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Philosophy

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

Donald Robertson · 2019 · 9 ideas · 9 min

Robertson argues that Marcus Aurelius's Stoic techniques for managing anger, anxiety, and grief anticipated modern cognitive-behavioral therapy by nearly two thousand years.

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Why this book

Donald Robertson's argument is that Marcus Aurelius, ruling the Roman Empire during plague, war, and personal tragedy, developed and practiced a set of psychological techniques through Stoic philosophy that closely mirror the core methods of modern cognitive-behavioral therapy, decades before psychology existed as a discipline. Robertson, trained both in classical philosophy and as a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, uses episodes from Marcus's life alongside passages from his private journal, The Meditations, to show how the emperor trained himself to separate distressing events from the judgments he made about them, a strategy now called cognitive distancing in clinical practice.

This matters because it offers a rigorously grounded, historically specific case for treating Stoicism not as abstract ancient theory but as a tested, practical toolkit for emotional resilience, developed by someone who applied it under some of the highest-stakes conditions imaginable. Robertson threads narrative biography with therapeutic explanation, letting readers see both where Marcus's private struggles originated and how the coping techniques he used map onto specific modern therapeutic exercises.

Who should read it

Readers interested in practical philosophy, Stoicism, or the historical roots of cognitive-behavioral therapy will find this especially rewarding, as will anyone seeking concrete techniques for managing anxiety, anger, or grief grounded in a compelling historical narrative. It also suits readers of Meditations looking for a clearer framework to apply its ideas.

About the author

Donald Robertson is a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist and trainer with a long background in the study of Stoic philosophy, and a founding figure in the modern Stoicism movement, including Stoic Week and the Modern Stoicism organization.

The ideas

01It's not events but our judgments about them that disturb us02Marcus rehearsed misfortune daily to blunt its future sting03Reserve clauses kept ambition from becoming a source of despair04The 'view from above' widens perspective to shrink emotional distress05Stoics distinguished bodily pain from the suffering added by resistance06Anger dissolves once you deny that others can harm your character07Emulating admired role models functioned as a form of psychological therapy08Language itself was trained to avoid inflating distress09Confronting mortality directly, rather than avoiding it, reduced its dread
stoicismmarcus-aureliuscognitive-behavioral-therapyresilienceancient-philosophyemotional-regulation
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