Musonius Rufus — Lectures XIII and XIV: On marriage

[image: Crates of Thebes and Hipparchia of Maroneia, the power couple of ancient Cynicism; fresco at the National Roman Museum, Rome, photo by the author]

Groucho Marx famously said that “Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?” Those who wish to procreate and raise virtuous children, responds the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus in his thirteenth lecture.

We have already seen in this series that Musonius had a tendency that by today standards we would call conservative in his thinking…