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Musonius Rufus — Lecture IX: That exile (or a pandemic) is not evil
Gaius Musonius Rufus was sent into exile twice, once by the emperor Nero (in 65 CE), and once by a later emperor, Vespasian (in 71 CE). Why? Because like many Stoic philosophers he was a pain in the ass of those emperors, having a penchant for speaking truth to power. And as we know, power doesn’t like to be spoken truth to.
In ancient times, exile was a big deal. If you had committed a serious crime against society you would either be condemned to death (e.g., Socrates) or exiled. We may think that exile was by far the lesser punishment, but many ancient commentators were not so sure. In exile you’d be deprived of your friends, family, and possessions (though the specifics actually varied quite a bit from case to case). You might as well be dead.
It’s because exile was such a big deal that Musonius wrote one of his lectures about it, and it is why Epictetus — Musonius’ most famous student — also commented on the issue multiple times (e.g., Discourses I, 11.33; II, 19.24; III, 24; and IV, 7). Today few people are sent into exile, but many of us have been experiencing a remarkably similar condition for almost two years: a pandemic, especially those weeks or months that we spent in partial or total lockdown.
During a pandemic lockdown we suddenly found ourselves in a situation similar to that of Musonius on the desolate island of Gyaros, in the Aegean Sea: we were extremely restricted in our movements; our daily life was turned upside down; we had no in-person access to our friends and relatives. Since the pandemic is far from being over, and additional lockdowns are not entirely out of the picture, let’s take a look at what Musonius says about exile and see if we can apply it to our own predicament.
“Why should anyone who was not devoid of understanding be oppressed by exile? It does not in any way deprive us of water, earth, air, or the sun and the other planets, or indeed, even of the society of men, for everywhere and in every way there is opportunity for association with them. What if we are kept from a certain part of the earth and from association with certain men, what is so dreadful about that? Why, when we were at home, we did not enjoy the whole earth, nor did we have contact with all men.”
