"Freedom is not secured by satisfying desires, but by the removal of desire."

In 458 BC, the Roman Republic was on the brink of collapse. The Aequi tribe had trapped the Roman consul and his army in the Algidus pass. Rome was in a panic. The Senate decided that their only hope was to appoint a Dictator: A man with absolute, unchecked power to save the state.

They chose Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus. When the Senate delegation arrived to tell him the news, they didn't find him in a palace. They found him plowing his four-acre farm. He was covered in sweat and dust. He wiped his brow, put on his toga, and accepted the command.

Cincinnatus marched to Rome, raised a new army, and defeated the Aequi in a stunning battle. He saved the Republic. He had absolute power. He could have declared himself King. He could have taken all the wealth of the enemy. Instead, sixteen days after taking command, Cincinnatus resigned. He handed back the authority and walked back to his farm to finish his plowing.

History marvels at Cincinnatus because he gave up power. But Epictetus would say we are looking at it wrong. Cincinnatus didn't "give up" anything he valued. He valued his freedom. He valued his simple life. The power was a burden, not a prize.

Because Cincinnatus desired nothing from the state, no money, fame, or crown, the state had no hold on him. He was the most powerful man in Rome precisely because he was the only man who didn't want to be the most powerful man in Rome.

Epictetus defines freedom not as the ability to fulfill every wish, but as the ability to stop wishing. If your freedom depends on getting a promotion, a new car, or a specific romantic partner, you're a slave to those things. You're chasing a moving horizon. True freedom is realized the moment you decide that what you have is enough.

Errors & Corrections

• Don't try to fill a sieve. Trying to satisfy desire by getting more "stuff" is like trying to fill a sieve with water. The hole is in the container, not the supply. You don't need more water. You need to plug the hole to remove the need for more.
• Don't confuse license with liberty. License is doing whatever you feel like. That makes you a slave to your impulses. Liberty is doing what's right. That makes you a master of yourself.
• Don't negotiate your price. Everyone has a price, except the person who wants nothing. If you want nothing, you can't be bought, bullied, or seduced. You're invincible.

Applications to Modern Life

Work

You want a promotion. You stress about it. You work late to please a boss. You're a slave to the desire for the title. If you remove the desire and decide, "I'm happy doing good work right where I am," the stress vanishes. Ironically, this detachment often makes you better at your job, which leads to the promotion you no longer "need."

Leadership

A leader who desires validation or popularity is dangerous. They'll make bad decisions to be liked. A leader like Cincinnatus, who is happy to go back to the farm, can make the tough calls. They lead for the mission, not for the ego boost.

Athleticism & Sport

The athlete who needs to win to feel valuable plays with fear. They're tight and anxious. The athlete who loves the game but separates their self-worth from the trophy plays with freedom. They're loose, fluid, and often perform better because they aren't strangled by desire.

Politics

We need more politicians who don't want the job. Most modern politicians spend their first term campaigning for their second term. They desire the seat more than the service. A Cincinnatus politician does the hard, unpopular thing to fix the problem, accepts the loss of the next election, and goes home happy.

Social Media

The "filling up of desires" is the entire business model of the internet. You want likes. You want attention. You want the new product. This makes you a digital serf. The "removal of desire" is deleting the app. It's looking at the influencer's life and saying, "I don't want that."

Interpersonal Relationships

Jealousy is the desire to own another person's affection exclusively. It destroys love. If you remove the desire for possession and replace it with the desire for their well-being, the jealousy dies. You're free to love them as they are, not as you want them to be.

Maxims

• To want nothing is to have everything.
• Power is a burden, not a reward.

In-depth Concepts

Eleutheria (Freedom)

For Epictetus, Eleutheria is exclusively a mental state. A tyrant can chain your leg, but he can't chain your will unless you want something he controls (like safety or life). If you surrender the desire for the body, the tyrant has no leverage.

Orexis (Desire)

Orexis is the movement of the mind toward an object. It's the "reaching out." The discipline of Orexis is the first and most critical stage of Stoic training. Until you control your "reaching out," you can't think rationally because your passions will always hijack your logic.