hstry

Moments

Down is later in time, five years to a row. Swipe a row for what else happened in those years. The map and timeline follow the card in the middle.

480 BCESalamis

2,505 years ago

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Swipe or tap the line. Bars: entries. Dots: events.

Athens and the Greek world480–⁠322 BCE

480–⁠476 BCE3 moments, swipe

Event

480 BCE, Salamis

The Greek fleet beats the Persians at Salamis

Off the island of Salamis the Greek fleet sinks most of the Persian ships in the battle. Herodotus says the Greeks fought in line while the Persian ships lost their order.

Nothing here for 475–⁠466 BCE

465–⁠461 BCE1 moment

Nothing here for 460–⁠451 BCE

450–⁠446 BCE3 moments, swipe

Event

447 BCE, Athens

Work begins on the Parthenon

Under Pericles, Athens starts building a new temple of Athena on the Acropolis, with Ictinus and Callicrates as architects and Pheidias overseeing the work.

445–⁠441 BCE7 moments, swipe

Sophocles

c. 441 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Antigone defies Creon

I didn't think your orders were strong enough for a human to override the gods' unwritten laws. Those laws are forever, and nobody knows where they began.

Sophocles

c. 441 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Haemon begs his father to bend

Even a wise person loses nothing by learning and bending a little. Trees that bend in a flood survive; stiff ones are torn out by the roots.

Sophocles

c. 441 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Creon on disobedience

Nothing is worse than disobedience. It wrecks cities, ruins homes and makes armies break and run.

Sophocles

c. 441 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Teiresias warns Creon

Everyone makes mistakes. The one who fixes his mistake instead of digging in is not a fool; stubbornness is what looks foolish.

Nothing here for 440–⁠436 BCE

435–⁠431 BCE12 moments, swipe

Socrates

c. 433 BCE, Athens, the house of Callias

Socrates says no one does evil willingly

Nobody chooses what they think is bad over the good, it seems. Forced to pick between two bad things, nobody takes the worse one.

Pericles

set in 432 BCE, Athens

Pericles urges Athens to guard the sea

Forget our farms and houses. Guard the sea and the city, and don't let anger over our land drag us into a battle against bigger armies.

Pericles

set in 432 BCE, Athens

Pericles warns Athens of its own blunders

I have good reason to hope we'll come through, if we don't chase new conquests or extra risks during the war. I fear our own mistakes more than the enemy's plans.

Euripides

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Medea on the lot of women

Of every living, feeling thing, women have it worst. First we pay a huge price for a husband, then we have to accept him as our master.

Euripides

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Medea on childbirth and battle

People say women live safe at home while men go to war. That is a poor argument: I would rather stand in battle three times than give birth once.

Euripides

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Medea on being too clever

A sensible parent should not have their children taught to be too clever. People will call them idle, and their fellow citizens will resent them.

Euripides

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

The Chorus in Medea on a world reversed

The world is turned upside down, like rivers flowing backwards. Now it is men who scheme and break their sworn promises.

Euripides

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Medea on passion over reason

I finally see how terrible the thing I am about to do is. But passion, the source of the worst human misery, has beaten my better judgement.

Euripides

431 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Medea's Nurse on moderation

Moderation is the best thing to talk about and the best way to live. Greatness that overreaches brings people no good.

Thucydides

431 BCE, written later, Athens

Thucydides opens his history of the war

I started writing about this war the moment it began, because I thought it would be a great war, more worth telling than any before it.

Event

431 BCE, Attica

Spartan army invades Attica

King Archidamus leads the Spartans and their allies into the farmland around Athens while the Athenians stay behind their walls.

430–⁠426 BCE35 moments, swipe

Event

430 BCE, Athens

Plague breaks out in Athens

Soon after the Spartans invade again, a deadly epidemic strikes the crowded city. Thucydides, who caught it himself, says no one remembered one so deadly.

Thucydides

430 BCE, written later, Athens

Thucydides on the plague in Athens

At first doctors didn't know how to treat it, and they died in the greatest numbers, because they saw the sick most. Prayers and oracles were no use either, until people gave them up.

Thucydides

430 BCE, written later, Athens

Thucydides on the plague he caught

I'll just describe the symptoms, so it might be recognized if it ever comes back. I can, because I caught it myself and watched it in others.

Thucydides

430 BCE, written later, Athens

Thucydides on how the plague changed people

Rich people dropped dead and the poor inherited overnight. So people openly did what they used to hide, and spent fast, as if life and money could vanish tomorrow.

Pericles

set in 431/430 BCE, Athens

Pericles on Athenian democracy

We don't copy other states; they copy us. Our government serves the many, not the few. That's why it's called a democracy.

Pericles

set in 431/430 BCE, Athens

Pericles on freedom in daily life

Our freedom reaches daily life too. We don't spy on each other or get angry at a neighbor for living as he likes, not even with dirty looks.

Pericles

set in 431/430 BCE, Athens

Pericles on wealth and poverty

We love beauty without waste and learning without going soft. Money is for using, not showing off. Being poor isn't shameful; not trying to escape it is.

Pericles

set in 431/430 BCE, Athens

Pericles praises Athens

Our city is the school of Greece. I doubt anyone anywhere can handle as much on their own, and as gracefully, as an Athenian.

Pericles

set in 431/430 BCE, Athens

Pericles honors the war dead

Heroes are buried everywhere. Even far from home, with no stone to mark them, people remember them in their hearts.

Pericles

set in 430 BCE, Athens

Pericles calls Athens' empire a tyranny

We can't back out now. To be blunt, what you hold is a tyranny. Taking it may have been wrong, but letting it go is dangerous.

Thucydides

430 BCE, written later, Athens

Thucydides on Pericles

When the people got cocky, he could scare them with a word; when they panicked, he calmed them. It was called a democracy, but really one man led it.

Event

429 BCE, Athens

Pericles dies

Pericles, Athens' leading statesman, dies about two and a half years into the war.

Sophocles

c. 429 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Oedipus on his city's sickness

You are all suffering, but none of you as much as I am. You each feel your own pain; I feel the city’s, my own and yours at once.

Sophocles

c. 429 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Oedipus demands to learn his birth

Let whatever happens happen. Even if I come from nothing, I need to know where I come from.

