Marcus Aurelius © Trustees of the British Museum, produced by Natalia Bauer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme
On this day in A.D. 121, the future Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius was born. Marcus Aurelius was the last of the "five good emperors" and was the father of the infamous emperor Commodus.
Marcus Aurelius was a Stoic Philosopher who wrote his Meditations. The following is from the third book of a public domain translation of the Meditations. It tells how to live, even if one is an emperor, modestly and virtuously:
Do nothing against thy will, nor contrary to the community, nor without due examination, nor with reluctancy. Affect not to set out thy thoughts with curious neat language. Be neither a great talker, nor a great undertaker. Moreover, let thy God that is in thee to rule over thee, find by thee, that he hath to do with a man; an aged man; a sociable man; a Roman; a prince; one that hath ordered his life, as one that expecteth, as it were, nothing but the sound of the trumpet, sounding a retreat to depart out of this life with all expedition. One who for his word or actions neither needs an oath, nor any man to be a witness.
Book 3
Full Article:
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Introduction
This Day in Ancient History
Comments
It’s remarkable for me to have a site, which is valuable in support of my experience. thanks admin