Augustus: Invitation to Philosophy: Ancient Wisdom, #5

AUGUSTUS: INVITATION TO PHILOSOPHY

ANCIENT WISDOM

BOOK 5

NEEL BURTON

ACHERON PRESS

Hortensius in Cicero, when arguing against philosophy, was floored by a brilliant counterargument: when he said that one should not do philosophy, he seemed nevertheless to be doing philosophy, since it is the part of philosophers to debate what should be done, or not done, in life.

LACTANTIUS, DIVINE INSTITUTES 3.16.

Copyright © 2025 by Neel Burton

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Neel Burton FRSA is a psychiatrist, philosopher, and wine-lover who lives and teaches in Oxford, England. He is a Fellow of Green-Templeton College in the University of Oxford, and the winner of several book prizes including, the feather in his cap, a Best in the World Gourmand Award. His work features regularly in the likes of Aeon and Psychology Today and has been translated into several languages. When he is not reading or writing, or imbibing, he enjoys cooking, gardening, skiing, learning languages, visiting museums and gardens, and travelling, especially to sunny wine regions.

www.neelburton.com

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ALSO BY NEEL BURTON

In the Ancient Wisdom series

Revel in the wisdom of the Ancients

The Meaning of Myth

The Gang of Three: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Stoic Stories: Stoicism by its Best Stories

Indian Mythology and Philosophy

Augustus: Invitation to Philosophy

How to Think Like Plato and Speak Like Cicero

In the Ataraxia series

Begin your journey to peace and power of mind

The Meaning of Madness

Hide and Seek: The Psychology of Self-Deception

Heaven and Hell: The Psychology of the Emotions

For Better For Worse: Essays on Sex, Love, Marriage, and More

Hypersanity: Thinking Beyond Thinking

The Art of Failure: The Anti Self-Help Guide

ANCIENT WISDOM SERIES INTRODUCTION

To be ignorant of the past is to be forever a child. For what is the time of man, lest it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age?

CICERO

The first three books in the Ancient Wisdom series survey a thousand years of Western intellectual history, from the rise of the Greek city states to the peak height of the Roman Empire. This uniquely fertile period, which encompasses the Golden Age of Athens, began in mystical, mythological thought, and culminated in the hyper-rational, hyper-practical philosophy of the Stoics.

The incipient Christian religion absorbed and adapted, and for a long time occulted, many ancient doctrines, which is why, despite their remoteness, they can seem so strangely familiar. In the late Middle Ages, the rediscovery of Plato fuelled the humanistic Renaissance, which pushed back against the Church of Rome.

The Renaissance was a time of great hope and optimism, which, in many ways, proved premature. Faith provides a compelling reason to live, and a compelling reason to be good, which, for better or worse, many people have lost. For all our progress in science, technology, and education, more than one in five adults are now suffering from some form of depression. It’s almost as if we’ve come full circle, minus the philosophy.

Might it then be time to look afresh at these ancient ideas and find in them a happier way of living? Might it be time, in other words, for a new