A search for the good life

What’s the meaning of life? Scott Samuelson attempts to answer that question in his latest book, Rome as a Guide to the Good Life (The University of Chicago Press 2023), a breezy and eclectic tour of the Eternal City in which he introduces readers to both physical and philosophical delights.

The city of Rome is a suitable ­metaphor for understanding how one generation depends on the insights of earlier generations. Much of Rome’s Renaissance architecture was built using the stones of its ancient ruins, reminding us that our present civilization is built on older traditions.

The tour begins in Rome’s Protestant Cemetery, a fitting place to reflect on the meaning and significance of life. As Samuelson wanders through the 19th-century tombstones, he also meanders through etymologies and curiosities of a bygone era. His argument never travels in a straight line. The discursive prose moves like a tourist delighting in surprise around the next corner.

Subsequent chapters introduce Rome’s most famous art and monuments, as well as obscure sights close to Samuelson’s heart. We get history lessons on the Colosseum, the ruins of the Forum, and Marcus Aurelius’ equestrian bronze. Samuelson also takes us deep below the Basilica of San Clemente and up into the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace. In every case, Samuelson uses Rome’s physical setting as a springboard to philosophical investigation into the good life.

Much of the book grapples with the ideas of the ancient Stoics and the Epicureans. Stoicism was an active, practical philosophy favored by many in Rome’s ruling class. Statesmen like Cicero and Seneca advocated Stoic ideas to varying degrees, and Emperor Marcus Aurelius wrote an entire book of pithy Stoic meditations.

These men thought the good life entailed living in harmony with the spirit of Nature. God is the soul of the universe pervading existence. By living in accord with the universal soul, humans achieve happiness, working together for the common good. Hence life derives its meaning.

The Epicureans, on the other hand, were materialist, disbelieving in the existence of both human souls and the divine soul. For these philosophers, the chief end of man is to live a life of pleasure through the avoidance of pain and fear. On the surface, this might sound like debauchery, but the Epicureans taught moderation and rationality. A dissipated lifestyle leads to pain and fear. The good life requires simplicity and the study of philosophy.

The biggest fear humans must overcome is the fear of death itself. To Epicureans death is merely the cessation of existence, akin to one’s lack of existence before birth. We don’t loathe and fear our preexistent nothingness. Therefore, it’s irrational to fear our post-existent nothingness. Samuelson loves how these ancient thinkers wrestle with eternal questions, but sometimes he seems to let them off a little easy. Epicureanism’s wishing away the fear of death through syllogism seems simplistic, considering humanity’s universal horror at the thought of dying.

Halfway through the book, Samuelson introduces Christianity, and to his credit he shows his Christian interlocutors as much charity as he does the pagans. The pagan philosophers believed humans indulged in bad actions out of ignorance. Christianity, however, teaches that our wrongness stems from sin. Samuelson explains that Christianity taught the Romans that we cannot save ourselves, giving Western civilization its concepts of love and grace.

Christians will find much common grace in this philosophical history of Rome. By the book’s end, Samuelson seems to plead with Western civilization to preserve its heritage that finds dignity in humanity, concluding that the good life consists of loving one’s neighbor while recognizing the time is short for showing that love.