''Meditations'' () is a series of personal writings by

Marcus Aurelius Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ( ; ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoicism, Stoic philosopher. He was a member of the Nerva–Antonine dynasty, the last of the rulers later known as the Five Good Emperors ...

, Roman Emperor from 161–180 AD, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on

Stoic philosophy Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient p ...

Composition

Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the ''Meditations'' in

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. It is possible that large portions of the work were written at

Sirmium Sirmium was a city in the Roman province of Pannonia, located on the Sava river, on the site of modern Sremska Mitrovica in the Vojvodina autonomous province of Serbia. First mentioned in the 4th century BC and originally inhabited by Illyrians ...

, where he spent much time planning military campaigns from 170–180 AD. A portion of his work was written while he was positioned at

Aquincum Aquincum (, ) was an ancient city, situated on the northeastern borders of the province of Pannonia within the Roman Empire. The ruins of the city can be found in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary. It is believed that Marcus Aurelius wrote ...

on campaign in

Pannonia Pannonia (, ) was a Roman province, province of the Roman Empire bounded on the north and east by the Danube, on the west by Noricum and upper Roman Italy, Italy, and on the southward by Dalmatia (Roman province), Dalmatia and upper Moesia. It ...

, because internal notes reveal that the first book was written when he was campaigning against the

Quadi The Quadi were a Germanic peoples, Germanic people during the Roman era, who were prominent in Greek and Roman records from about 20 AD to about 400 AD. By about 20 AD they had a kingdom centred in the area of present-day western Slovakia, north ...

on the river Granova (modern-day

Hron The Hron (; ; ; ) is a long left tributary of the DanubeP ...

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

) and the second book was written at

Carnuntum Carnuntum ( according to Ptolemy) was a Roman legionary fortress () and headquarters of the Roman navy, Pannonian fleet from 50 AD. After the 1st century, it was capital of the Pannonia Superior province. It also became a large city of app ...

. It is unlikely that Marcus Aurelius ever intended the writings to be published. The work has no official title, so "Meditations" is one of several titles commonly assigned to the collection. These writings take the form of quotations varying in length from one sentence to long paragraphs.

Structure and themes

The ''Meditations'' is divided into 12 books that chronicle different periods of Aurelius' life. The passages in each book are not necessarily in chronological order, seeing as they were written as Aurelius' own personal musings. The style of writing that permeates the text is one that is simplified, straightforward, and perhaps reflecting Aurelius'

Stoic Stoic may refer to: * An adherent of Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed i ...

perspective. A central theme to ''Meditations'' is the importance of analyzing one's judgment of self and others and developing a cosmic perspective:

You have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly in your judgment, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after dissolution are equally infinite.

Aurelius advocates finding one's place in the universe and sees that everything came from nature, and so everything shall return to it in due time. Another strong theme is of maintaining focus and to be without distraction all the while maintaining strong ethical principles such as "Being a good man." His Stoic ideas often involve avoiding indulgence in sensory affections, a skill which will free a man from the pains and pleasures of the material world. He claims that the only way a man can be harmed by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. An internal orderly and rational nature, or ''

logos ''Logos'' (, ; ) is a term used in Western philosophy, psychology and rhetoric, as well as religion (notably Logos (Christianity), Christianity); among its connotations is that of a rationality, rational form of discourse that relies on inducti ...

,'' permeates and guides all existence.

Rationality Rationality is the quality of being guided by or based on reason. In this regard, a person acts rationally if they have a good reason for what they do, or a belief is rational if it is based on strong evidence. This quality can apply to an ab ...

and clear-mindedness allow one to live in harmony with the ''logos''. This allows one to rise above faulty perceptions of "good" and "bad"—things out of your control like fame and wealth are (unlike things in your control) irrelevant and neither good nor bad.

Reception

Ancient

The early history of the ''Meditations'' is unknown, and its earliest clear mention by another writer dates from the early 10th century. The historian

Herodian Herodian or Herodianus () of Syria, sometimes referred to as "Herodian of Antioch" (c. 170 – c. 240), was a minor Roman civil servant who wrote a colourful history in Greek titled ''History of the Empire from the Death of Marcus'' (τῆς με ...

