Donald J. Robertson
The initial reviews are in! Our new graphic novel, Verissimus the Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, currently has 4.7 stars on Amazon US (but 4.9 in my home of Canada!), 4.2 stars on Goodreads, and was chosen as Amazon Editor’s pick for Best History Book in July. You can read more reviews from bloggers here, including philosophy guy Greg Sadler’s awesome in-depth video review. Thanks very much to everyone who has already purchased a copy and posted a review!
I’ve been doing lots of interviews for podcasters but one of my favourites was definitely the Shaun Tabatt Show, where we were able to really discuss the background for Verissimus and creative process in more depth than normal. Let me know what you think and if you’d like to hear more!
NEWS: We’ve given away copies of the amazing poster below to competition winners but I’m hoping we can make these more widely available in the future because I think they look great. Would you want one?
Phenomenal book! I’ve genuinely enjoyed every page so far. The artwork is incredible, the book is bound well. Most importantly, the Stoic lessons are clear, concise, and really fun to consume in this format! I highly recommend this book… — Tucker Reynolds on Amazon
This was a delightful graphic novel!! I am big fan of books on Roman history and I love comics so this was the perfect graphic novel for me. A huge make or break for me in a graphic novel is always the art and I loved the art in this book… A really accessible and enjoyable text! Loved this!! — Literaryelise on Goodreads
The great thing about Verissimus is that it’s accessible to people of all levels of expertise. Not only will it introduce Stoicism to a new audience, but it will also help reinforce key details and concepts for those already familiar. — What is Stoicism? blog
As always, thanks for your support,
Donald Robertson
Τύχην στέργε
One of the most common questions I’m asked (honestly!) is what would make a good Stoic tattoo. If that surprises some people, it makes perfect sense to others, myself included — yes, I’m in the pro-tattoo camp! In this article, I’ll talk about the concept of Stoic tattoos, give some example phrases, and then talk about a Stoic tattoo I had done recently in Athens.
First off, Stoicism tattoos are definitely a thing. I’ve seen countless photos of people with Marcus Aurelius tattoos and the occasional quote from Seneca. There are Pinterest boards of Stoicism tattoo ideas, a blog article listing examples, and it’s a recurring question on the Stoicism Subreddit. We were paid the ultimate compliment recently when someone, out of the blue, sent us a photo of a tattoo based on artwork by Zé Nuno Fraga, the award-winning illustrator of our Stoicism graphic novel, Verissimus: the Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius.
There is, however, a logical reason for getting a Stoic tattoo. Not out of vanity, because it looks cool, but as a mnemonic or reminder.
It’s pretty unlikely that any ancient Stoics had tattoos. Generally, tattooing was perceived by the Greeks and Romans as a “barbarian” practice. Most slaves were of barbarian origins and it was also common, at times, to tattoo marks of ownership on slaves, e.g., on the forehead. So, basically, that would mean walking around classical Athens or the Roman Empire with a tattoo risked making you look like a slave — something you would definitely want to avoid! (Of course, a handful of Stoics were freed slaves, or barbarian immigrants, who may perhaps have had tattoos.) The ancient Scythians, in particular, were known for their elaborate animal-themed tattoos. They reputedly even inked their infants, something we couldn’t resist depicting in our graphic novel because a tattooed baby, thankfully, is not something you see every day!
There is, however, a logical reason for getting a Stoic tattoo. Not out of vanity, because it looks cool, but as a mnemonic or reminder. The Stoics followed in the footsteps of Socrates and, like their famous Athenian forebear, they were known for modelling themselves, in certain respects on the Spartans. Among other things, some of the Stoics, especially Zeno, the founder of the school, had a habit of speaking laconically. The word “laconic” means terse, a man (or woman) of few words. It comes from Lakonia, the geographical region in which the ancient city of Sparta was located. In other words, talking laconically means talking like a Spartan. For example, when Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great’s father, was conquering Greece with his army, he sent a series of warnings to Sparta concluding with the threat that if he defeated Sparta, he would enter their city, and destroy it completely. The Spartans sent back a one word response: “If” — that’s what we mean by laconic.
