Marc. Aurel. Antoninus Elmélkedései

A collection of Stoic meditations written in the 2nd century AD. It is a private notebook of self-advice that explores how to live virtuously through reason, justice, self-restraint, and acceptance of nature’s order. The reflections blend imperial experience with Stoic practice, focusing on inner discipline over fame or fortune. The opening of the work provides a brief biographical sketch of Marcus’s life and wars, then launches into Book I, a grateful catalog of lessons learned from family, teachers, and friends (from Rusticus and Apollonius to Sextus and Fronto), followed by thanks to the gods for guidance and circumstances. Book II begins with daily precepts: prepare to meet difficult people, distinguish body, breath, and ruling reason, accept providence, keep to present duties, and avoid distraction and vanity. Early sections of Books III–IV press the urgency of using the mind well before age dulls it, note the mortality of even the greatest figures, find beauty in nature’s processes, and urge retreat into the “inner citadel” rather than external escapes. Throughout, the maxims stress cosmopolitan duty, the brevity of life, indifference to praise, and death as a natural transformation, with asides noting the settings among the Quadi and at Carnuntum.