Sophocles

c. 429 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Iocasta on living at random

Why should a person be afraid, if luck rules everything and nobody can see what is coming? Better to just live as it comes.

Sophocles

c. 429 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

The Chorus on calling no mortal happy

Look how far he has fallen. So until someone’s last day has come and gone without disaster, do not call them happy.

Pericles

set in 429 BCE, Athens

Pericles on his deathbed

Why praise what I owe as much to luck as to myself, and what other generals did too? My best claim is this: no Athenian alive ever had to mourn because of me.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Greece

Herodotus on why he wrote his Histories

I wrote this so people won't forget what humans did: the great deeds of Greeks and non-Greeks alike, and why they went to war.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Greece

Herodotus on every nation's own customs

Ask every people on earth to pick the best customs, and each would pick its own. Everyone is sure their ways are best.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Persia

Herodotus says custom is lord of all

A people who ate their dead parents were horrified at the idea of burning them. Beliefs run that deep. Custom rules everyone, I think.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Egypt

Herodotus on Egypt's reversed customs

Egypt has its own weather and its own river, and mostly the opposite customs. Women trade at the market; men stay home and weave.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Egypt

Herodotus on Persian and Egyptian skulls

I saw something strange where the battle was fought: the Persian skulls are so brittle a pebble would go through them, while the Egyptian ones barely crack under a stone.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Sardis

Croesus on war and peace

Nobody is foolish enough to choose war over peace. In peace, children bury their parents. In war, parents bury their children.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Thermopylae

Herodotus on the last stand at Thermopylae

They fought with swords if they still had them, and with hands and teeth. The enemy buried them under missiles from the front and from all sides.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Thermopylae

The Spartans' epitaph at Thermopylae

The Spartans' own epitaph: Stranger, go tell the Spartans that we lie here, obedient to their orders.

Herodotus

c. 430–425 BCE, Abydos

Xerxes weeps over his army

Xerxes said he felt pity: life is so short that of all these men, not one will be alive in a hundred years.

Thucydides

427 BCE, written later, Corcyra

Thucydides on revolution in the cities

Civil war brings horrors that will keep happening as long as people are people. In good times we behave better; war takes away the basics and drags most people down with it.

Thucydides

427 BCE, written later, Corcyra

Thucydides on words changing meaning

Words flipped their meaning. Recklessness was called loyal courage, caution was called cowardice, and seeing both sides meant you were useless.

Thucydides

427 BCE, written later, Corcyra

Thucydides on the moderates caught between sides

Neither side respected religion, but nice words for ugly goals were admired. The moderates in the middle were killed, for staying out or out of envy.

425–⁠421 BCE16 moments, swipe

Event

425 BCE, Pylos

Spartans surrender on Sphacteria

Spartan soldiers trapped on the island of Sphacteria near Pylos give up. About 120 Spartans are among the prisoners taken to Athens.

Thucydides

424 BCE, written later, in exile

Thucydides on his exile

I lived through all of it, old enough to understand it. I was exiled for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis, which let me watch both sides closely.

Aristophanes

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

A disciple of Socrates on the flea

Socrates recently asked Chaerephon how many of its own feet a flea can jump, after one bit Chaerephon and leapt onto Socrates’ head.

Aristophanes

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Strepsiades on the gnat's trumpet

So a gnat's backside is a trumpet! What insight. Surely anyone who understands gnat guts could easily get off in court.

Aristophanes

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Strepsiades learns of Vortex

Vortex? I somehow missed that Zeus does not exist and Vortex rules in his place.

Aristophanes

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Strepsiades on the better and worse cause

They say these people have two arguments, the better and the worse, and that the worse one wins even though it argues for what is unjust.

Aristophanes

423 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Phidippides argues for beating fathers

Wasn’t that law first proposed by a man like you or me? So why can’t I propose a new law that sons get to beat their fathers?

Event

422 BCE, Amphipolis

Cleon and Brasidas both die at Amphipolis

Athens tries to retake Amphipolis and loses. Both leaders die: the Athenian Cleon while fleeing, the Spartan Brasidas after hearing of his victory.

Event

421 BCE, Athens and Sparta

The Peace of Nicias

Athens and Sparta sign a peace in spring, about ten years after the war began.

420–⁠416 BCE11 moments, swipe

Euripides

c. 420–413 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Orestes on judging a man's worth

You cannot measure a person’s worth exactly. I have seen worthless sons of great fathers, good children of bad parents, poor souls in the rich and great souls in the poor.

Euripides

c. 420–413 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Orestes on judging a man's worth

So how do you judge these things properly? By money? That's a poor test.

Euripides

c. 420–413 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

A peasant in Euripides on wealth

Money matters for hosting guests and paying for the sick. But for everyday food it counts for little: a full stomach is the same for rich and poor.

Euripides

c. 420–413 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

Clytemnestra defends herself

Women can be foolish, granted. But when a husband cheats, his wife may do the same, and then she gets all the blame while the man who started it does not.

Event

416 BCE, Melos

Athens takes Melos and kills its men

The neutral island of Melos refuses to join Athens. After a siege it surrenders; the Athenians kill the men and sell the women and children as slaves.

Socrates

set in 416 BCE, Athens, Agathon's house

Socrates on Love as the best helper

Diotima told me this, and I believe it: to win this prize, the best helper human nature can find is Love.

Thucydides

416 BCE, written later, Melos

Athenian envoys to Melos on the strong and weak

In the real world, fairness only comes up between equals in power. Otherwise the strong do what they can and the weak put up with what they must.

Thucydides

416 BCE, written later, Melos

The Athenian envoys to Melos on power

Gods, we think, and people, we know, rule wherever they can. We didn't invent that rule, we just use it, and you would too in our place.

415–⁠411 BCE7 moments, swipe

Event

415 BCE, Piraeus

The great fleet sails for Sicily

Around midsummer the Athenians go down to Piraeus at dawn and man their ships for the expedition against Sicily.

Socrates

c. 420–410 BCE, Outside the walls of Athens, by the Ilissus

Socrates on why he stays in the city

Sorry, I love learning. Trees and fields don't teach me anything. People in the city do.

Thucydides

c. 431–400 BCE, Greece

Thucydides on how he wrote the speeches

It was always hard to remember speeches word for word, so I wrote what I thought each speaker needed to say, staying as close as I could to the gist of what they really said.

