only need is one direction on the screw and a clutch to connect and disconnect.
Not arguing that your solution isn’t better. 😉
By the way, recycled broken masts should do the job. You don’t need massive trees where the press is being built/used.
Using seed oils for lubrication, paint, oil lamps, solvents and the like is mighty fine.
I don’t recommend putting them in your mouth.
Jinwick’s hardwood forests have no shortage of timbers.
3door – you have the affluence of choice.
Fictional poor people have to decide “Do I eat this or do I starve”
Thanks UnCiv. I couldn’t remember. I did remember there is a harbor. So worst case is getting wood from any ship that limps into harbor after a storm.
Fictional poor people can eat cake.
Some other cool ancient mechanisms to check out are water hammers. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PVak4d9Cov8&ra=m
I’ve seen that video, and in the original comment I had listed hammermills alongside the sawmills and gristmills among the existing water powered facilities. Ironically, the poor do tend to eat cakes – a cake made from the mash of plaintain, what flour, and egg, pan-fried in seed oil.
*wheat flour.
What flour.
I like that. Reminiscent of the AI wording of the pics from the judge stories.
Remain stoic while searching for your shocked face.
TL;DR – there is a commie boot camp in Brazil that has trained several among the Mamdami nomenklatura among other young Americans seeking tips for taking over the US and wrecking it.
I’m gonna need more more tin foil.
How do you like it?
More, more, more!
I was just about to thank ron for this post, because I need some stoicism in my life this week (although I have recently been reading Epictetus and heavily considering Epicureanism), and then you post this trigger?
Got fired again yesterday. So it goes (now there’s a stoic motto). The last straw was I didn’t tighten an oil tank screw enough to make the brackets flush. My thinking was “well, it’s held on with 2 other screws, and they’re all torqued to spec, and it’s on the bottom, so the customer won’t see it anyway.” But not dice. When I worked at the golf cart factory 4 years ago, this kind of thing happened all the time and it wasn’t a big deal: wrong part, missing part, loose part, backwards part…at some point, the mistake is obvious because it either makes it impossible to put on the next part or the gizmo won’t work. There was a whole weekend overtime shift dedicated to fixing stuff that was overlooked on the first pass.
What a shame. I liked that job better than the brick factory. So now I’ve been fired from 6 jobs in a row and 3 in the past year. At least I have some income now from VA disability. Still, I’d prefer to work. My big 3 requirements are met: I’m alive, off the street, and out of jail. Having a job would be nice. I’ll take whatever I can get. A job I can keep is worth more to me than a job I like. I’ve kind of given up on that. I don’t really have much energy or enthusiasm anymore. That’s an obstacle to job hunting and work, but not a fatal one. Whatever job I get next will be my 25th one.
visual aid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxkjnQlxFHU
At my first engineering job in 2011, within the first week, the boss said I looked tired and unhappy. That was true, but I thought if I stuck with it, things would improve. They did not. I lasted a year and 8 months at that place.
Sorry to hear you are once again unemployed.
” I don’t really have much energy or enthusiasm anymore. ” That sounds like you’d be perfect working in a government sector job.
Is your local DMV hiring?
My mom suggested USPS. I think that job drove Lewis Black insane. My spirit animal Bukowski also worked there:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_Office_(novel)
I’ve only had 5 jobs that lasted a year or more: Army, Peace Corps, 2 process engineering gigs, and the golf cart factory (Textron).
My shortest job was working in a Chicago liquor store. That lasted 2 days. It was very cold outside, I walked to work, and I had to work in the cooler, so I wore a ski mask. I did NOT get fired for that. I drank with the boss and the cashier in the bar in the back after the first shift. They didn’t give me a reason for firing me. I had snub nose revolver in my coat pocket the whole time. The day I left Chicago, both convenience stores less than 100 yards from my apartment got robbed.
Unironically this.
You’ll probably run into issues with working too slowly in the USPS. Generic office job should have sufficient slack time built into it for you to pass metrics as long as you don’t join in the social bullshit that the others use to fill that slack time.
Oh yeah, the boss who scolded me did not fire me himself. He delegated that to a junior flunky. Classy move. Hey man, if you’re gonna give me a ration of shit, at least have the balls to look me in the eye when you can me.
Same thing happened at 2 of my engineering jobs.
