Marcus Aurelius the smack head

[DrZoidberg]

I heard in a podcast that Marcus Aurelius was an opium addict. I googled it. It seems to be widely believed and referenced a lot. Even in science papers. But I can't for the life of me track down the source of this belief. I don't want to be guilty of spreading, yet another, urban myth. So I thought I'd turn to the briliant and very critical minds of this eminent forum.

Is it fact or fiction? And why do you believe it is (whatever it is you believe about this)?

If he was a smackhead, it would explain a lot. The miserable gloomy guy who thought emotional detachment was the highest virtue.

 

[Jokodo]

I don't know about that but I do know that poppy has been cultivated throughout Europe since the neolithic. It actually seems to be one of few crops that were originally domesticated here, being native to the western Mediterranean and grown all over Central Europe by 4500 BCE. Its doubtful they only used the seeds.

 

[Politesse]

Sounds like "mostly fiction" to me. I own multiple biographies of the man, and a cursory look through the indices reveals no such claim. I can guess easily at the source of the rumour, though. Marcus suffered from chronic illness and tried many remedies over the years, the most long-term of which was the panacea known as Theriac (prescribed to him by Galen, the master physician himself). It is possible, even likely, that opium seeds were among the ingredients of the mixture, but highly unlikely that they were present in such an amount as to cause psychotropic effects.

The idea of an ur-Stoicist allowing themselves to fall into a chemical addiction must be tantalizing to detractors of that philosophy, but I personally find it quite impossible to believe that a man who drank nothing but cold water and preferred plain bread to meat would easily fall prey to such a vice.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Sounds like "mostly fiction" to me. I own multiple biographies of the man, and a cursory look through the indices reveals no such claim. I can guess easily at the source of the rumour, though. Marcus suffered from chronic illness and tried many remedies over the years, the most long-term of which was the panacea known as Theriac (prescribed to him by Galen, the master physician himself). It is possible, even likely, that opium seeds were among the ingredients of the mixture, but highly unlikely that they were present in such an amount as to cause psychotropic effects.

The idea of an ur-Stoicist allowing themselves to fall into a chemical addiction must be tantalizing to detractors of that philosophy, but I personally find it quite impossible to believe that a man who drank nothing but cold water and preferred plain bread to meat would easily fall prey to such a vice.

Yes. It does seem to contradict one of the most central tenets of stoicism.