Thucydides

c. 431–400 BCE, Greece

Thucydides on a possession for all time

My history may be less fun without legends. But if it helps people understand the future, which will look a lot like the past, that's enough. I wrote it to last.

Thucydides

413 BCE, written later, Sicily

Thucydides on the disaster in Sicily

In my view the biggest event in Greek history: glorious for the winners, a catastrophe for the losers. Fleet, army, everything was destroyed, and few came home.

410–⁠406 BCE4 moments, swipe

Xenophon

set in 406 BCE, Athens

Xenophon on the Arginusae generals

Some challenged the proposal as illegal. A few cheered, but most shouted that it was outrageous to stop the people doing whatever they wanted.

Xenophon

set in 406 BCE, Athens

Socrates alone holds to the law

Scared, the presiding officials agreed to put it to a vote. All but Socrates, who said he would only act within the law.

Event

c. 406 BCE, Macedonia and Athens

Euripides and Sophocles die

Athens loses two of its three great tragic poets within about a year: Euripides, traditionally said to have died in Macedonia, and Sophocles in Athens.

405–⁠401 BCE11 moments, swipe

Xenophon

set in 405 BCE, Athens

Athens hears of the lost fleet

The bad news came at night. Wailing spread from the harbour up into the city, and no one slept, grieving for the dead and even more for themselves.

Event

404 BCE, Athens

Athens surrenders and its walls come down

Starved by siege, Athens accepts Sparta's terms. Lysander sails into Piraeus and the Peloponnesians begin tearing down the walls to flute music.

Event

404 BCE, Athens

The Thirty take power in Athens

After the surrender, Athens votes in thirty men, Critias among them, to write new laws. Backed by Sparta, they rule as an oligarchy.

Xenophon

set in 404 BCE, Athens

The walls of Athens come down

Lysander sailed into the harbour, the exiles came home, and the Peloponnesians happily tore down the walls to flute music, thinking Greece's freedom began that day.

Xenophon

set in 404–403 BCE, Athens

Theramenes on his way to execution

Led through the market, he shouted about the wrongs done to him. Told to keep quiet or suffer, he reportedly asked: and if I keep quiet, won't I suffer?

Xenophon

set in 404–403 BCE, Athens

The Thirty seize Athenians' lands

With Theramenes dead, the Thirty thought they could rule as tyrants without fear. They barred people from the city and took their land for themselves and their friends.

Socrates

c. 402 BCE, Athens

Socrates answers Meno on numbness

If that numbing fish is numb itself, then I'm like it. I don't confuse people because I'm sure. I confuse them because I'm the most unsure of all.

Sophocles

401 BCE, Athens (Theatre of Dionysus)

The Chorus on not being born

Best of all is never to be born. Second best, once you are born, is to go back where you came from as fast as you can.

400–⁠396 BCE21 moments, swipe

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates on what makes things beautiful

If someone says a thing is beautiful because of its color or shape, I ignore it. I hold, perhaps foolishly, that only beauty itself makes it beautiful.

Aspasia

by 399 BCE, Athens

Aspasia on honest matchmaking

Matchmaking only works when the good things you say about each side are true. People who were fooled end up hating each other and you.

Meletus

set in 399 BCE, Athens

The charge Meletus swore against Socrates

Socrates is charged with not accepting the city's gods, bringing in new ones, and corrupting the young. The penalty asked: death.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates and the oracle at Delphi

He went to Delphi and asked the oracle whether anyone was wiser than me. The priestess answered that no one was.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates on Aristophanes' comedy

You've all seen the Socrates in Aristophanes' comedy, floating around claiming to walk on air. I know nothing about any of that.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates answers Meletus at his trial

He says I corrupt the young. I say he's the wrongdoer: he drags people to court over things he never cared about.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates on the fear of death

Fearing death is pretending to know what you don't. Nobody knows death isn't the best thing of all, yet people fear it as the worst.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates on the unexamined life

Talking every day about how to be good, testing myself and others, is the best thing a person can do. A life without that isn't worth living.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates on what death might be

If death is like a deep sleep, it's a gain. If it's moving to a place where all the dead are, what could be better?

Socrates

399 BCE, Athens

Socrates as a midwife

Like a midwife, I can't give birth to wisdom myself. People say I only ask questions and never answer. They're right: the god made me a helper, not a maker.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens, the prison

Socrates in prison on living well

Let's check whether we still agree: what matters most is not living, but living well.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens, the prison

Socrates' last words

His last words: Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Pay it, don't forget.

Socrates

by 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates on having no wants

You think happiness is luxury. I think needing nothing is godlike, and needing as little as possible is the next best thing.

Socrates

set in 399 BCE, Athens

Socrates at his trial, as Plato tells it

If you kill me, a man like me, you will harm yourselves more than me. Meletus and Anytus cannot harm me; I believe God does not let a worse man harm a better one.

Nothing here for 395–⁠391 BCE

390–⁠386 BCE6 moments, swipe

Event

c. 387 BCE, Athens

Plato starts teaching at the Academy

Back in Athens from his travels, Plato makes his home at the Academy, a gymnasium outside the city walls, and his school takes its name.

Aspasia

c. 386 BCE, Athens

Aspasia's speech on how Athens is ruled

The people run most things and give power to whoever seems best. Being poor, weak or of unknown family neither bars you nor lifts you.

Socrates

c. 386 BCE, Athens

Socrates on Aspasia's funeral speech

Aspasia rehearsed a funeral speech for me yesterday. I imagine she pieced parts of it together from the one she wrote for Pericles.

Nothing here for 385–⁠381 BCE

380–⁠376 BCE2 moments, swipe

Xenophon

c. 399–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon on Socrates' death

By praising himself in court, Socrates made the jury angrier and his conviction surer. Still, I think he got a fate the gods love: he skipped the hardest part of life.

Xenophon

c. 399–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon on remembering Socrates

When I think about how wise and good he was, I can't forget him, and I can't remember him without praising him.

Nothing here for 375–⁠371 BCE

370–⁠366 BCE1 moment

365–⁠361 BCE5 moments, swipe

Xenophon

c. 371–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon answers the charge against Socrates

I keep wondering how the accusers convinced Athens to put Socrates to death. The charge: rejecting the city's gods, bringing in new ones, and corrupting the young.

