These spiritual reflections of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) show a leader trying to make sense of himself and the universe, and cover diverse topics such as the question of virtue, human rationality and the nature of the gods.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born in AD 121, in the reign of the
emperor Hadrian. At first he was called Marcus Annius Verus, but
his well-born father died young and he was adopted, first by his
grandfather, who had him educated by a number of excellent tutors,
and then, when he was sixteen, by Aurelius Antoninus, his uncle by
marriage, who had been adopted as Hadrian's heir, and had no
surviving sons of his own. Aurelius Antoninus changed Marcus' name
to his own and betrothed him to his daughter, Faustina. She bore
fourteen children, but none of the sons survived Marcus except the
worthless Commodus, who eventually succeeded Marcus as emperor.
On the death of Antoninus in 161, Marcus made Lucius Verus, another
adopted son of his uncle, his colleague in government. There were
thus two emperors ruling jointly for the first time in Roman
history. The Empire then entered a period troubled by natural
disasters, famine, plague and floods, and by invasions of
barbarians. In 168, one year before the death of Verus left him in
sole command, Marcus went to join his legions on the Danube. Apart
from a brief visit to Asia to crush the revolt of Avidius Cassius,
whose followers he treated with clemency, Marcus stayed in the
Danube region and consoled his somewhat melancholy life there by
writing a series of reflections which he called simply To Himself.
These are now known as his Meditations, and they reveal a mind of
great humanity and natural humility, formed in the Stoic tradition,
which has long been admired in the Christian world. He died, of an
infectious disease, perhaps, in camp on 17 March AD 180.
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