Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, to help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off, the little dose of courage and discipline and justice in wisdom. For more, visit DailyStoic.com. It's not that complicated.
It's long been one of the mysteries, the tragedies of history. How did Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher king, give way to Commodus? How did such a thoughtful, even saintly man, raise such a terrible son? Why did one rule well and the other rule so badly?
In wisdom takes work, I explore one of these answers. Marcus Aurelius had arranged many guardians, writes the historian Cassius' style, among who were numbered the best men in the Senate. But their suggestions and councils, he says, Commodus rejected. He dismissed them, took his own council, and ultimately failed quite badly.
It's a story as, all this time, a reminder to all of us, the need for mentors, teachers, and advisors. But there is another, simpler, and even more obvious example that explains their wildly divergent reigns. Commodus was 18 years old when he became the most powerful man in the world. Would anyone have escaped his fate?
Would you? Marcus Aurelius ruled as a co-emperor with Antoninus for 13 years, and he did not take over till he was 40. That's a big difference. Power is corruptive and corrosive, no matter your age.
To the young and inexperienced, it's even worse. Commodus, by nature of his father's position in the loss of five of his brothers, was thrust into an impossible situation. He was doomed to failure as nearly all kings and monarchs and absolute rulers are. It's bad for you, it's bad for the world, that's why most countries don't have them.
So if you want to know why Commodus and Marcus Aurelius were so different, it's not much of a mystery. In fact, the answer is simple. Its advisors are black thereof, and four decades of experience on this planet.