Meditations

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is one of the great pillars of western literature and stoic philosophy. It is a rare primary source into the mind of a man who ruled over one of the greatest empires of all time.Marcus Aurelius was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD. Despite being an emperor Marcus had a difficult life. The empire he inherited was beset with aggressive neighbours, natural disasters, famine, and disease. By the time of his death the Roman Empire had entered into a golden era, that by all accounts was its last before the long, slow decline began.Marcus ruled as a philosopher king, he practiced Stoicism and wrote about his own Stoic philosophy in his journals. The written work was never intended to be published, or even made public and like many upper class Romans, the original writings were in Greek. Over the years this collection of twelve books became known as the ‘Meditations’ of Marcus Aurelius.This modern translation is printed in easy to understand English. It is a perfect copy for the casual readers, the university student or the philosophy professor.