Someone complained to Zeno, the founder of Stoicism. once that his philosophical arguments were extremely laconic, or short on words. He jokingly replied that, yes, they were, and if he could he would even go further and abbreviate the syllables. That, I am certain, is because the Stoics valued simplicity and plain speaking, but also because they wanted philosophical arguments, and sayings, to be easy to memorize. It’s also why the Stoics are so quotable and one of our main sources of ancient aphorisms — it’s one of the main reasons we still remember their philosophy today. Because Stoic philosophical maxims are so laconic, in other words, they’re very Tweetable, and also very tattooable!
Another obvious phrase is the famous slogan of Epictetus, endure and renounce, or anechou kai apechou in Greek…
There’s a great example of this in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, where he basically explains that he’s condensing down the key ideas of his two favourite philosophers, Epictetus and Heraclitus, into two short phrases. In Greek they are only three words each: ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις meaning “the universe is change; life is opinion” (Meditations, 4.3).
The first means that everything in the physical universe is impermanent, Heraclitus’ famous doctrine of panta rhei, everything flows. The second, which confuses some people, refers to one of the main Stoic doctrines of Epictetus: “It’s not things that upset us but rather our opinions about them.” In other words, Marcus certainly doesn’t mean that everything is subjective but rather that our opinions shape our emotions, and thereby the quality of our life. We used that Greek slogan for the logo design on the Stoicon 2017 conference t-shirt — threw in a pretty metal-looking owl of Athena for wisdom and a memento mori skull — and they sold like hot cakes!
Another obvious phrase is the famous slogan of Epictetus, endure and renounce, or anechou kai apechou in Greek, probably an allusion to the cardinal virtues of courage and temperance. There are countless examples, though, of laconic phrases or aphorisms in Stoic texts, in both Greek and Latin. Bit of trivia: many Latin sayings from Seneca and other Roman thinkers were traditionally used on clocks and sundials. Those would also be a good source of inspiration for tattoos. How about a few more classics?
Memento mori — everyone’s favourite! “Remember you must die”, Epictetus, though not quoting the phrase, refers in passing to slaves whispering such phrases in the ears of triumphing Roman generals
Amor fati — “love your fate”, the Latin saying actually seems to have been coined by Nietzsche, although (deep trivia) there is an ancient Greek saying that means the same thing
Carpe diem — “seize the day”, which everyone knows from the movie Dead Poets Society; it’s a quote from the Roman poet Horace, who had studied, and wrote about both Epicureanism and Stoicism
I’ve got three tattoos. I’ve always liked the idea of getting a tattoo in cities I want to remember. I love Athens and have spent a lot of time there, researching and writing books on philosophy. (I am a dual British/Canadian citizen, but also now a Greek permanent resident.) I’ve been thinking for a long time about getting a Greek tattoo that would remind me of some fundamental Stoic teaching. Earlier this year, I went to one of the best tattoo parlours in Athens, Acanomuta. The owner is a great guy, super fast, and talented, and probably one of the few tattooists in the world who has no tattoos himself!
I believe it’s one of the earliest Stoic quotes, and to me at least, it’s one of the most important.
The phrase I got, in ancient Greek, is Οὐδὲν δεινὸν πέπονθας or “Nothing terrible has happened to you”. I believe it’s one of the earliest Stoic quotes, and to me at least, it’s one of the most important. Zeno, the founder of the school, suffered terribly, at first, from shyness. He trained for years under the Cynic philosopher Crates of Thebes, who taught him the practice of shamelessness to get over his social anxiety. Crates instructed Zeno to go and walk around the Kerameikos district of Athens, the old cemetery and potters’ district, where prostitutes also worked. He was to do so carrying a bowl of lentil soup, though, which clearly made him feel ridiculous and ashamed. (It was perhaps kind of a weird thing to do, in a pretty crowded area.)
Zeno nervously tried to hide the soup underneath his shawl, but Crates spotted him, and smashed it with his wooden staff, causing the lentil soup to dribble down his student’s legs. Zeno started to panic, presumably because he felt really embarrassed now. The prostitutes were probably laughing at him, and we can imagine a few toothless old ladies trying to solemnly attend to the tombs of their relatives, were turning their heads and glaring at him with severe disapproval. Zeno freaked out, and tried to run, but Crates stopped him, saying: “Nothing terrible has happened to you!” What did he mean?
