You are Roman emperor, and not the least: Marcus Aurelius, (121-180 AD). You are a slave under the Empire, and not the least: Epictetus (50-125 AD). Installed at the two ends of fortune, omnipotence and insignificance, you nevertheless share the same philosophical conception of freedom. The emperor with incessant military campaigns and the freed slave turned philosopher were brothers in thought.
How would these two Stoics have looked, beyond the centuries, on the pandemic which brings the men of the 21st century to their knees? What would they have advised us to do to escape the dread, the loneliness, the fear of a dire fate? “You must not depend on what does not depend on yourself”, replies the French philosopher and author Raphaël Enthoven in their place.
–
–
