The Meditations
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Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 AD. Born to an upper-class Roman family in 121, Aurelius was adopted by his uncle, the emperor Antoninus Pius, in 138. Aurelius studied Greek and Latin literature, philosophy, and law, and was especially influenced by the Stoic thinker Epictetus. After Pius’s death, Aurelius succeeded the throne alongside his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus. His reign was marked by plague, numerous military conflicts, and the deaths of friends and family—including Lucius Verus in 169. Despite these struggles, the Empire flourished under Marcus’s rule as the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an era from 27 to 180 of relative peace and prosperity for the Roman Empire. Aurelius wrote his Meditations as spiritual exercises never intended for publication, and died at fifty-eight while on campaign against the Germanic tribes.
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The Meditations - Marcus Aurelius
BOOK
Marcus Aurelius
The Meditations
Originally translated by
GAEditori
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
The Meditations
© GA Editori
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First edition: march 2019
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About this edition
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Augustus was Emperor of Rome from 161 to his death, the last of the Five Good Emperors.
He was nephew, son-in-law, and adoptive son of Antonius Pius. Marcus Aurelius was one of the most important Stoic philosophers, cited by H.P. Blavatsky amongst famous classic sages and writers such as Plato, Euripides, Socrates, Aristophanes, Pindar, Plutarch, Isocrates, Diodorus, Cicero, and Epictetus.
1
This edition was originally translated out of the Greek by Meric Casaubon in 1634 as The Golden Book of Marcus Aurelius
.
Cf. Blavatsky Collected Writings, (THE ORIGIN OF THE MYSTERIES) XIV p.257
LIVING THE LIFE SERIES MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS
Chief English translations of Marcus Aurelius
Meric Casaubon, 1634;
Jeremy Collier, 1701;
James Thomson, 1747;
R. Graves, 1792;
H. McCormac, 1844; George Long, 1862;
G.H. Rendall, 1898; and
J. Jackson, 1906.
Renan’s Marc-Aurèle
— in his History of the Origins of Christianity,
which appeared in 1882 — is the most vital and original book to be had relating to the time of Marcus Aurelius. Pater’s Marius the Epicurean
forms another outside commentary, which is of service in the imaginative attempt to create again the period. ²
[Brought forward from p.xxiii.]
Introduction
Some books can be considered as a constant reference for our life, as friends whose voice may reach us from afar, but that we feel close to our problems and questions. This is the case of the Meditations
by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Written over 1800 years ago, has always had a remarkable attraction to the most diverse places and people, who recognized themselves in the experience and existential reflections of its author. The book is still very topical for the attitude of research and self-analysis, of touch with inner life, which makes it an exceptional human document, rather than a historical and philosophical one. Within what actually is a spiritual diary, I wanted to find some reading paths that will highlight its fundamental themes. The work, which certainly was not written for publication and that we received divided into 12 short books of notations, notes, loose considerations, looks, at least superficially, unorganized, except for the first book, devoted to recalling the debt of gratitude towards men and gods.
This book can be read as an inner biography of Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD); it outlines his life remembering the relationships and events that more influenced his education and his conception of the world. At the margin of this and of the next book, that, according to scholars, were the last to be written, two notations allow us to date with good accuracy the composition of the book, dating back to the last decade of Marcus Aurelius’s life. His inclination was to devote himself to philosophy, in the sense of research and practice of truth, but he found himself living in a situation of overwhelming responsibilities in a troubled and dramatic period of continuous wars against the barbarians who threatened the empire, of insurrections and calamities. Taking up the tasks that derived from his position, he always reiterates the primacy of interiority, the choice of what really matters: not glory and approval of others, but the awareness of doing one’s duty and safeguarding one’s soul from any pollution and ugliness.
Precisely because the vicissitudes of life and his responsibilities prevented him from devoting his time to study and meditation, Marco Aurelio feels the need to keep always in mind, by thinking, questioning, recalling the thoughts of philosophers and maintaining contact with his interiority, what the task of human being is, its place in the universe, its relationship with the gods and more specifically what are the duties of a person living, with precise responsibilities, in a society and in a particular historical moment. As physicians and chirurgeons have always their instruments ready at hand for all sudden cures; so have thou always thy dogmata in a readiness for the knowledge of things, both divine and human: and whatsoever thou dost, even in the smallest things that thou dost, thou must ever remember that mutual relation, and connection that is between these two things divine, and things human.
