Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Nearly 2000 years later his thoughts remain more relevant than ever
The 26th of April was Marcus Aurelius’ birthday (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) so I revisited Meditations a timeless classic, which should be mandatory reading for any adult. Here just a couple of the many gems in the book:
ETHICS
Marcus Aurelius was a very highly regarded emperor (last of the Five Good Emperors of Rome) who waged successful campaigns against Armenia and Germanic tribes. So yes he has amassed a considerable death count, however, it’s hard to judge the man on that basis - those were the times. His regard for the common good and restraint to judge other people is commendable and something that we should urgently emulate.
“The man without one and the same aim in life cannot himself stay one and the same throughout his life.” The maxim is incomplete unless you add what sort of aim that should be. Judgements vary of the whole range of various things taken by the majority to be good in one way or another but only one category commands a universal judgement, and that is the good of the community. It follows that the aim we should set ourselves is a social aim, the benefit of our fellow citizens. A man directing all his own impulses to this end will be consistent in all his actions, and therefore the same man throughout.
Just as those who try to block your progress along the straight path of reason will not be able to divert you from principles action, so you must not let them knock you of your good will towards them. Rather you should watch yourself equally on both fronts, keeping not only a stability of judgement and action but also a mild response to those who try to stop you or are otherwise disaffected. To be angry with them is no less a weakness than to abandon your course of action and capitulate in panic. Both amount equally to desertation of duty - either being frightened into retreat, or setting yourself at odds with your natural kinsmen and friends.
Have I done something for the common good? Then I too have benefited. Have this thought always ready to hand: and no stopping.
Whenever you take offence at the wrong done by another, move on at once to consider what similar wrong you are committing - it could be setting value on money, or pleasure, or reputation, and so on through the categories. This reflection will quickly damp your anger, aided by the further thought that the man is acting under compulsion - what else can he do? Or, if you can, remove the cause of this compulsion.
MORTALITY
Most of meditations was written during the campaign against the Germanic tribes so death was an ever present fact for Marcus. No wonder that he would contemplate his own mortality. Nevertheless, his stoic approach to facing “extinction” feels noble and courageous.
That in a short while you will be nobody and nowhere; and the same of all that you now see and all who are now alive. It is the nature of all things to change, to perish and be transformed, so that in succession different things can come to be.
What a nobel thing is the soul ready for its release from the body, if now must be the time, and prepared for whatever follows - extinction, dispersal, or survival! But this readiness must come from a specific decision: not in mere revolt, like the Christians, but thoughtful, dignified, and - if others are to believe it - undramatic.
The time you have left is short. Live it as if you were on a mountain. Here or there makes no difference, if wherever you live you take the world as your city. Let men see, let them observe a true man living in accordance with nature. If they cannot bear him, let them kill him - a better fate than a life like theirs.
Keep constantly in your mind an impression of the whole of time and the whole of existence - and the thought that each individual thing is, on the scale of existence, a mere fig-seed; on the scale of time, one turn of a drill.
MORTALITY
Probably the most impressive thing about Marcus Aurelius is his level of self-awareness. He was born into a rich and powerful family - his maternal grandmother was a wealthy heiress and his paternal grandfather had reached the pinnacle of a senatorial career. Due to these connections his uncle the previous emperor Antonius adopted him for succession (emperors were chosen through adoption as there was no direct inheritance of power). Born into privilege granted him access to the best possible education, which undoubtedly contributed to his powers of introspection.
You should avoid flattery as much as anger in your dealings with them: both are against the common good and lead to harm. In your fits of anger have this thought ready to mind that there is nothing manly in being angry, but a gentle calm is both more human and therefore more virile. It is the gentle who have strength, sinew, and courage - not the indignant and complaining. The closer to control of emotion, the closer to power. Anger is as much a sign of weakness as is pain. Both have been wounded, and have surrendered.
The external things whose pursuit or avoidance troubles you do not force themselves on you, but in a way you yourself go out to them. However that may be, keep your judgement of them calm and they too will stay still - then you will not be seen either to pursue or to avoid.
What sort of people are they when eating, sleeping, coupling, shitting, etc.? Then what are they like when given power over men? Haughty, quick to anger, punishing to excess. And yet just now they were slaves to all those needs for all those reasons: and shortly they will be slaves again.
In any given material circumstance what can be done or said to soundest effect? Whatever that is, it is in your power to do it or say it - and make no pretence of “obstacles in the way”. You will never cease moaning until you experience the same pleasure in making an appropriately human response to any circumstance you meet or face as the hedonist does in his indulgence - a response, that is, in keeping with man’s constitution. Because you should regard as enjoyment any action you can take in accord with your own nature; and you can do that anywhere.
You will think little of the entertainment of song or dance or all - in wrestling if you deconstruct the melodic line of a song into its individual notes and ask yourself of each of them: “Is this something that overpowers me?” You will recoil from that admission. So too with a comparable analysis come to despise the thing itself. And the same method should be applied to the whole of life.
LAST GOOD EMPEROR
In Ridley Scott’s fictional movie Gladiator, Maximus, who is Russel Crowe’s character, serves Marcus Aurelius on his campaign against the German tribes. When Marcus dies his son Commodus becomes emperor (despite him not trusting his own son and rather wanting Maximus as successor). Commodus is depicted as an incestious and psychotic character (and well played by Joaquin Phoenix).
The truth is, the real Commodus was way worse than the heinous character in Gladiator. Marcus was the first emperor to elect his own (teenage) son to succeed him rather than adopting someone from another family. A foiled revolt by Avidius, governor of Egypt, had shaken up control of the Empire which lead to Marcus’ rash decision to make his son Imperator.
Commodus was a self-involved, privileged and unhinged character. His bad deeds drove his sister to plot with senators to assassinate him (they didn’t succeed). It goes to show that the apple can fall very far from the tree. While undoubtedly Marcus is one of the most beloved Roman emperors, his decision to let his son succeed him ended the golden age of Rome and Pax Romana.
We shall forgive him this lapse in judgement (or his bad parenting skills), for his wisdom has survived the test of time and continues to inspire us to become better humans to this day.