Xenophon

c. 371–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon on how Socrates lived

Socrates lived in public: gyms in the morning, the market before noon, then wherever the crowds were. Usually talking, and anyone could listen.

Xenophon

c. 371–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon on Socrates and appetite

Socrates ate just enough to enjoy it. Hunger was his best sauce, and any drink tasted good because he only drank when thirsty.

Xenophon

c. 371–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon's verdict on Socrates

To me he was everything a truly good and happy man should be. If you doubt it, compare other people with him, then decide.

Xenophon

c. 371–354 BCE, Athens

Xenophon on how Socrates faced death

It's agreed there is no record of anyone facing death more nobly. He had to live thirty days after the verdict, because the law allowed no public execution until the sacred mission came back from Delos.

Nothing here for 360–⁠356 BCE

355–⁠351 BCE10 moments, swipe

Plato

c. 360–348 BCE, Athens

The Athenian Stranger on truth

For gods and people alike, truth is the first of all good things. If you want a happy life, start living by it from childhood.

Xenophon

by c. 354 BCE, Athens

Ischomachus on pots and pans

No serious person will laugh when I say even pots and pans look beautiful lined up neatly, however much a joker might.

Plato

c. 353 BCE, Athens

Plato's Seventh Letter on the Thirty

In no time these men made people miss the old government, and worst of all was how they treated my old friend Socrates, whom I would readily call the most just man alive.

350–⁠346 BCE6 moments, swipe

Diogenes

by 348 BCE, Athens

Diogenes and the plucked chicken

He plucked a chicken, brought it to the lecture and said: here's Plato's human. After that, with broad nails was added to the definition.

Diogenes

by 348 BCE, Athens

Diogenes tramples Plato's carpets

Plato had friends over who came from Dionysius. Diogenes walked all over his carpets: I'm trampling on Plato's vanity.

Plato

by 348 BCE, Athens

Plato answers Diogenes

You show off a lot of pride, Diogenes, by acting like you have none.

Event

c. 348/347 BCE, Athens

Plato dies, aged about eighty

Plato dies in Athens in his eighty-first year and is buried at the Academy. One story has him dying at a wedding feast.

345–⁠341 BCE1 moment

Alexander

c. 350–336 BCE, Macedon

Young Alexander on his father's victories

Every time his father took a city or won a battle, he told his friends: Dad will do everything first and leave nothing great for me.

340–⁠336 BCE6 moments, swipe

Diogenes

338 BCE, Philip's camp, after Chaeronea

Diogenes before Philip, in one story

One story, from Dionysius the Stoic: seized and brought to Philip, he was asked who he was. A spy on your endless greed, he said, and was set free.

Alexander

c. 336 BCE, Craneion, Corinth

Alexander visits Diogenes

Alexander came to see Diogenes, who was lying in the sun, greeted him, and asked if he wanted anything.

Alexander

c. 336 BCE, Corinth

Alexander on being Diogenes

His men were laughing at the philosopher. Alexander said: if I weren't Alexander, I would be Diogenes.

335–⁠331 BCE1 moment

330–⁠326 BCE18 moments, swipe

Diogenes

336–323 BCE

Diogenes meets Alexander

Alexander walked up and said: I am Alexander, the great king. And I, he answered, am Diogenes the Cynic.

Alexander

334–323 BCE, Asia, on campaign

Alexander writes to Aristotle

You shouldn't have published your private teachings. How will I stand out if everyone knows them? I'd rather excel in knowing the best things than in power.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on one swallow and happiness

Happiness takes a whole life. One swallow doesn't make spring, and one good day or a short good spell doesn't make you truly happy.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on becoming just by just acts

You become a builder by building and a harpist by playing. In the same way you become fair, self-controlled or brave by acting that way.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on being angry the right way

Anyone can get angry or spend money. Doing it with the right person, the right amount, at the right time, for the right reason, the right way: that's hard.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on friendship

Friendship is a virtue, or comes with one, and life can't do without it. No one would pick a life with every other good thing but no friends.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on friendship taking time

They take time and closeness. As the saying goes, you can't know someone until you've eaten a lot of salt together.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle puts truth before friends

Questioning this theory feels wrong, because its authors are our friends. But both friends and truth are dear to us, and our duty is to put truth first.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on man as a political animal

The city grows out of nature, and humans are by nature political animals. Someone unfit for society by nature is either less or more than human.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on the wisdom of the many

When many people come together, each brings some goodness and sense. Together they're like one person with many feet, hands and minds.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on what is held in common

What belongs to everyone gets looked after least. People care more about what's theirs than what they share, and neglect the shared things.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle answers Plato's Republic

I agree with Socrates that a city should be as united as it can be. But squeeze it too far and it stops being a city: it shrinks to a family, then one person.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle defines tragedy

One common reading: a tragedy acts out a serious, complete story in fine language, and through pity and fear it releases those very feelings.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on poetry and history

Poetry is deeper and higher than history: poetry tends to say what's true in general, history what happened in one case.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on Sophocles and Euripides

If a poem isn't true to life, the poet might say it shows things as they should be. Sophocles said he drew people as they should be; Euripides, as they are.

Aristotle

c. 335–322 BCE, Athens (Lyceum)

Aristotle on metaphor

The greatest gift by far is a talent for metaphor. No one can teach it; it marks genius, because good metaphors need an eye for likenesses.

325–⁠321 BCE11 moments, swipe

Event

323 BCE, Babylon

Alexander dies in Babylon

Alexander falls ill with a fever and dies in Babylon about ten days later.

Event

c. 324–321 BCE, Corinth

Diogenes the Cynic dies in Corinth

Diogenes dies at Corinth, nearly ninety by one account. One ancient writer says it was the same day Alexander died; modern scholars think that is likely legend.

Diogenes

by 323 BCE, Athens

Diogenes makes a tub his home

He asked someone to find him a small house. It was taking too long, so he moved into the tub at the Metroön instead.

Diogenes

by 323 BCE

Diogenes throws away his cup

He saw a child drinking from his hands and threw away his own cup: a child has beaten me at living simply.

Diogenes

by 323 BCE

Diogenes on his exile from Sinope

Mocked for being exiled, he said exile is what made him a philosopher. They banished me? I sentenced them to stay home.