, writing in the mid-3rd century, makes mention of Marcus' literary legacy, saying "He was concerned with all aspects of excellence, and in his love of ancient literature he was second to no man, Roman or Greek; this is evident from all his sayings and writings which have come down to us", a passage which may refer to the ''Meditations''. The ''

Historia Augusta The ''Historia Augusta'' (English: ''Augustan History'') is a late Roman collection of biographies, written in Latin, of the Roman emperors, their junior colleagues, Caesar (title), designated heirs and Roman usurper, usurpers from 117 to 284. S ...

s biography of

Avidius Cassius Gaius Avidius Cassius ( 130 – July 175 AD) was a Syrian Roman general and usurper. He was born in Cyrrhus, and was the son of Gaius Avidius Heliodorus, who served as ''praefectus'' or governor of Roman Egypt, and Julia Cassia Alexandra, wh ...

, thought to have been written in the 4th century, records that before Marcus set out on the

Marcomannic Wars The Marcomannic Wars () were a series of wars lasting from about AD 166 until 180. These wars pitted the Roman Empire against principally the Germanic peoples, Germanic Marcomanni and Quadi and the Sarmatian Iazyges; there were related conflicts ...

, he was asked to publish his ''Precepts of Philosophy'' in case something should befall him, but he instead "for three days discussed the books of his ''Exhortations'' one after the other". A doubtful mention is made by the orator

Themistius Themistius ( ; 317 – c. 388 AD), nicknamed Euphrades (, "''eloquent''"), was a statesman, rhetorician and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian and Theodosius I, and he enjoyed the favo ...

in about 364 C.E. In an address to the emperor

Valens Valens (; ; 328 – 9 August 378) was Roman emperor from 364 to 378. Following a largely unremarkable military career, he was named co-emperor by his elder brother Valentinian I, who gave him the Byzantine Empire, eastern half of the Roman Em ...

, ''On Brotherly Love'', he says: "You do not need the exhortations () of Marcus." Another possible reference, in the

Greek Anthology The ''Greek Anthology'' () is a collection of poems, mostly epigrams, that span the Classical Greece, Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature. Most of the material of the ''Greek Anthology'' comes from two manuscripts, the ''Palatine ...

, is an epigram dedicated to "the Book of Marcus," which has been attributed to the 7th century

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

scholar

Theophylact Simocatta Theophylact Simocatta (Byzantine Greek: Θεοφύλακτος Σιμοκάτ(τ)ης ''Theophýlaktos Simokát(t)ēs''; ) was an early seventh-century Byzantine historiographer, arguably ranking as the last historian of Late Antiquity, writing in ...

Medieval

The first direct mention of the work comes from

Arethas of Caesarea Arethas of Caesarea (; c. 860 - c. 939) was Archbishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia (modern Kayseri, Turkey) early in the 10th century, and is considered one of the most scholarly theologians of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Codex, codices ...

(c. 860–935), a bishop who was a great collector of manuscripts. At some date before 907 he sent a volume of the ''Meditations'' to Demetrius, , with a letter saying: "I have had for some time an old copy of the Emperor Marcus' most profitable book, so old indeed that it is altogether falling to pieces.… This I have had copied and am able to hand down to posterity in its new dress." Arethas also mentions the work in marginal notes (''

scholia Scholia (: scholium or scholion, from , "comment", "interpretation") are grammatical, critical, or explanatory comments – original or copied from prior commentaries – which are inserted in the margin of the manuscript of ancient a ...

'') to books by

Lucian Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syrian satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with which he frequently ridi ...

and

Dio Chrysostom Dio Chrysostom (; ''Dion Chrysostomos''), Dio of Prusa or Cocceianus Dio (c. 40 – c. 115 AD), was a Greek orator, writer, philosopher and historian of the Roman Empire in the 1st century AD. Eighty of his ''Discourses'' (or ''Orations''; ) are ...

where he refers to passages in the "Treatise to Himself" (), and it was this title which the book bore in the manuscript from which the first printed edition was made in the 16th century. Arethas' own copy has now vanished, but it is thought to be the likely ancestor of the surviving manuscripts. The next mention of the ''Meditations'' is in the ''

Suda The ''Suda'' or ''Souda'' (; ; ) is a large 10th-century Byzantine Empire, Byzantine encyclopedia of the History of the Mediterranean region, ancient Mediterranean world, formerly attributed to an author called Soudas () or Souidas (). It is an ...

