by preaching peace to the armies that were about to meet on the battlefield. Musonius was also renowned for risking death in trying to stop the civil war of 69 A.D. Ironically, when Vespasian earlier banished all philosophers from Rome, he made a special exception for Musonius because he was held in such high esteem. He was banished to an island by Nero and later Vespasian for, among other things, declaring that it was right and proper to disobey an immoral command from a superior (e.g. He is now most famous for being the tutor of the slave-philosopher Epictetus, who in turn was much admired by Marcus Aurelius. and his fame in antiquity was far greater than modern ignorance of him suggests. Gaius Musonius Rufus was a Roman knight of Italian (Etruscan) birth, but dedicated his life to Stoicism and to preaching moral lectures in Greek and teaching all over the Empire, as well as involving himself in moral causes even at peril of his life. He exemplifies the sort of man who should have been venerated and made the founder of a world religion, but was not, yet he was the moral superior in my opinion to Jesus–not perfect, but admirable within the context of his own day. Since this man deserves far more publicity than he has ever gotten in the modern age, I have written this short essay. On Musonius Rufus: A Brief Essay (1999) Richard Carrier
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