What Ancient Rome and the Bible can Teach Us About True Financial Freedom and contentment
Yesterday I read a chapter from Ryan Holiday’s Discipline is Destiny that helped me put to words something that I have been thinking on for years.
There’s a particular kind of power that comes from being content with little.
It’s not the power that comes from having everything, but rather from needing nothing.
When ancient dignitaries arrived to bribe the Roman conqueror Manius Curius, they found him cooking turnips in his modest kitchen.
Their mission was doomed before it began – for how do you bribe someone who has already mastered the art of being satisfied with less?
How do you tempt someone who has conquered their own desires?
This truth echoes through history:
A person content with little is nearly impossible to manipulate or control.
They possess a freedom that no amount of wealth can buy – the freedom from want itself.
Consider Cato the Elder, one of Rome’s most powerful statesmen. Despite his prominence, he deliberately made himself immune to luxury’s pull.
He wore simple garments and rejected the trappings of high society.
By choosing to live far below his means, he removed any leverage others might hold over him.
His power came not from what he possessed but from what he could happily do without.
The boxer Ruben Carter took this principle to its extreme during his 19 years of wrongful imprisonment.
In what seemed like the most powerless of situations, he found an unshakeable strength by voluntarily giving up basic comforts – no pillows, no radio, no TV.
The prison guards, who relied on privileges as leverage, found themselves powerless over a man who had willingly stripped himself of wants.
By embracing less, he became untouchable.
Contentment: A Biblical perspective
The Apostle Paul understood this paradox deeply when he wrote “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances…whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:11-12).
Having experienced both palaces and prisons, Paul discovered that mastering our desires is the key to unshakeable freedom.
When we can be content with little, we become impervious to both the seductions of prosperity and the threats of scarcity.
And modern research reveals what these wise souls knew intuitively:
Those who tie their happiness to external things become vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and manipulation.
They’ve unknowingly given away their power by needing too much.
Meanwhile, those who cultivate contentment report greater peace, resilience, and satisfaction – regardless of circumstances.
Think about it – no one is less free than someone drowning in debt, frantically trying to maintain appearances, enslaved to the next purchase or upgrade.
Their desires have become chains, each want a new link binding them tighter.
The truth is, our real power and wealth might be measured not by what we can acquire, but by what we can do without.
The less we need, the less hold anything – or anyone – has over us.
And just so we are clear, this isn’t about chasing a life of deprivation; but rather it’s about finding a freedom so deep that no external circumstance can shake it.
In a world obsessed with more, there’s revolutionary power in choosing less.
When we learn to want what we already have, we become impossible to manipulate through either greed or fear.
We gain the ultimate freedom – the freedom from want itself.
So maybe the most important question isn’t whether we can afford something, but whether we can afford to want it.
For in the end, true wealth might not be measured by what we have, but by how little we need to be content.
