When a Roman general returned from a successful campaign, the entire city would turn out to celebrate his success and honor him. The conquering hero would ride in a chariot past the cheering crowds and bask in their admiration and gratitude.
The Romans, however, understood that generals are human beings first and therefore subject to all the temptations of mankind, especially hubris, defined usually as excessive pride or self-confidence. This led them to require that someone (usually a slave) ride along in the chariot during these day long processions. Standing behind the triumphant warrior, the slave would repeatedly whisper to the general “Memento Mori” which translate from the Latin as “Remember, you must die.”
The Romans wanted the general to never forget that the glory and adulation would soon fade and that he like every other Roman must perish someday. (You may remember that the movie “Patton” ended with a slightly different recollection of this practice.).
Dr. Scott Galloway’s most recent blog post offers some modern-day examples and commentary on hubris. In the wake of some surprising election results for a number of politicians, and setbacks for a few tech giants (Musk, Zuck, etc.) in the past week, I think you will find Dr. Galloway’s thoughts both timely and insightful.