Diogenes

by 323 BCE, Crete

Diogenes sold as a slave

At the auction, asked what he was good at, he said: ruling people. Then he pointed at a man in a fine purple-bordered robe: sell me to him, he needs a master.

Event

322 BCE, Chalcis

Aristotle dies at Chalcis

Facing a charge of impiety, Aristotle leaves Athens for Chalcis and dies there the next year.

Rome and its world100 BCE –⁠ 180 CE

Nothing here yet for the 220 years from 322 BCE to 100 BCE.

90–⁠86 BCE1 moment

Cato the Younger

c. 90 BCE

Cato as a boy, as Plutarch tells it

From childhood, it is said, he was stubborn, calm and unshakeable. He was cold to flatterers and even tougher with anyone who tried to scare him.

Nothing here for 85–⁠76 BCE

75–⁠71 BCE1 moment

Event

73–71 BCE, Italy

Spartacus leads a slave revolt across Italy

Escaped gladiators led by Spartacus raise an army of slaves and beat several Roman armies before Crassus crushes them. Plutarch says the young Cato served in the war as a volunteer.

Nothing here for 70–⁠66 BCE

65–⁠61 BCE9 moments, swipe

Cicero

63 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Cicero turns on Catiline in the Senate

Catiline, when will you stop abusing our patience? How long will your madness keep mocking us? When will your reckless swagger end?

Cicero

63 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Cicero denounces Catiline to his face

What times we live in! The Senate knows all this, the consul sees it, and still this man is alive. He even comes into the Senate.

Cicero

63 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Cicero advises Catiline to leave Rome

The consul orders an enemy to leave the city. Are you being exiled? I am not ordering it. But if you want my advice, I advise it.

Cicero

63 BCE, Rome

Cicero tells the people the city was saved

Romans, today you see the republic, your lives, families and this beautiful city saved from fire and sword, by the gods and by my work and risks.

Cicero

63 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Cicero tells the Senate he is ready to die

If something happens to me, I will die calm and ready. Death cannot shame a brave man, come too soon for a consul, or make a wise man miserable.

Cicero

63 BCE, Rome (the Forum)

Cicero announces the executions, in Plutarch

Seeing plotters in the forum still hoping the men were alive and could be rescued, he shouted that they had lived: the Roman way of saying someone is dead.

Cato the Younger

63 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Cato, Caesar and the note, in Plutarch

The note turned out to be a love letter from his sister to Caesar. He threw it to Caesar, called him a drunk, and went on with his speech.

60–⁠56 BCE5 moments, swipe

Event

c. 60 BCE, Rome

Caesar, Pompey and Crassus join forces

Caesar reconciles the two most powerful men in Rome, Pompey and Crassus, and the three work together to get what each wants. Historians later call it the First Triumvirate.

Cato the Younger

59 BCE, Rome (the Forum)

Cato dragged to prison, as Plutarch tells it

Only Cato spoke against the law, and Caesar had him dragged off to prison. He kept talking on the way, urging people to stop laws like this.

Event

58–50 BCE, Gaul

Caesar begins the conquest of Gaul

As governor, Caesar fights the peoples of Gaul for eight years and brings the whole country under Rome. He tells the story himself, in the third person.

Julius Caesar

58 BCE, Gaul

Caesar maps Gaul and its peoples

Gaul is split into three parts, each held by a different people. They all differ in language, customs and laws.

Cicero

58–57 BCE

Cicero in exile, as Plutarch tells it

Many visited him and Greek cities sent envoys, yet he spent most of his time in grief, gazing toward Italy like a heartbroken lover.

55–⁠51 BCE7 moments, swipe

Event

55–54 BCE, Britain

Caesar crosses the sea to Britain

Caesar takes two expeditions to Britain. He wins battles and takes hostages but leaves no army behind. He writes that his eagle-bearer led the men off the ships.

Julius Caesar

55 BCE, Gaul

Caesar on why he would cross to Britain

Even if there was too little of the season left for a war, just landing on the island would teach me about its people, harbours and landing places.

Julius Caesar

55 BCE, Britain

Caesar's eagle-bearer leaps in Britain

The soldier carrying the legion’s eagle shouted for the others to jump unless they wanted to lose it to the enemy, then leapt from the ship himself.

Julius Caesar

54 BCE, Britain

Caesar on Britons dyed with woad

The Britons all dye themselves blue with woad, which makes them look more frightening in battle. They wear their hair long.

Julius Caesar

52 BCE, Alesia

Caesar turns away the Mandubii at Alesia

The townspeople were sent out with their wives and children. Weeping, they begged the soldiers to take them as slaves and feed them. I posted guards and refused them.

Julius Caesar

52 BCE, Alesia

Caesar on the surrender of Vercingetorix

They sent envoys to me. I ordered their weapons and leaders handed over, sat in front of my camp, and they gave up Vercingetorix.

50–⁠46 BCE15 moments, swipe

Event

49 BCE, the Rubicon

Caesar crosses the Rubicon with his army

Caesar leads his army over the river that marked the edge of his province, which the law forbade. It starts a civil war with Pompey and the Senate.

Julius Caesar

49 BCE, the Rubicon

Caesar at the Rubicon, as Suetonius tells it

At the river that bordered his province, he stopped to think, then said: we can still turn back, but once we cross this little bridge, we have to fight it out.

Julius Caesar

49 BCE, the Rubicon

Caesar crosses the Rubicon, as Plutarch tells it

At last, as if giving up on calculation, he said what people say before a reckless plunge, let the die be cast, crossed the river and took Ariminum before dawn.

Event

48 BCE, Pharsalus

Caesar defeats Pompey at Pharsalus

In Greece, Caesar's smaller army routs Pompey's. Pompey flees to Egypt. Plutarch says Caesar groaned at the dead and blamed his enemies.

Event

48–47 BCE, Alexandria

Caesar takes Cleopatra's side in Egypt

Following Pompey to Egypt, Caesar finds him already killed. He backs Cleopatra against her brother, fights a war in Alexandria and makes her queen.

Julius Caesar

48 BCE, Pharsalus

Caesar on his speech before Pharsalus

I told my men I never wanted to waste their blood. They were eager to fight, and I had the trumpet sound the attack.

