Bernard O'Shea: An ancient philosopher is my self-help guru

Using the musings of Marcus Aurelius, Bernard has adopted three mental comfort blankets to help him through life 

Bernard Maximus, another great emperor of Rome. Photograph Moya Nolan

The majority of self-help books I’ve read in the last few years are nearly always predicated on the writings of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations penned almost eighteen hundred years ago.

Like the Dublin Senior football team, Marcus was part of the “five in a row” greatest emperors of Rome. He was born in AD 121 and became Roman emperor in 168.