Rutilius Rufus, Roman statesman and Stoic, protected the population of Asia as its administrator against the Roman tax farmers who were bleeding the province dry. The tax farmers did not forget. Years later, in 92 BC, they dragged him before a court they themselves controlled, with the world turned upside down as the charge: extortion, exactly the crime he had fought. Rutilius refused the customary tears and pleading and was convicted. He left for exile in Smyrna, in the very province he had protected, and was received there with honors. When, years later, he was allowed to return, he declined: better a country that blushes at his exile than a return that whitewashes the injustice.
Being convicted for the mirror image of your merit, by people who know it is not true. Few things wound deeper than injustice made official.
The verdict, the judges and his name in the Roman records: not his. His conduct in the courtroom, and the question of where and how he lived on: his. The province that knew him spoke the real verdict.
If your surroundings believed something untrue about you tomorrow: how much of your life would you spend setting the record straight, and how much simply continuing to be who you are?
Yours, Not Yours · A Stoic practice ground · All cases