Julius Caesar

48 BCE, Egypt

Caesar on Pompey's killing in Egypt

He was greeted politely, drawn in because he knew a man who had once served under him, stepped into a small boat with a few friends, and was murdered.

Julius Caesar

47 BCE, Asia Minor

Caesar's three words, as Plutarch tells it

He won a big battle fast and wiped out the enemy army. Writing home to a friend, he summed it up in three words: came, saw, conquered.

Cato the Younger

46 BCE, Utica

Cato's last night, as Plutarch tells it

In bed he read Plato's dialogue on the soul. Looking up, he saw his sword was gone (his son had taken it) and asked a servant who took it.

Cato the Younger

46 BCE, Utica

Cato's last night, as Plutarch tells it

A child brought the sword. He checked it was sharp and said: Now I am my own master. Then he went back to his book, said to have read it twice.

45–⁠41 BCE18 moments, swipe

Event

44 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Caesar is stabbed to death in the Senate

A group of senators led by Brutus and Cassius kill Caesar at a Senate meeting. Suetonius, writing over a century later, counts the wounds.

Julius Caesar

44 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Caesar and the soothsayer, in Suetonius

Ignoring the bad omens, he walked in and teased the soothsayer: the Ides have come and nothing happened. The reply: they have come, but not passed.

Julius Caesar

44 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

The stabbing of Caesar, as Suetonius tells it

He was stabbed 23 times, groaning at the first blow without a cry. Some writers say that when Brutus attacked, he said: you too? You, my son!

Mark Antony

44 BCE, Rome (the Forum)

Antony at Caesar's funeral, in Plutarch

He gave the funeral speech for Caesar. Seeing the crowd moved, he mixed in grief and anger, and at the end held up Caesar’s bloody, slashed clothes.

Cicero

44 BCE, written later

Cicero on what we owe our country

As Plato put it so well, we are not born just for ourselves. Our country has a claim on us, and so do our friends.

Cicero

44 BCE, written later

Cicero on the fox and the lion

Wrong is done by force or by trickery. Both are beastly: trickery seems the fox's way, force the lion's. Both are beneath us, but trickery is worse.

Cicero

44 BCE, written later

Cicero on arms yielding to the toga

When I ran the state, didn't weapons give way to civilian rule? The republic was never in more danger, and never more at peace.

Cicero

44 BCE, written later

Cicero on Cato's choice to die

Cato was unbelievably stern by nature and never wavered from his purpose. For a man like him, dying was right rather than facing a tyrant.

Cicero

44 BCE, written later

Cicero on the hatred of the many

We just learned that no amount of power can survive the hatred of the many. This tyrant's death shows it, though the state still obeys him.

Cicero

44 BCE, written later, Italy

Cicero on his forced leisure

Armed treason keeps me out of politics and the courts, so I have time on my hands. I have left the city and wander the country, often alone.

Event

43 BCE, Italy

Cicero is killed on Antony's orders

Put on the list of the proscribed by Antony, Cicero is caught by soldiers on the coast. His head and hands are cut off and shown in Rome.

Cicero

43 BCE, Italy

The death of Cicero, as Plutarch tells it

Holding his chin in his left hand as he always did, worn out and unkempt, he stared at his killers. Most of those watching covered their faces.

Mark Antony

c. 41–40 BCE, Alexandria

Antony's idle days, as Plutarch tells it

There he lived for fun like an idle young man, spending on pleasures what one writer called the costliest thing of all: time.

Cleopatra

41 BCE, Asia Minor

Cleopatra sails to Antony, in Plutarch

He kept writing to summon her. She laughed at him and sailed up the river in a barge with a gilded stern with purple sails and silver oars, to music.

Cleopatra

41 BCE, Asia Minor

Plutarch on Cleopatra's charm

Her looks alone were not stunning, people said. It was talking with her that was irresistible: her presence, her persuasiveness, her character.

Cleopatra

c. 41–40 BCE, Alexandria

Cleopatra's fishing joke, as Plutarch tells it

She had a servant hook a salted fish on his line; everyone laughed, and she told him: leave fishing to the fishermen; your sport is hunting cities, kingdoms and continents.

Nothing here for 40–⁠36 BCE

35–⁠31 BCE3 moments, swipe

Mark Antony

c. 31–30 BCE, Alexandria

The Partners in Death, as Plutarch tells it

They closed their party club and started a new one, just as lavish, called Partners in Death. Their friends joined as people who would die together.

30–⁠26 BCE7 moments, swipe

Event

30 BCE, Alexandria

Antony and Cleopatra take their own lives

With Octavian at Alexandria, Antony falls on his sword and Cleopatra dies days later. Plutarch tells the asp story and says no one knows how she died.

Mark Antony

30 BCE, Alexandria

Antony on his courage, per Plutarch

Believing the message, he said: I am not sad to lose you, Cleopatra, since I will join you soon. I am sad that a woman was braver than me.

Mark Antony

30 BCE, Alexandria

Antony's last words, as Plutarch tells it

He told her to look after her own safety and not mourn him: he had been great and powerful, and was beaten honourably, a Roman by a Roman.

Cleopatra

by 30 BCE

Plutarch on Cleopatra's many languages

Her voice was sweet, and she could switch to almost any language. She rarely needed an interpreter and answered most foreign visitors herself.

Cleopatra

30 BCE, Alexandria

Cleopatra at Antony's tomb, in Plutarch

These are my last offerings to you. Nothing parted us in life, but in death we may swap places: you buried here, and me in Italy.

Event

27 BCE, Rome (the Senate)

Octavian takes the name Augustus

The Senate gives Octavian the new name Augustus. He keeps the forms of the Republic but holds the power, and is counted as Rome's first emperor.

25–⁠21 BCE1 moment

Tacitus

c. 30–20 BCE, Rome

Tacitus on how Augustus won power

He won soldiers with gifts, the people with cheap grain and everyone with peace, and bit by bit took the powers of Senate, officials and laws.

Nothing here for 20 BCE –⁠ 4 CE

5–⁠9 CE2 moments, swipe

Augustus

set in 9 CE, Rome

Augustus mourns Varus' legions, per Suetonius

We are told he was so shaken that he let his hair and beard grow for months and sometimes banged his head on the door, crying: Varus, give me back my legions!

