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5 min readThe Marcus Aurelius Quote Steven Pressfield Couldn’t Ignore
Steven Pressfield’s new novel The Arcadian opens with a Marcus Aurelius epigraph: “Life is warfare and a journey far from home.” Ryan Holiday, host of The Daily Stoic, had long read that line as pure philosophical metaphor—life as a battle, existence as a pilgrimage away from some celestial origin. Then, about ten years ago, he was flying into Budapest to give a talk and realized something he’d missed for years: Marcus Aurelius had actually been to Budapest. The emperor died in Vienna. He spent large chunks of his reign fighting with the Roman army in frontier provinces far from his palace in Rome. “I go, oh, that quote that life is warfare and a journey far from home,” Holiday says. “It hit me in a new way because I had the physical manifestation of how far he had traveled.”
That discovery reshaped how Holiday understood the line. It works on multiple levels. Pressfield, for his part, had always taken it the opposite direction—as a statement about reincarnation, about being far from “our real home beyond the stars.” Holiday now sees it as both literal and figurative: Marcus wasn’t dealt the hand he wanted, had a nice palace he barely got to live in, and spent his reign fighting and traveling. “But he sure made the most of it,” Pressfield adds.
The Long Shelf Life of a Quote
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:21) **What is an Epigraph?** - Ryan defines an epigraph (a quote at the start of a book/chapter) versus an epitaph, explaining why he loves them as thematic anchors and discovery tools.
- 2 (04:12) **The Marcus Aurelius Quote That Opened the Book** - Ryan introduces Steven Pressfield’s novel *The Arcadian*, which opens with a Marcus Aurelius epigraph: “Life is warfare and a journey far from home.”
- 3 (06:28) **The Literal vs. Metaphorical Reading of Marcus** - Ryan shares his realization that Marcus Aurelius was writing literally, not just metaphorically, about warfare and travel.
- 4 (09:00) **The Empedocles Quote and the Writer’s Time Capsule** - Pressfield reveals a second epigraph from Empedocles that he carried for 40 years before finding the story for it.
- 5 (11:23) **Time Travel and the Mystical Nature of Ideas** - The two discuss the feeling of “time travel” when a past self saves a quote that perfectly serves a future project.
- 6 (15:00) **The Origin of Telemon: A Character Reborn** - Pressfield explains how the character Telemon evolved from minor roles in earlier books into the protagonist of the new series.
- 7 (18:23) **Belief in Reincarnation: From Kids to Kittens** - Pressfield states he believes in reincarnation, citing the innate personality and calling he sees in his own children and animals as evidence.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
In today's episode, Ryan and Steven Pressfield discuss one of Marcus Aurelius’ most striking lines: “Life is warfare and a journey far from home.” What begins with the epigraph to Steven’s new novel The Arcadian turns into a conversation about the hero’s journey, the ideas we carry with us for decades, and reincarnation.
📚 Grab signed copies of Steven’s books at The Painted Porch:
Put Your Ass Where Your Heart Wants To Be
Steven Pressfield is an American author of historical fiction, non-fiction, and screenplays. Steven wrote for 27 years before he got his first novel published. During that time he worked 21 different jobs in elev
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