How to Think Like a Roman Emperor

The Story of my Book on the Stoicism of Marcus Aurelius

I’ve recently finished writing my third book in a row about Marcus Aurelius. The most recent was a prose biography of his life, for Yale University Press’ Ancient Lives series, which focuses on how Stoic philosophy shaped his character, and should be out around Spring 2024. Prior to that, I’d written a graphic novel about him called Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, which was chosen by Amazon as an Editor’s Pick for Best History Book. However, the first in the trilogy was a self-help book called How to Think about a Roman Emperor, which combined history, philosophy and self-improvement advice based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

How to Think Like a Roman Emperor came out in 2019 and was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. It was an instant bestseller, far outselling any of my previous books on Stoicism, and is currently approaching a quarter of a million units — in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook. It has been translated into eighteen languages so far, including Greek, Japanese, German, Spanish, Arabic, and Persian. (But not French yet!) It has been read by groups of high school students and used on several university courses. I decided to write this article about it’s reception because it’s now been reviewed or rated by over three thousand readers on Amazon.

How I wrote Roman Emperor

I’d already written three books on Stoicism when I was invited, in 2018, to write another one, this time by St. Martin’s Press. I couldn’t simply write another introduction. I’d already done that with, Stoicism and the Art of Happiness, and there were plenty appearing by other authors. After thinking long and hard about it, I decided to write a different sort of book on Stoicism, one that focused on the example of a historical figure.

I asked myself how the Stoics themselves believed their philosophy should be taught and realized immediately that they would say that although books are valuable, role models are more important. So I reasoned that the best type of book would be one that focused on an actual Stoic from history. I also took inspiration from Plutarch’s Lives, which attempts to teach wisdom and virtue through biographical essays.

I tried to imagine that one day my daughter would read How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, to help me focus on expressing complicated ideas in plain language.

Finally, I also asked myself how to teach Stoicism to a child. I did this because my interest in subjects like philosophy and psychotherapy was originally academic and I know that sometimes I am in the habit of using technical language and arguments, which don’t appeal to everyone. I learned years ago to imagine explaining complex subjects to children — I believe it improves my own comprehension as well as the clarity of my writing. Luckily, I also had a real one ready to hand!

My daughter, Poppy, was about six or seven when I started writing How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. I was already used to telling her stories from Greek mythology, and also anecdotes from Diogenes Laertius’ Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers. So I tried to imagine that one day she would read How to Think Like a Roman Emperor, to help me focus on expressing complicated ideas in plain language.

At first, I thought about using Zeno of Citium, the founder of Stoicism, as an example. There are some good anecdotes about him but not enough for a whole book. Instead of the first great Stoic of antiquity, I chose to write about the last one, Marcus Aurelius. We know far more about Marcus than we do about any other Stoic philosopher, indeed perhaps more than we do about any other ancient philosopher whatsoever. Why? Well, because he was an emperor.

We have several surviving accounts of his rule, by Roman historians, several excellent modern biographies, and also some archaeological evidence, and other bits and pieces. We can say quite a lot about his life. I decided that by combining biographical vignettes about Marcus with explanations of Stoic philosophy, and relevant self-help techniques based on modern evidence-based psychotherapy, I could write a book that would stand apart from other introductions to the subject.

Now I’m working on a similar book about Socrates, which will hopefully be available soon. I’ve learned that it can be hard work to combine different genres like this but readers seem to appreciate the end result: history, philosophy, and psychology can potentially complement one another in interesting ways.