In book 1 of The Meditations, Marcus, after contemplating the good qualities and lessons learned from his own family, next goes on to praise a mysterious unnamed tutor, probably a slave or freedman in his mother’s household.8 It’s truly remarkable that Marcus seems to credit a humble slave with more influence upon his moral development than either the Emperor Hadrian or any of his rhetoric tutors, who included some of the most highly esteemed intellectuals in the empire. This unnamed man showed young Marcus how to endure hardship and discomfort with patience. He taught Marcus to be self-reliant and to have few needs in life. Marcus also learned from him how to turn a deaf ear toward slander and how to avoid sticking his nose into other people’s concerns. This is very different from the example set by Hadrian or the famous Sophists competing to win the emperor’s favor and the applause of crowds at Rome. The same tutor also persuaded Marcus early on not to side with the Green or Blue factions at the chariot races or with different gladiators in the amphitheater. As we’ve seen, the Cynics were renowned for training themselves to endure voluntary hardship (ponos) through their somewhat austere lifestyle and use of various exercises. They were also famous for cultivating indifference toward external things and disregarding both praise and condemnation from others. Doing so allowed them to speak the truth very plainly and simply. We’ll never know whether Marcus’s nameless tutor was influenced by Cynicism or whether he just happened to share similar values. He certainly provided the child with a solid foundation for his future training in Stoicism, though.
So who first introduced Marcus to the formal study of philosophy? Astoundingly, he tells us that it was his painting master, Diognetus. They would have met when Marcus was aged around twelve, as he entered the next stage of his education. There are some striking passages in The Meditations in which Marcus appears to exhibit a painter’s eye for visual details like the cracks on a loaf of bread, the lines on the face of an elderly person, or foam dripping from the mouth of a wild boar. These observations are used to illustrate Stoic metaphysical ideas: the beauty of something’s apparent flaws and its worth become clearer when viewed as part of a larger picture. So it’s tempting to wonder if they were inspired by philosophical conversations that Marcus had as a child with his painting tutor.
In any case, Diognetus taught Marcus not to waste his time with trivial matters and steered him away from popular amusements such as quail fighting—the Ancient Roman equivalent of today’s video games, perhaps. He warned Marcus not to be duped by charlatans who hawked miracles and magic charms or by those (presumably early Christians) who professed to exorcise demons. Disdain for the supernatural and caution against wasting time and energy on diversions such as gambling are attitudes that Marcus may have learned from a Cynic or Stoic philosopher. Diognetus also taught him to tolerate plain speaking (parrhesia) and to sleep covered with a pelt in a camp bed on the ground, almost certainly references to the Cynic regime.9 Indeed, the Historia Augusta confirms that around the time Diognetus would have become his tutor, Marcus adopted the dress of a philosopher and began training himself to endure hardship. However, his mother argued that sleeping on a mat like a legionary on campaign was inappropriate. With some effort she persuaded him to use a couch instead, albeit one still spread with animal pelts instead of normal bedding.
Marcus says that Diognetus taught him these and other aspects of “Greek training” (agoge). Although we don’t know what all of these aspects were, we can infer what some may have been. Cynic philosophers often ate a very simple diet of cheap black bread and lentils, or lupin seeds, and drank mainly water. According to Musonius Rufus, the teacher of Epictetus, Stoics should likewise eat simple, healthy food that is easy to prepare, and they should do so with mindfulness and in moderation, not greedily. Like the Cynics, the Stoics would sometimes also train themselves to endure heat and cold. According to legend, Diogenes the Cynic did this by stripping naked and embracing frozen statues in winter or rolling in hot sand under the summer sun. Seneca described taking cold baths and swimming in the River Tiber at the beginning of the year—and cold showers are popular with those influenced by Stoicism today. Although Marcus doesn’t mention these details, he may have adopted similar practices as a youth as part of his “Greek training” in enduring voluntary hardship. The French scholar Pierre Hadot believed that this phrase alluded to the notorious Spartan training, aspects of which may have influenced the austere lifestyle adopted by Cynic philosophers and some Stoics.
Indeed, philosophy in the ancient world was first and foremost a way of life. Today, “academic philosophy” as taught in universities has turned into a much more bookish and theoretical pursuit. Ancient philosophers, by contrast, were often recognizable because of their lifestyle and even the way they dressed. The Stoics, like the Cynics before them, traditionally wore a single garment called a tribon in Greek. This rudimentary cloak or shawl, made from undyed wool usually of a grayish color, was worn wrapped around the body, often with the shoulders exposed. Certain philosophers, like Socrates and the Cynics, also walked barefoot. Some Roman philosophers still dressed like this, although the style was perhaps occasionally viewed as antiquated and an affectation. Marcus, at least in his youth, wore the cloak of a philosopher, and as we can see from sculptures, he had a longish, well-kempt beard, which was probably typical for Stoics of that period.
Perhaps Diognetus dressed and lived as a philosopher himself and Marcus was inspired to imitate his example. Once again, it’s striking that at the height of the Second Sophistic, when oratory and poetry were all the rage at the court of Hadrian, Marcus was drawn in an opposing direction. He was wrenched away from the sophistication and ostentation of rhetoric by the simplicity and honesty of Greek philosophy. In addition to introducing him to this way of life, Diognetus started encouraging the boy to write philosophical dialogues and attend the lectures of several philosophers. (He names three men but nothing more is known about them.) A few years later, aged around fifteen, Marcus briefly attended lectures at the house of a famous Stoic teacher called Apollonius of Chalcedon, who happened to be visiting Rome. Apollonius then departed for Greece, but, as we shall see, he would soon be recalled.
By this time, Marcus was already an aspiring Stoic. Apollonius and others must surely have introduced him to the teachings of Epictetus, arguably the most influential of all Roman philosophers. Epictetus, whose school had long since relocated from Rome to Greece, died when Marcus was still a boy, so they almost certainly never met. However, as Marcus’s education proceeded, he would enjoy the company of older men who had most likely attended Epictetus’s lectures and were studying The Discourses transcribed by Arrian. In The Meditations, Marcus names Epictetus as an exemplary philosopher alongside Socrates and Chrysippus,10 and quotes him more than any other author. Indeed, Marcus clearly came to view himself as a follower of Epictetus. However, his family probably assumed that his education would focus on learning rhetoric from eminent Sophists, especially once he was designated a future emperor.