10–⁠14 CE10 moments, swipe

Tacitus

c. 10–14 CE, Rome

Tacitus on how few had seen the republic

All was calm and the old titles remained, but a generation had grown up since the victory at Actium. So few had ever seen the republic!

Event

14 CE, Rome

Tiberius succeeds Augustus

Augustus' stepson Tiberius takes over. Tacitus says senators hurried to swear loyalty, careful not to look glad or sorry.

Nothing here for 15–⁠39 CE

40–⁠44 CE2 moments, swipe

Event

41 CE, Rome

Caligula is killed by his own guards

Officers of the Praetorian Guard stab the emperor Caligula at the Palatine games. The guards make his uncle Claudius emperor.

Event

43 CE, Britain

Claudius invades Britain

Claudius sends an army under Aulus Plautius to Britain and crosses over himself for a few days. Suetonius says part of the island gave in without a fight.

Nothing here for 45–⁠54 CE

55–⁠59 CE2 moments, swipe

60–⁠64 CE26 moments, swipe

Event

c. 60–61 CE, Britain

Boudica leads a British revolt against Rome

After Romans flog her and abuse her daughters, Boudica, queen of the Iceni, leads a revolt that burns Camulodunum, London and Verulamium before Rome wins.

Boudica

set in c. 60/61 CE, Britain

Boudica's speech before battle, in Tacitus

The gods are with a just revenge. One legion that dared fight us is dead. The rest are hiding in camp or thinking about running.

Nero

62 CE, Rome

Nero answers Seneca, as Tacitus tells it

Why not stay and guide me if I go wrong? If you hand back your wealth and leave, people will not praise you. They will talk of my greed and cruelty.

Tacitus

62 CE, Rome

Tacitus on Nero's answer to Seneca

The emperor hugged and kissed him, being born and trained to hide hatred behind flattery. Seneca thanked him, which is how talks with a tyrant end.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on dying daily

Who values each day and sees that he is dying a little every day? Death is not only ahead of us: the years behind us already belong to it.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on the harm of crowds

Crowds are bad for you: someone always makes a bad habit look good or rubs it off on you without you noticing. The bigger the crowd, the bigger the risk.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on the midday games

Armour and skill would only put off the deaths. In the morning men are thrown to lions and bears; at noon, to the crowd.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on slaves as fellow men

People say: they are slaves. No, they are human beings, companions, humble friends. Even fellow slaves, since luck rules the free and the enslaved alike.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on how to treat slaves

We Romans are far too proud, cruel and insulting toward slaves. My advice in short: treat those below you the way you would want those above you to treat you.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on fear and imagination

More things scare us than actually hurt us. We suffer more often in our heads than in real life.

Seneca

c. 62–65 CE

Seneca on living well, not long

You should not always cling to a life like that. Just being alive is not the good thing; living well is. A wise person lives as long as he should, not as long as he can.

Event

64 CE, Rome

The Great Fire burns much of Rome

A fire starting by the Circus Maximus burns for days. Tacitus says no one knew whether it was an accident or set by Nero, who blamed the Christians.

Tacitus

set in 64 CE, Rome

Tacitus on the Great Fire of Rome

Then came a disaster, the worst fire the city had ever had. Whether it was an accident or the emperor's doing is uncertain; writers say both.

Tacitus

set in 64 CE, Rome

Tacitus on the rumour that Nero sang of Troy

What he did, popular as it was, won him nothing, because a rumour was everywhere that while the city burned he sang on a private stage about the fall of Troy.

Tacitus

set in 64 CE, Rome

Tacitus on Nero blaming the Christians

Nothing stopped the belief that the fire was ordered. So Nero blamed and tortured a hated group the people called Christians.

65–⁠69 CE11 moments, swipe

Event

66 CE, Judaea

Judaea rises against Rome

Clashes in Caesarea and the governor Florus' looting set off a revolt across Judaea. Josephus fought in it before going over to Rome.

Josephus

set in 67 CE, Judaea

Josephus on giving himself up to the Romans

God, since you have brought my people low and handed their luck to Rome, and chose me to tell the future, I surrender and will live. I go as your servant, not a deserter.

Josephus

set in 67 CE, Judaea

Josephus on being left to the last

He and one other man were left last, by chance or by God. Not wanting to die or to kill his own people, he talked the other man into living too.

Josephus

set in 67 CE, Judaea

Josephus on Titus pitying him

Above all, his own courage and the prisoner's patience made Titus pity him. Seeing a fighter suddenly a captive made him think how fast fortune turns in war, and that no one's place is safe.

Josephus

set in 67 CE, Judaea

Josephus hails Vespasian as Caesar

Why send me to Nero? Will the rulers after Nero, before you, even live? You, Vespasian, are Caesar and emperor, you and your son here.

Event

69 CE, Rome

Four emperors in one year

After Nero, Galba, Otho and Vitellius each seize power and fall within months. Vespasian, commanding in Judaea, wins and starts the Flavian dynasty.

70–⁠74 CE11 moments, swipe

Josephus

set in 70 CE, Jerusalem

Josephus on the famine in besieged Jerusalem

No one mourned or complained. Hunger numbed every feeling: the dying stared dry-eyed at the dead. A deep silence, like a deadly night, lay over the city.

Josephus

set in 70 CE, Jerusalem

Josephus on the burning of the Temple

The flames reached far and echoed with the groans of the dying. The hill was high and the buildings huge, so it looked like the whole city was burning.

Josephus

set in 70 CE, Jerusalem

Josephus mourns the Temple

Anyone would be right to mourn it, the most wonderful building we ever saw or heard of, rich and holy. Yet one can take comfort that fate decreed it, and fate cannot be escaped.

Josephus

set in 71 CE, Rome

Josephus on the war paraded through Rome

On display: a happy land laid waste, whole ranks of enemies killed, some fleeing, some taken captive, and great high walls smashed by siege machines.

Event

c. 73–74 CE, Masada

Masada falls, ending the Jewish revolt

Rome builds a ramp to the desert fortress of Masada. Josephus says the defenders killed one another rather than be taken, and counts the dead.

Josephus

c. 71–75 CE, Rome

Josephus on the Temple spoils in Rome

He put the gold vessels and tools taken from the Jewish temple there as trophies. But their Law and the purple curtains of the holy place he had kept in the palace.

