ABSTRACT
To bear the vicissitudes of life well, and most especially the prospect of death, is for many a spiritual matter, though not necessarily a religious one. It is part of psychic formation, or ‘soul shaping’, and this is recognisably a spiritual concern. In what follows I consider a particular sphere of action in which life and death are very much to the fore, namely the military; and I examine the contribution that Stoic thought might have to make to this. As will be clear, however, my principal conclusions have relevance for civilian life also. Stoicism has something to offer all of us, whether or not our particular stations in life involve, in the way that war routinely does, imminent threats of death. We all fashion lives to endure vicissitude and fortune. How to do this is at the core of Stoic doctrine.
