The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

Rating:
Summary: An Ancient Roman Amazingly Up To Date!
Review: As you read the words of Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome, you'll find advice and help that is as helpful now, in the 21st century as it was in his lifetime.

I am a voracious reader of self-help books, and I see a lot of the essence of them summed up in Aurelius' MEDITATIONS.

Aurelius is a Stoic, which is not to be confused with an unfeeling view of life. He is concerned with living a life of integrity and adopting principles of self discipline, especially in the face of impulse and action. His goal was to be just, self-disciplined, courageous and independent, and to live in the present.

The book is divided into sections and the paragraphs are numbered. The style of writing is easy to understand, but it isn't "fast" reading -- sometimes it's possible to read two or three sentences and think deeply.

It's a good book to carry with you and read in odd moments -- or when you have a lot of time to read. It will make you think and contemplate.

Rating:
Summary: A classic for more than a thousand years
Review: Here was a man who had probably double the power of any modern American president and some, yet thought it was almost impossible to be a good man and a powerful/rich one. Someone (I think it was Swift but I'm probably wrong) who was described as the first pagan Christian Roman emperor. Actually I think he was just an intelligent man who, being born into politics and family turmoil, realised the shortcomings and responsibilities of being in the first family. He also needed something to confide in. I like it, I have problems agreeing with everything but sometimes I like to copy the style in evaluating my own life, who to thank, what to learn from etc.

Rating:
Summary: Avoid this inferior 'dumbed down' translation
Review: I picked up this more modern translation of this work, and phrases like 'junk' and 'if you keep putting things off' leapt out of the text. Consternation - did the Greek original actually have words like that? It was a 'modern' translation - 'modern' as in 'dumbing down'.

So I went looking for another translation, only 40 years old, but more faithful to the original, as in 'think of your many years of procrastination' rather than 'if you keep putting things off'. I don't view it as 'colloquial', I view it as patronising.

I'm sorry, but if you can't handle good English, and need the 'dumber' versions, then you're probably too dumb to appreciate the finer points of the work in the first place. Both versions were the same price, so that didn't influence my decision.

One reviewer mentioned it was translated from the Greek, and another reviewer corrected them as he was a Roman. If the second person had actually read the book correctly, he would have discovered that this book was written in Greek - thus another mark of the man.

Then you can sit back and invest your time in truly enjoying the thoughts & the musings of this interesting man.

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Summary: A Modern Translation of an Ancient Classic
Review: In the introduction to his translation of the "Meditations" Gregory Hays observes that "[I]t has been a generation since [The Meditations'] last English incarnation." Hays further explains that he has attempted to present a readable, modern translation of Marcus' great work which strill captures the "patchwork character of the original." I find that Hays's translation succeeds. He translates Marcus's reflections into a colloquial, frequently earthy, English in unstitled language and idiom that will be familiar to a modern reader. I think the translation is as well faithful to Marcus's thought. The reflective, meditative character of the paragraphs come through well, as does the difficulty of the text in many places. This is a book that will encourage the modern reader to approach Marcus -- an altogether commendable result.

Professor Hays has written an excellent introduction to his translation which can be read with benefit by those coming to the "Meditations" for the first time and by those familiar with the work. There is a brief discussion of Marcus's life, his philosophical studies, and his tenure as emperor of Rome (161-180 A.D.) Hays spends more time on the philosophical background of Marcus's thought emphasizing ancient stoicism and of the philosophy of Heraclitus. He discusses the concept of "logos", a critical term for Marcus and for later thought, and argues that logos -- or the common reason that pervades man and the universe -- is as much a process as it is a substance. This is difficult, but insightful.

Hays obviously has a great love for Marcus's book and has thought about it well. He is able to offer critical observations which will help the reader focus in studying the Meditations. (For example, Hays argues that Marcus does not understand or appreciate human joy very well. He also argues that Marcus's thought takes an overly static view of the nature of society and does not see the possiblity or need for societal change.) Hays discusses briefly the reception of the Meditiations over the centuries. I enjoyed in particular his references to the essays of Arnold and Brodsky on Marcus Aurelius. I haven't read these essays, but Hays's discussion makes me want to do so.

The Meditations is one of the great book of the West and will repay repeated readings. When I read it this time, I was struck by Marcus's devotion to his duties in life as the Roman emperor. I got the distinct impression that Marcus would have rather been at his studies but kept telling himself, in his writings, that he had to persevere and be the person he was meant to be. It is a focused approach, to say the least, to the duties to which one was called.