It’s actually a beautifully laconic expression of one of the central doctrines of Stoicism. The Stoics believed that we impose our values on external events, which, by nature, are actually neutral. Sensations, for instance, happen to us, but we judge them to be good or bad, and project those values onto them. Something causes us to fuse those two ingredients together, though, so we tend to forget what we’re doing and treat them as if they were one basic experience of a “bad sensation”, such as “Argh, this pain is awful!” Epictetus, for instance, liked to tell his students “Do not say Alas!” (or WTF?). If someone, he says, is put in prison, you can tell yourself “He has gone to prison”, but there is no need to add the complaint “Alas!”
The Stoics think we need to remind ourselves to keep these two elements separate as one comes from outside, and the other from within. We should realize that we don’t need to impose strong value judgements on our experiences, we can just view them more objectively, with Stoic indifference. In other words, quite literally, nothing “terrible” had happened to Zeno. Some soup was running down his legs. That’s just a physical sensation, neither good nor bad in itself. The “terrible” part came from within, from his own opinion about it being shameful. Other people might see it as funny, or indifferent, or as mildly awkward but not terrible — he didn’t need to view it as terrible.
The Stoics would say that’s true of life in general. “There’s nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so”, as Hamlet puts it. Physical events happen to us, and we add our value judgements to them. Strictly speaking, then, nothing terrible ever happens to us.
Do you have, or are you thinking about getting, a Stoic tattoo? Please let us know in the comments. For new ideas, check out our graphic novel, Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius.
I’ve published about seven books so far on philosophy and psychotherapy. People often ask about one book but aren’t aware of the others so I’ve put together a short article explaining what they’re about. If you’re interested, you can see more info on my publications, including journal articles, some foreign translations, and books on psychotherapy not mentioned below, on my Google Scholar, Goodreads, and Amazon profile pages.
This is a prose biography of Marcus Aurelius, which will be part of the new Yale University Press Ancient Lives series, edited by James Romm. This book is finished and should (I think) be published around Spring 2023. This was the third book that I wrote in a row about Marcus Aurelius. It focuses on how Stoic philosophy influenced his life, and his rule as emperor, and how his personal relationships shaped and reveal aspects of his character. For instance, the first chapter focuses on Marcus’ relationship with his mother. I’ll publish more details on social media as they become available.
Verissimus is a graphic novel, published in July 2022, by St, Martin’s Press. It tells the story of Marcus Aurelius’ life in comic-book panels, with a lot of emphasis on his study and application of Stoic philosophy, particularly how it helped him to conquer his anger.
This was the second of three books that I wrote about the life of Marcus Aurelius, and how it connected with his philosophy. The graphic novel format meant that it’s a very different experience, though, from reading a prose biography or a self-help book. I wrote this book for adults – it’s a graphic novel not a comic – but I have to admit that a lot of readers have said their kids were attracted to the cover design and artwork, and stole their copy!
How to Think Like a Roman Emperor (2019) is a self-help book. Most of the chapters begin with an anecdote from the life of Marcus Aurelius, closely based on the surviving historical sources. This is followed by a discussion of how Stoic philosophy can be applied in daily life, and then a comparison with techniques from modern cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT), which draw on my clinical background as a psychotherapist.
When I first proposed this book the title and the idea of combining three genres (history, philosophy, and psychology) seemed controversial – like a bit of a gamble – but it worked. Roman Emperor is my most popular book. It was the number one bestselling philosophy book in the US in the weeks following its release and was reviewed in the Wall Street Journal. It’s since been translated into eighteen different languages.
Stoicism and the Art of Happiness (2013) is part of Hodder’s popular Teach Yourself series. It was so popular that a revised second edition was published in 2018, which added an extra chapter on death contemplation. This is a self-help book, which provides careful instructions on how to apply Stoic practices in daily life. It also includes many comparisons with cognitive-behavioural therapy and other evidence-based psychological strategies.