Josephus

set in c. 73–74 CE, Masada

Eleazar's speech at Masada, in Josephus

Friends, long ago we resolved to serve no one, not the Romans, only God, the one true Lord. Now the time has come to live up to that.

Josephus

set in c. 73–74 CE, Masada

Eleazar's speech at Masada, per Josephus

We were the first to rebel against them and are the last still fighting. I count it God's gift that we can still die bravely and free, unlike others caught off guard.

Josephus

set in c. 73–74 CE, Masada

Josephus on the Romans entering Masada

Inside they found the many dead and took no joy in it, though these were their enemies. They could only marvel at how firmly so many had faced death.

75–⁠79 CE3 moments, swipe

Josephus

c. 75–79 CE

Josephus introduces himself

I, Joseph son of Matthias, a Hebrew and a priest, fought the Romans at first, and was then forced to watch what happened after.

80–⁠84 CE6 moments, swipe

Event

80 CE, Rome

Titus opens the Colosseum with games

The great amphitheatre begun by Vespasian is finished and dedicated by his son Titus with games. Suetonius does not give the year.

Calgacus

set in c. 83 CE, Caledonia

Calgacus on freedom, as Tacitus wrote it

When I think about why we are fighting and where we stand, I am sure today, and you standing together, will begin freedom for all of Britain.

Calgacus

set in c. 83 CE, Caledonia

Calgacus on Roman peace, as Tacitus wrote it

They rob the whole world. Rich or poor, nothing satisfies them. They call theft and killing an empire; they make a wasteland and call it peace.

Nothing here for 85–⁠94 CE

95–⁠99 CE2 moments, swipe

Tacitus

c. 98 CE

Tacitus on the extreme of servitude

An earlier age saw total freedom; we saw total slavery, with informers stopping all talk. We would have lost memory too, if forgetting were as easy as silence.

Tacitus

c. 98 CE

Tacitus on the terror under Domitian

Even Nero looked away from the horrors he ordered. Under Domitian the worst part was being watched, knowing even our sighs were written down.

Nothing here for 100–⁠104 CE

105–⁠109 CE6 moments, swipe

Epictetus

c. 108 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on Socrates and his accusers

Who should we listen to, you or Socrates? He said his accusers could kill him but could not hurt him. And: if God wants it this way, so be it.

Epictetus

c. 108 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on singing hymns to God

What else can a lame old man do but sing to God? If I were a nightingale, I would sing like one. But I am a thinking being, so praising God is my job.

Epictetus

c. 108 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on habit and practice

Every habit grows by doing it: walking by walking, running by running. Want to be a good reader? Read. A writer? Write.

Epictetus

c. 108 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on dropping self-conceit

The first job of anyone doing philosophy is to drop the belief that they already know. You cannot start learning what you think you know.

Nothing here for 110–⁠114 CE

115–⁠119 CE2 moments, swipe

Tacitus

c. 115–120 CE

Tacitus on writing without bitterness

The histories of the emperors from Tiberius to Nero were faked out of fear while they lived, and written in fresh hatred after. I will tell it without anger or favour.

120–⁠124 CE1 moment

Nothing here for 125–⁠134 CE

135–⁠139 CE4 moments, swipe

Epictetus

by c. 135 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on what is in our power

Some things are up to us and some are not. Our opinions, urges, wants and dislikes are. Our body, property, reputation and position are not.

Epictetus

by c. 135 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on what really disturbs us

What upsets people is not what happens but what they think about it. Death is not terrible, or Socrates would have found it so. Thinking it terrible is the terrible part.

Epictetus

by c. 135 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on wishing things as they are

Do not ask for things to happen the way you want. Want them to happen the way they do, and your life will flow calmly.

Epictetus

by c. 135 CE, Nicopolis

Epictetus on the two handles

Everything has a handle you can carry it by and one you cannot. If your brother wrongs you, do not grab the wrong. Grab the fact that he is your brother, raised with you.

Nothing here for 140–⁠164 CE

165–⁠169 CE1 moment

Event

165–180 CE, the Roman Empire

A plague spreads through the empire

Troops returning from the east bring a disease, probably smallpox, that kills millions. Wikipedia cites a line of Marcus' Meditations as an echo of it.

170–⁠174 CE1 moment

175–⁠179 CE11 moments, swipe

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE, the Danube frontier

Marcus Aurelius on what Rusticus taught him

He taught me to read carefully, not skim, and not to agree too fast with people who talk a lot. And he gave me the discourses of Epictetus from his own collection.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE, the Danube frontier

Marcus Aurelius on what his mother taught

From my mother: devotion and kindness, keeping away from bad deeds and even bad thoughts, and living simply, far from the ways of the rich.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE, Carnuntum

Marcus Aurelius on how to begin the morning

Start each morning telling yourself: today I will meet nosy, ungrateful, arrogant, lying, jealous, unfriendly people. They are like that because they do not know good from bad.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE, Carnuntum

Marcus Aurelius on working together

We are made to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, upper and lower teeth. Working against each other goes against nature, and getting annoyed and turning away counts.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE, Carnuntum

Marcus Aurelius on the only life we lose

Even if you lived thousands of years, you only ever lose the life you are living now. So the longest and the shortest life come to the same.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE, Carnuntum

Marcus Aurelius on life as a point

A human life is a dot in time. Everything in it keeps changing, our senses are dull, the body rots, the mind spins, luck is hard to read and fame is thoughtless.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE

Marcus Aurelius on the river of time

Time is a river of events, a rushing one. As soon as something shows up it is swept away, the next thing takes its place, and that goes too.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE

Marcus Aurelius on the times of Vespasian

Think back to Vespasian’s time: people marrying, raising kids, getting sick, fighting, feasting, plotting, grumbling, chasing power. All of that life is gone now.

Marcus Aurelius

c. 170–180 CE

Marcus Aurelius on getting out of bed

When you do not want to get up, think: I am getting up to do a human being’s work, what I exist for. Was I made to lie under the covers keeping warm?

180–⁠184 CE1 moment

Event

180 CE, the Danube frontier

Marcus Aurelius dies on campaign

Marcus dies near the Danube front while still at war. His son Commodus becomes sole emperor.