On: Being content with whatever comes our way.

In 67 AD, during the reign of Emperor Nero, a senator and stoic philosopher named Paconius Agrippinus was accused of treason and put on trial.

When he learned of the trial, it was the 5th hour of the day (I believe roughly 9–10 AM in ancient Rome).

He said, “I hope it may turn out well. Let us go and take our exercise.”

This was a time he would regularly exercise.

His father before him had faced the same accusation, and was executed under Emperor Tiberius.

He therefore had an idea of what was in store for him.

After he finished exercising, he was informed that the trial had concluded and that he had been sentenced.

He then asked, “To death or to banishment?”

“Banishment,” he was told.

Then he said, “Let us go to Aricia then, and dine.”

It is said that in ancient Rome, banishment was one of the harshest sentences one could get, right after death.

When banished, you lost all civic rights and your Roman citizenship was taken away.

So why would a man under trial be concerned with exercising?

Why, after receiving such a heavy sentence, would he go on to dine as if nothing had happened?

Lessons:

-Most of us are either terrified by the thought of death or falsely believe it won’t come for us.

-We think we can and want to control every variable in our lives at all times, and refuse to accept that we have little control over a lot of things that happen to us.

-We fail to practice how to behave in the face of great uncertainties and pain.

Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher who wrote about Agrippinus’s ordeal, writes that the most important thing to practice in life is how to be content with whatever comes our way.

He writes, “For I must die. If now, I’m ready to die. If, after a short time, I now dine, because it’s the dinner hour; after this, I will then die.”

The key takeaway here is to avoid wasting time, energy and mental bandwidth on things beyond our control.

Doing anything different keeps us from enjoying life, as it’s like trying to hold onto something that belongs to someone else.