The Teach Yourself series follows a strict and well-established format. Chapters begin with relevant quotes, and short quizzes, and include practical exercises, guides to terminology, key points to remember, examples, recommended reading, etc. It’s designed to make it easy to put the advice into practice in daily life.
Build your Resilience (2012) was my first book for Hodder’s Teach Yourself series. It’s a self-help book about what psychologists call “emotional resilience training”, which is basically training in preventative strategies designed to reduce the risk of mental health problems in the future by making you more able to cope with stressful situations. Like Stoicism and the Art of Happiness, it follows a strict self-help guide format, with lots of info boxes, and practical steps described.
Resilience building draws heavily on cognitive-behavioural therapy but I mainly focused on recent “third-wave” approaches, particularly Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). There are also chapters discussing research on resilience and vulnerability, and evidence-based approaches to relaxation techniques, worry management, and problem-solving. This book contains a lot of practical psychological advice – I wrote it partly to be used by my own CBT clients and trainee therapists. However, it also contains a chapter on Stoicism and references to Stoicism are interspersed throughout, comparing Stoic concepts and techniques to the evidence-based psychological approaches employed in modern resilience training.
The Philosophy of CBT (2010) was my first book on Stoicism. I’d already been researching the subject, writing about it, speaking about it at conferences, etc., for over a decade before I decided to publish a book. So it contains a wealth of research on the history of philosophy and psychotherapy. My first degree is in philosophy (Aberdeen) and my masters was in philosophy and psychotherapy, at an interdisciplinary centre in Sheffield University. I then trained in counselling and psychotherapy, which became my profession. I wanted to do a PhD about Stoic philosophy and cognitive-behavioural therapy but couldn’t find a university department with a suitably qualified supervisor. So, to cut a long story short, I ended up just writing a book, instead of a dissertation, which was published in the UK by Karnac.
Karnac were later bought by Routledge, who commissioned me to produce a revised second edition in 2020, as the book had become so popular. The new edition contains an additional chapter focusing on more recent “third-wave” approaches to cognitive-behavioural therapy, and how they compare to Stoicism. I was surprised at its reception because it was intended as an academic publication, aimed at philosophers and psychologists – but very few of them read it! Instead, by accident, it somehow reached a “lay” audience, who embraced it as a sort of self-help guide to Stoicism. So I accidentally found myself making the transition from academic researcher and writer, to self-help author.
I’ve also contributed chapters to several books on Stoicism.
Wow. You really don’t know anything about this philosophy do you, but you’re outraged about what you (incorrectly) think that it teaches. Why not just go read a book about it, educate yourself a little, and learn what Stoicism is before rage-posting on articles about it?
Why do you believe he was he “bloodthirsty”? (What are your source?) Which Greek “pseudo philosophers” are you talking about? (Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, was not Greek.) You’ve written “the inspiration for Plato and Aristotle” — is that a typo? I’m not talking, at all, about the inspiration for Plato or Aristotle in this article.
Zé is the illustrator of Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius. He won best newcomer (“Revelation Award”) at the 30th annual National Comics Awards, in Portugal, organized by Festival Amadora BD in 2020. You can follow him on Instagram or Patreon.
My previous comic was about an ancient Greek play, the Assemblywomen of Aristophanes. So although that one was a comedy, I didn’t have to change style very much. The main difference from Assemblywomen is that the facial expressions were exaggerated whereas now I have Stoic and philosophical characters doing deep sage expressions all the time.
I do the sketch and ‘inks’ in pencil and then I scan it and paint it digitally.
My work strays from all of the mainstream superhero comic genre and even sword-and-sorcery. It’s actually the toga-and-sandals genre! As to influences, the names I’ll say are too good to be so, their quality is outside of my grasp, so to be more precise I admire them — Juan Gimenez, Sergio Toppi. Then outside of comic Pieter Brueghel and Hieronymus Bosch.
I drew very Manga-ish at the beginning because I’d copy Anime/Manga that I liked. But eventually my Manga absolutist phase ended and my style evolved to being more personal and more European but there can be Japanese traces too.