I thought about going to the local trade school again for something like auto repair or HVAC. I’d prefer to make more than $15/hour. I don’t have much enthusiasm for those things, so my concern is that I’ll spend a lot of time and money on something that will only lead to jobs I don’t like or can’t keep. That was my mistake with studying engineering. It seemed like a good idea at the time. I graduated debt free and with money in the bank, but my education only qualified me for jobs that turned out not to be a good fit.
Oak Ridge/Y-12 is near me. I guess I could try that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y-12_National_Security_Complex
You only need power assist to lift the beam, gravity can do the work on the way down.
Like a piledriver? Keep your fingers away from the impact zone.
Piledriver. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ra_g0XOBsmA&ra=m
*not clicking that*
no, water power to turn the screw one way to raise the beam. hand power to lower the beam.
Trump just fired Susie Wiles.
Stay stoic Susie.
https://www.wsfa.com/2026/11/06/trump-says-susie-wiles-is-out-chief-staff-heres-who-is-replacing-her/
Obviously, he’s replacing her with Grok.
I think this was a planned move – Trump needs a wartime consigliere at this point. Susie is moving to the political organization.
I say nuke Iran why not at this point
I’m down.
Other coverage doesn’t use the “f-word.” (I don’t think your link did either.)
But I’m sure that, no matter what, you’ll believe she was fired. If it makes you happy…
🚨 🚨 BRAKING 🚨 🚨
Donald Trump has just fired his longtime Chef of Staff, Suzanne “Susie” Wiles
Stephen Miller is the interim replacement, but he will not be confirmed by the Senate, so the position will soon be open again
https://x.com/3YearLetterman/status/2118784523194511740
WH Chief of Staff does not require Senate approval.
You are obviously not a notary public amd do not know the law
Also “braking”.
3YearLetterman is one of the finest trolls on X. Always entertaining.
Poe’s Law, baby!
I forgot Susie also knifed Musk.
This inspired a music selection for Sunday.
NYPost has fired and resigned in the same story. 🙄
Like many americaneze things romania copied black fridsy bit did not keep the americand date. It started like america but got earlier every year. Romanian black friday was today. I bought a bottle of balvenie 19 week of peat for 160 american dollars and now i kinda regret it as it seems expensive. I also bought am air purifier for my appartment hoping it helps with next years ragweed alergy. Ragweed is anothe bloody thing we got from americans.
You’re welcome. 😉
Dont make me have a gypsy woman put a curse on you
Have some
overpricedexpensive spirits and relax.But has anyone introduced tree of heaven?
Guys? I think Newsome’s running for President.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqrkyyd2j8mvo
Well doesn’t CA let convicted felons vote? At this point why not from jail too?
I say nuke Iran why not at this point
Don’t stop with Iran.
My friend Ayako has translated American movies and TV shows into Japanese subtitles for 22 years.
Above her desk, taped to the wall, is a handwritten list.
“American sentences that do not exist in Japanese.”
Knowing both languages I think this is real. Or it could be at least.
https://x.com/SamuraiShibaJP/status/2118486770631458856?a=VJlYvTzxQKyWtU7KJac&s=20
proud of you, kid
what a great story
Japanese (like other languages i.e. Greek) breaks down “love” as well.
ai – love, affection, care
suki – liking, being fond of, to one’s liking, to one’s taste, preferred, favorite / liking (romantically), being in love with, beloved
The first one is more “love” you’d use for a your wife in the deeply romantic sense. Therefore Japanese basically rarely use it.
The second can be used for people, but also food and activities and the like.
Going to take my wife to see Godzilla Minus Zero tonight.
Hope it’s as good as Minus One was.
It’s about time we brought Trump’s politically motivated weaponized investigations to an end
Rep. Robert Garcia, the California Democrat poised to lead the powerful House Oversight Committee, doubled down on his warning to President Donald Trump and his allies Friday, releasing a video promising sweeping investigations into the administration.
“Oversight Democrats are ready to take on the crooks, the con men and the Trump crime family. Lawyer up,” the California Democrat wrote on X.
“The American people have spoken, and they are tired of the unprecedented level of corruption coming out of this White House and under President Trump,” Garcia said in the video, which ends with the words “LAWYER UP” splashed across the screen.
Something something rom Hell’s heart…
Good. Let’s toss all the Bidens into the spot light while we’re at it.
Garcia’s approach may conflict with what some advisors are telling Democrats — to go after corporate interests rather than Trump and his family.
Corporate counsel will urge them to fold like a two dollar yard sale lawn chair. More settlement money for the non profit advocacy slush funds.