'' lexicon published in the late 10th century. The ''Suda'' calls the work "a directing () of his own life by Marcus the Emperor in twelve books," which is the first mention of a division of the work into twelve books. The ''Suda'' makes use of some thirty quotations taken from books I, III, IV, V, IX, and XI. Around 1150,

John Tzetzes John Tzetzes (; , Constantinople – 1180, Constantinople) was a Byzantine poet and grammarian who lived at Constantinople in the 12th century. He is known for making significant contributions in preserving much valuable information from ancien ...

, a grammarian of Constantinople, quotes passages from Books IV and V attributing them to Marcus. About 200 years later Nicephorus Callistus (c. 1295–1360) in his ''Ecclesiastical History'' writes that "Marcus Antoninus composed a book for the education of his son Marcus .e. Commodus">Commodus.html" ;"title=".e. Commodus">.e. Commodus full of all worldly () experience and instruction." The ''Meditations'' is thereafter quoted in many Greek compilations from the 14th to 16th centuries. This, specifically after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, as it was among the Greek texts reintroduced by fleeing scholars to European intellectual circles. The present-day text is based almost entirely upon two manuscripts. One is the ''Codex Palatinus'' (P), also known as the ''Codex Toxitanus'' (T), that was first published in 1558–59 but is now lost. The other manuscript is the ''Codex Vaticanus 1950'' (A) in the Vatican Library, which passed there from the collection of Stefano Gradi in 1683, is a 14th-century manuscript which survives in a very corrupt state, and about forty-two lines have dropped out by accidental omissions. Other manuscripts are of little independent value for reconstructing the text. The main ones are the ''Codex Darmstadtinus 2773'' (D) with 112 extracts from books I–IX, and the ''Codex Parisinus 319'' (C) with 29 extracts from Books I–IV.

Modern

The modern history of the ''Meditations'' dates from the issue of the first printed edition (''

editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...

'') by

Wilhelm Xylander Wilhelm Xylander (born Wilhelm Holtzman, graecized to Xylander; 26 December 153210 February 1576) was a German classical scholar and humanist. He served as rector of Heidelberg University in 1564. Biography Born at Augsburg, he studied at Tü ...

in 1558 or 1559. It was published at the instigation of

Conrad Gesner Conrad Gessner (; ; 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Old Swiss Confederacy, Swiss physician, natural history, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly ...

and printed by his cousin Andreas Gesner at

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

. The book was bound with a work by Marinus (''Proclus vel De Felicitate'', also a first edition). To the ''Meditations'' was added a Latin translation by Xylander who also included brief notes. Conrad Gesner stated in his dedicatory letter that he "received the books of Marcus from the gifted poet Michael Toxites from the library of Otto Heinrich, Prince Palatine", i.e. from the collection at

Heidelberg University Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest unive ...

. The importance of this edition of the ''Meditations'' is that the manuscript from which it was printed is now lost, so that it is one of the two principal sources of all modern texts.

Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greec ...

compares the work to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's '' Confessions'' and St. Augustine's '' Confessions''. In the Introduction to his 1964 translation of ''Meditations'', the Anglican priest Maxwell Staniforth discussed the profound impact of

Stoicism Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. Rees (1992) calls the ''Meditations'' "unendingly moving and inspiring," but does not offer them up as works of original philosophy, though he does find an element of Marcus' Stoic philosophy in the philosophical system of

Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant (born Emanuel Kant; 22 April 1724 – 12 February 1804) was a German Philosophy, philosopher and one of the central Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment thinkers. Born in Königsberg, Kant's comprehensive and systematic works ...

.Rees, D. A. 1992. "Introduction." In ''Meditations'', edited by A. S. L. Farquhrson (1944). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. . p. xvii.

Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao ( zh, s=温家宝, p=Wēn Jiābǎo; born 15 September 1942) is a Chinese retired politician who served as the 6th premier of China from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behin ...