I was studying computer engineering but I’d spend the classes drawing instead of paying attention to the professor. In time I became somewhat decent at it and decided I should study art. (That was silly, I was actually still terrible.) My father somehow let me do this instead of sending me to work on construction sites. If a son of mine does this to me, I’ll totally send him to construction or maybe to the mines.
I couldn’t go to fine arts as I didn’t have the required high school subjects, but I found that in Spain there were art studies I could attend so I went there as an artistic refugee and was granted asylum — actually, it was just 150 miles away! 🙂 I studied illustration and comics there. While I was there, I got to go on a student exchange program to Japan. So I became a refugee from my refuge and I had some Manga classes with a teacher who used an electronic translator to talk with me. But we mostly communicated through grunts, howls and facial expressions. The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan five centuries ago, their communication was probably similar.
Maybe subconsciously but I didn’t watch any movies to prepare for this. I did however watch many Roman movies/series throughout my life like Ben-Hur or the more recent HBO Rome. Donald did send me some Roman documentaries, I watched those.
Donald and I were already doing small Stoic comic strips after we E-met and he liked my art. Then a senior editor for a big US publishing house saw the strips and suggested making a graphic novel.
As an illustrator, the dream and prophetic sequences are the best. I can flee from the monotony of realism and draw rabid lion-headed men, women birthing monstrous snakes and other lovely things…
The unnamed slave tutor of young Marcus. He corrects Hadrian’s mistake while the noble court fawns. He was the first Verissimus who then passed the torch of truthfulness and Stoicism to Marcus. Also he farms and I like farming. This year, although the frost ruined all my pumpkin plants and mice ate all the beet roots, I thought to myself: be like the mighty slave tutor. So I let my beard grow and found strength!
As I had only read The Meditations, but nothing biographical on Marcus, it was good getting to know about his personal side and his struggles. For example, not cutting the heads of those who bad-mouthed his family. How many rulers with the power to do so didn’t cut off heads? How many heads would I have cut off by now if I was emperor?! None, I hope; many I suspect!
“Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.”
When I first read that, I found it funny how our current society functions opposite to it — “Choose to feel harmed when you haven’t been. Feel harmed and you have been.” — Antimarcus.
And also these:
“The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. Your soul takes on the color of your thoughts.”
“I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled? What is outside my mind means nothing to it. Absorb that lesson and your feet stand firm.” I decided to absorb that lesson!
Before reading the Stoics, I was always gloomy, depressed, and lamenting my circumstances; a hostage to my thoughts. Then I started arbitrating over those thoughts, purging every useless thought as soon as it popped into my head. Shortly after applying this mind discipline, those thoughts started diminishing until they ceased. This should be basic knowledge. Just as we learn to use our legs to walk, we should learn to use our brain.
It follows some biological workings, I’ve learned. The more we use certain neurological synapses, the more they grow and we get recurrently stuck in those thought patterns. Cease to use them and they wither away. So without any change to my circumstances, I was now a happy man and the quality of my life improved exponentially.
Also interesting to note how we have an arbiter over thoughts…and that we are the arbiter, not the thoughts. Is the artiber just another brain process or…the soul? Neurosurgeons have found that the process of choosing not to go forward with an action shows no brain activity. There’s the activity of the action, but no new activity in its canceling. It’s the mysterious arbiter!
How to manage barbarian hordes at the border of the empire! Not just literally, but philosophically as well! The empire is our mind. The barbarian hordes, the thoughts.
Why do you think Stoicism has to do with ignoring children’s feelings? (You’re mistaken about that.) Also, Stoicism did not exist 3000 years ago!
Our graphic novel, Verissimus: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, was published by St. Martin’s on 12th July. There are lots of early reviews of Verissimus already on Goodreads. This post contains a video review by Greg Sadler and links to various other reviews by bloggers. (If I’ve missed one, post it in the comments section below please!)
There was also a more critical review in Publisher’s Weekly: the reviewer thought the story packed in too much history and philosophy.
You may also be interested in this Medium article on How I wrote Verissimus, or the interview I did for The Comic Vault. You can preview a sample 30 pages including artwork from Verissimus on Google Books.
