Analysis: Excerpt from Meditations, Book I

Date: 167 CE

Geographic Region: Roman Empire

Author: Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Translator: George Long

Summary Overview

This document comes from Book I of Tōn eis heauton (c. 171–80 CE; Meditations), written by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. The larger work comprises reflections on Stoicism and different aspects of the emperor's life over a number of years. This excerpt focuses on thoughts of gratitude toward family, friends, teachers, and others (including the gods) who have influenced his life. Through these offerings, Marcus Aurelius gives insight into the virtues and abilities that he deems most important as well as into the behaviors that he considers dangerous and ill-advised. The work reflects not only Marcus Aurelius's individual ideas but also tenets shared by other ancient Romans, particularly the Stoics.

Defining Moment

Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 CE. At the time, the empire had existed for nearly two centuries, since Augustus had consolidated the warring states under his rule in 27 BCE. During Marcus Aurelius's reign, the empire encompassed a massive territory, extending from the Iberian Peninsula in the west to Anatolia and Palestine in the east and from the British Isles and central Europe in the north to North Africa in the south. Roman forces were committed across thousands of miles, and the emperor himself spent much of his time on military campaign. From 161 to 166, at the start of Marcus Aurelius's rule, the empire was engaged in the Parthian Wars in southwest Asia. On returning from the war, his forces carried with them a deadly plague (possibly measles or smallpox) that would kill millions of people over the course of two decades, including Marcus Aurelius's adoptive brother and coruler, Lucius Verus.

From 166 to 180, Marcus Aurelius led campaigns to fend off Germanic invaders to the north and east. He spent much of his time in the region of Sirmium, in what is now known as the Balkans, where historians believe he wrote most, if not all, of the books that became Meditations.

Author Biography and Document Information

Roman emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus, more commonly known as Marcus Aurelius, was born Marcus Annius Verus in 121 CE. He came from a long line of prominent aristocratic families with ties to political leadership. His uncle, Titus Aurelius Antoninus, served as emperor before him. Titus had been adopted as son and heir by the previous emperor, Hadrian, and ruled as Antoninus Pius from 138 to 161. In turn, Antoninus Pius adopted two sons and heirs, one of them Marcus, then only seventeen.

As heir, Marcus spent much of his young-adult and adult life at court, learning the rules of the empire. He received the best education, which included private tutoring by a man named Fronto. He also served in numerous political capacities of his own and, in time, shared the powers of emperor with his adoptive father. His adoptive brother, too, gained these powers, and they ruled as joint consuls beneath the emperor until Antoninus Pius died.

From 161 to 169, Marcus Aurelius ruled as coemperor with Lucius Verus. Marcus Aurelius's reign would last a total of nineteen years, the last few years of which he shared with his own son and heir, Commodus. His attention as a ruler was occupied largely by the challenges of territorial wars on Rome's borders and the effects of the plague. He also demonstrated a great interest in the law and in legal reform, both in civil and criminal processes.

Through his studies, Marcus Aurelius become a follower of the Stoics, a group of Greek and Roman philosophers who emphasized the use of reason and embraced the concepts of justice, duty, and morality. They discouraged excesses and indulgences. Marcus Aurelius delves into his own philosophies in his Meditations, twelve books written in Greek rather than Latin. Each book reflects different periods in his life. It seems likely that Marcus Aurelius composed the books over a number of years, most likely between 170 and 180. Historians suggest that Marcus Aurelius wrote the books as personal reflections rather than as works intended for public consumption.

Document Analysis

This document is drawn from the first book of Meditations. It gives an intimate look into the thoughts, beliefs, goals, and relationships of the author. Marcus Aurelius undertakes to thank people who seem to have played pivotal roles in his life and whom he credits with shaping various aspects of his personality and his leadership.

The document begins by thanking family members—Marcus Aurelius's grandfather Verus, his father and mother, and his great grandfather. The importance of family and familial obligations is a recurrent theme within the excerpt. This falls in line with the work's Stoic underpinnings, which highlight fidelity, among other virtues. Central tenets of Stoicism appear often throughout the document. Among the virtues Marcus Aurelius attributes to the influence of his family are morality, even temperament, modesty, piety, and moderation or abstinence in the enjoyment of pleasures as well as “simplicity in [his] way of living.” Later, he thanks Fronto for teaching him how envy, duplicity, and hypocrisy arise in tyrants.

Marcus Aurelius also names many other people, likely fellow public officials as well as friends, additional teachers, and former emperors, and thanks them for their largely mental, intellectual, and theoretical contributions to his life. Through these gracious statements, Marcus Aurelius seems a perpetual student who learns continually from the various people with whom he has interacted. This reinforces the idea of Marcus Aurelius as a philosopher-king, an idea once upheld by the Greek thinker Plato. The deluge of gratitude and reflection also gives added meaning to the title of the work, Meditations.

The various entries focus on ideas such as avoiding superstition, maintaining “steadiness of purpose,” accepting favors from friends respectfully and graciously, governing his family well, refraining from “fault-finding,” and avoiding specious reasoning and arguments. From a man named Catulus, he claims to have learned “to love [his] children truly.” From his brother Severus, Marcus Aurelius writes that he “received the idea of a polity in which there is the same law for all, a polity administered with regard to equal rights and equal freedom of speech, and the idea of a kingly government which respects most of all the freedom of the governed.” These are lofty democratic ideals at work in the mind of a man who rules an empire, but ancient Rome had its own democratic traditions from the era of the Roman Republic.

Midway, Marcus Aurelius devotes a substantial amount of text to lauding his father's virtues, among them a “mildness of temper, and unchangeable resolution in the things which he had determined after due deliberation… and a love of labor and perseverance.” Again, the author reveals what he most values. Marcus Aurelius touches on the concepts of moderation and abstinence again and betrays a knowledge of Socrates.

The document concludes with the gods. The ancient Romans believed in a pantheon of deities, most of them with human aspects and qualities. These gods influenced most aspects of human life, and the Romans took great care to revere them. “To the gods I am indebted for having good grandfathers, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, good kinsmen and friends, nearly everything good,” Marcus Aurelius begins the final paragraph. Again, he emphasizes the importance of family, while also touching on other people whom he deems central to his life. He thanks the gods not only for the specific contributions of his family, but also for the many other privileges that he has enjoyed. Finally, he thanks the gods for keeping him away from faulty reasoning and wasteful thinking, such as that exercised by Sophists.

Bibliography and Additional Reading

Bauer, Susan Wise. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. New York: Norton, 2007. 118–27. Print.

Knox, Peter E. & J. C. McKeown, eds. The Oxford Anthology of Roman Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Marcus Aurelius. Meditations: A New Translation. Trans. Gregory Hays. New York: Modern Library, 2002. Print.

Martin, Thomas R. Ancient Rome: From Romulus to Justinian. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. Print.