, the former Prime Minister of China, has said that he has read the ''Meditations'' a hundred times. He also stated that he was "very deeply impressed" by the work. It has been described as "a favorite" of former United States President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

Editions

The ''

'' (first print edition) of the original Greek was published by

Conrad Gessner Conrad Gessner (; ; 26 March 1516 – 13 December 1565) was a Swiss physician, naturalist, bibliographer, and philologist. Born into a poor family in Zürich, Switzerland, his father and teachers quickly realised his talents and supported him t ...

and his cousin Andreas in 1559. Both it and the accompanying Latin translation were produced by

. His source was a manuscript from

, provided by Michael Toxites. By 1568, when Xylander completed his second edition, he no longer had access to the source and it has been lost ever since.Marcus Aurelius, ''De seipso, seu vita sua, libri 12''
ed. and trans. by Xylander. Zürich: Andreas Gessner, 1558. The first English translation was published in 1634 by Meric Casaubon. Some popular English translations include: * Francis Hutcheson, and James Moore (1742). ''The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus''. Indianapolis:

Liberty Fund Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American nonprofit foundation headquartered in Carmel, Indiana, that promotes the libertarian views of its founder, Pierre F. Goodrich, through publishing, conferences, and educational resources. The operating mandat ...

, 2008. * Richard Graves (1792). ''Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, a new translation from the Greek original, with a Life, Notes, &c., by R. Graves'', 1792; new edition, Halifax, 1826. * George Long (1862). ''The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius''; reprinted many times, including in Vol. 2 of the

Harvard Classics ''The Harvard Classics'', originally marketed as Dr. Eliot's Five-Foot Shelf of Books, is a 50-volume series of classic works of world literature, important speeches, and historical documents compiled and edited by Harvard University President Ch ...

. * C. R. Haines (1916). ''Marcus Aurelius''.

Loeb Classical Library The Loeb Classical Library (LCL; named after James Loeb; , ) is a monographic series of books originally published by Heinemann and since 1934 by Harvard University Press. It has bilingual editions of ancient Greek and Latin literature, ...

. * A. S. L. Farquharson (1944). ''Marcus Aurelius Meditations''.

Everyman's Library Everyman's Library is a series of reprints of classic literature, primarily from the Western canon. It began in 1906. It is currently published in hardback by Random House. It was originally an imprint of J. M. Dent (itself later a division ...

reprint edition (1992) .

Oxford World's Classics Oxford World's Classics is an imprint of Oxford University Press. First established in 1901 by Grant Richards and purchased by OUP in 1906, this imprint publishes primarily dramatic and classic literature for students and the general public. ...

revised edition (1998) * Classics Club (1945). ''Meditations. Marcus Aurelius and his times''. Walter J. Black, Inc. New York. * Maxwell Staniforth (1969). ''Meditations''. Penguin. * Gregory Hays (2002). ''Meditations''. Random House. (181 pages) * C. Scot Hicks, David V. Hicks (2002). ''The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of the Meditations''. Simon & Schuster. * Martin Hammond (2006). ''Meditations''. Penguin Classics. * Jacob Needleman, and John P. Piazza (2008) ''The Essential Marcus Aurelius''. J. P. Tarcher. (111 pages) * Robin Hard, and Christopher Gill (2011). ''Meditations with selected correspondence''. Oxford University Press *

Robin Waterfield Robin Anthony Herschel Waterfield (born 6 August 1952) is a British classical scholar, translator, editor, and writer of children's fiction. Career Waterfield was born in 1952, and studied Classics at Manchester University, where he achieved a f ...

(2021). ''Meditations: The Annotated Edition''. Basic Books.

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

Studies

Translations

* translated by George Long, at ''

Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

'' *
The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, by George Long
1862, at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
''Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself: an English translation with introductory study on stoicism and the last of the Stoics'', by G.H. Rendall
1898, at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
''The Meditations'' by Marcus Aurelius
at ''

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...

''
gutenberg.org
*
''Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus'', a new translation from the Greek original, with a Life, Notes, &c., by R. Graves
1792, at ''

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

''
Multiple editions of the ''Meditations''
at the ''

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

'' {{Authority control 2nd-century books Nerva–Antonine dynasty Ancient Stoic literature Texts in Koine Greek Marcus Aurelius Ethics literature Works by Roman Emperors