On Stoicism

Andrew T. Post

So there’s this little-known film called Gladiator.

One of the important characters in the film (even though he’s only onscreen for a few minutes) is the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.

The film doesn’t delve into this, but Marcus Aurelius is often cited as one of the “Big Three” Stoic philosophers (along with Epictetus and Lucius Annaeus Seneca). Marcus’s private journal, popularly referred to as his Meditations, is one of the most widely read Stoic texts.

You guys know what a fan of Stoicism I am. I’ve been studying it for six years or so now. And somehow I am still one of the top writers on the topic of Stoicism on this website.

One of the central tenets of Stoicism is self-control. The Stoics believed that man was a rational, thinking being, not an irrational animal. It behooves us, therefore, whenever we are faced with adversity—rude people, personal tragedies, insults, setbacks, inconveniences—to act in accordance with our nature. We must remain calm, keep making rational decisions, and avoid pointlessly wasting energy on emotions like anger or sadness. This doesn’t mean that you become an emotionless automaton; it simply means that you maintain control of your emotions. The Stoics believed that the most powerful man in the world wasn’t the genius, or the bodybuilder, or the emperor who controlled armies and empires. It was the man who controlled his own mind.

Anyway, back to the movie.

You’re already familiar with the plot of Gladiator. Marcus Aurelius’s corrupt son, Commodus, assassinates him and seizes power. He orders Rome’s most powerful general (and Marcus’s most loyal follower), Maximus, arrested and killed. Commodus also orders the killings of Maximus’s wife and young son. Maximus becomes a gladiator and spends the rest of the movie trying to wreak his revenge on Commodus.

There’s one point in the film where, having recently discovered Maximus’s identity, Commodus attempts to goad Maximus into making an attempt on Commodus’s life, right there in the Colosseum in front of everybody. He resorts to a…rather brutal tactic in order to do this. He brings up Maximus’s late family, and what the emperor’s soldiers did to them before they killed them. Commodus says to Maximus:

They tell me your son squealed like a girl when they nailed him to the cross. And your wife moaned like a whore when they ravaged her again and again and again.

In one of the most astounding acts of self-control I’ve ever witnessed in cinema, Maximus somehow manages not to completely flip out and strangle the emperor with his bare hands. He knows it’s not time to kill Commodus yet, and he knows Commodus is trying to provoke him. So instead of flying into a murderous rage, Maximus calmly turns around, looks Commodus in the eye, and says:

The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end.

Then he bows, turns around, and walks away.

I guess Maximus must’ve picked up a few tenets of Stoicism from Marcus Aurelius, eh?

No doubt he was screaming inside, but he kept tight hold of his reason and stayed frosty on the outside. He made the conscious decision not to react to what Commodus said to him. Maximus held true to Marcus Aurelius’s philosophy and acted in accordance with his nature as a human being. The scene provides a splendid juxtaposition of Maximus’s calm, Stoic rationality and Commodus’s mercurial, emotion-driven irrationality.

Anyway, that was just something I noticed after watching the film a few times.