III 13 The regret that often arises from being unable to feed with reading and study his inclination to philosophy as a fundamental resource to orient himself and pursue his task of man and emperor, is almost certainly the reason that induced him to write his reflections as a space devoted entirely to his interiority, in the midst of so many cares and worries. Actually, there is no mention of the dramatic events of the period, but a constant attention and vigilance over his emotions, a continuous asking himself about the rightness of his acts, a constant invitation to awareness and to serene and grateful acceptance of what is happening, because what the gods have established can not be evil. This is a rigorous commitment to what at times he feels unequal to, but that he always reaffirms, in a journey of growth and purification, that we can follow in its difficulties and in the confidence that it is the only thing that makes life worth living.
What is thy profession? to be good. And how should this be well brought to pass, but by certain theorems and doctrines; some concerning the nature of the universe, and some concerning the proper and particular constitution of man?
XI 5 Look within; within is the fountain of all good. Such a fountain, where springing waters can never fail, so thou dig still deeper and deeper.
VII 59 His conception of life is profoundly unitary and providential, in the sense that everything has its own order and function and that the purpose of man is to fully realize the divine potential inherent to him, and what Marcus Aurelius often calls, with a Socratic term, daemon, or the sovereign royal faculty. To live with the Gods. He liveth with the Gods, who at all times affords unto them the spectacle of a soul, both contented and well pleased with whatsoever is afforded, or allotted unto her; and performing whatsoever is pleasing to that Spirit, whom being part of himself Jove hath appointed to every man as his overseer and governor.
V 27 For all things are ranked together, and by that decency of its due place and order that each particular doth observe, they all concur together to the making of one and the same world. For all things throughout, there is but one and the same order; and through all things, one and the same God, the same substance and the same law. There is one common reason, and one common truth, that belongs unto all reasonable creatures, for neither is there save one perfection of all creatures that are of the same kind, and partakers of the same reason.
VII 9 " There is but one light of the sun, though it be intercepted by walls and mountains, and other thousand objects.
There is but one common substance of the whole world, though it be concluded and restrained into several different bodies, in number infinite. There is but one common soul, though divided into innumerable particular essences and natures. So is there but one common intellectual soul, though it seem to be divided. XII 30 Thanks to this deep sense of unity, he sees no contradiction or incompatibility between his task and his commitment to self-realization.
Now that unto every one is most profitable, which is according to his own constitution and nature. And my nature is, to be rational in all my actions and as a good, and natural member of a city and commonwealth, towards my fellow members ever to be sociably and kindly disposed and affected. My city and country as I am Antoninus, is Rome; as a man, the whole world. Those things therefore that are expedient and profitable to those cities, are the only things that are good and expedient for me. VI 44 He feels, however, its difficulty and weight and also the danger of being put off. When he recalls his dignity and power, he always appeals to his sense of responsibility, to the awareness of the brevity of life.
... take heed, lest of a philosopher thou become a mere Caesar in time ... Keep thyself therefore, truly simple, good ... Endeavour to continue such, as philosophy ... would have made, and secured thee. Worship the Gods, procure the welfare of men, this life is short. Charitable actions, and a holy disposition, is the only fruit of this earthly life. VI 30 His attitude towards political action, which he feels as a primary duty, is disenchanted.
Do what thy nature doth now require. Resolve upon it, if thou mayest. Yea, but sayest thou, I must not expect a Plato’s commonwealth. If they profit though never so little, I must be content; and think much even of that little progress. Doth then any of them forsake their former false opinions that I should think they profit? For without a change of opinions, alas! what is all that ostentation, but mere wretchedness of slavish minds, that groan privately, and yet would make a show of obedience to reason, and truth? XII 2
Alexander, Caesar, Pompeius; what are these to Diogenes, Heraclitus, and Socrates? These penetrated into the true nature of things; into all causes, and all subjects: and upon these did they exercise their power and authority. But as for those, as the extent of their error was, so far did their slavery extend. VIII 3
As the spider, when it hath caught the fly that it hunted after, is not little proud, nor meanly conceited of herself: as he likewise that hath caught an hare, or hath taken a fish with his net: as another for the taking of a boar, and another of a bear: so may they be proud, and applaud themselves for their valiant acts against the Sarmatai. For these also, these famous soldiers and warlike men, if thou dost look into their minds and opinions, what do they for the most part but hunt after prey? X 10
‘They kill me, they cut my flesh; they persecute my person with curses.’ What then? May not thy mind for all this