I was also impressed with the similarities at certain points between Marcus's thought and Buddhism. Other reviewers have also noted this similarity. Marcus talks repeatedly about the changing, impermanent character of human life and about the pervasive character of human suffering. He talks about controlling and ending suffering by understanding its causes and then changing one's life accordingly. There is a need to learn patience and to control anger and desire. More specifically, Marcus' understanding of perception and how it leads to desire and can be controlled by reason (discussed well in Hays's introduction.) is very Buddhist in tone. I have become interested in Buddhism and was struck in this reading of the Meditations by the parallels it offers to Buddhist thought.

There is a wonderful paragraph in the Meditations where Marcus urges himself to persevere and not to lose hope simply because he did not become a scholar or a hero or the person of his dreams. What matters is being a good person and living in harmony with one's nature. This passage spoke clearly and poignantly to me as I reread the Meditations. Undoubtedly, the reader will find passages in this book that are addressed clearly to him or her.

This is a book that should be read and pondered many times. Hays and the Modern Library have done readers a service with this translation.

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Summary: Ian Myles Slater on: The Modern Library and the Emperor
Review: It was interesting to see that one reviewer went looking for a copy of the Modern Library edition of "Meditations" as a gift, and had to settle for a different translation.

There was a time when many publishers had in print their own editions -- usually "gift editions," in a range of prices -- of the little book, "To Himself," by the second-century Roman patrician Marcus Annius Catilius Severus (121-180 C.E.), known after his marriage as Marcus Annius Verus -- almost always titled something like "The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius," and most commonly some version (little choice disguised as many choices) of George Long's 1862 translation of the Greek original, originally published as "The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus."

For Marcus, besides receiving an excellent education in Greek, which he seems to have used as naturally as Latin, went on, through a process of adoption and co-optation, to rule the Roman Empire, beginning in 161 with the death of Antoninus Pius, his uncle, who had adopted him as heir, using a third version of his name. For moderns, he is usually just Marcus Aurelius; I found it a bit of shock to see him as just another "Antoninus" in ancient texts.

Under any name, he has been popular, at least with publishers; even now, there seem to be something like sixty versions in English of this book available on Amazon, even though many *are* out of print (and most seem to be of the same few older translations). As usual, a number of these editions and translations are grouped by Amazon for review purposes, and I will mention some. If you find this, or someone else's, review of one translation under a different heading, PLEASE remember that, as Marcus Aurelius saw, some things really are beyond our control.

It should require more thought to understand Marcus than it does to follow the English version. The Modern Library's current offering, a new translation by George Hays, is based on modern text editions, and seems to be both an excellent first introduction to the book, and graceful reading for those with no interest in looking further. It has brief but helpful notes, and a glossary of names, which helps keep the notes short and to the point. Some will follow his references to more advanced treatments, including textual as well as philosophical problems.

As for Marcus Aurelius, he is generally regarded as one of the greatest, and certainly the most morally and intellectually impressive, of all Roman Emperors. Gibbon tended to see the Empire's real decline as subsequent to his death, a view not without its reflection in the recent motion picture "Gladiator." The transitions by appointment from Trajan to Hadrian to Antoninus Pius to Marcus produced one of the most successful set of reigns in history (if mainly from a strictly Roman and Imperial point of view). It is perhaps the best historically-documented counterpart of the Chinese tradition of the Sage Emperors who chose as heirs the Most Virtuous (or Most Effective) subjects, instead of favored sons.

The policy had precedents in Roman history, although none so successful for so long. Family loyalty was admired, and inheritance gave access to key property, including the slaves in the bureaucracy, and the loyalty of followers (veteran soldiers, freedmen and other clients); yet the whole dynastic principle was suspect as un-Roman. It was in part accidental, Antoninus, for example, himself almost a last-minute substitute, having no son to be his heir. Marcus Aurelius designated his son Commodus as successor, with less fortunate consequences; although Commodus' evil reputation may reflect his political and military failures as much as his personality.

So one might expect from the great Emperor Marcus Aurelius some manifesto on statesmanship, or imperial strategy, or at least good government. In fact, his twelve books (booklets, really) of little notes "to himself" contain reflections on fate, on moral lessons from classical literature, on religion, on human nature. They are probably the last thing one would expect of a Supreme Autocrat and Generalissimo.

Nor are they an exposition of a philosophic system; no surprise that some reviewers, apparently expecting one, have found them unsatisfying.

The first three books have titles (some are subscripts in the manuscript tradition, but, like Hays, I think they are misplaced). "On the River Gran, Among the Quadi," refers to a campaign on the borders of the empire. If it is the heading of Book Two, the lack of any explicit reference therein to the hard-fought German campaign is worth pondering. Was this what the Emperor considered truly important? What he wanted us to think he thought was important? (But there is internal evidence that he had no intention of making any of it public.) What he preferred to think about when he could get away from the war for a few moments? It should be remembered that he was a successful campaigner.

Hays' clear translation into modern English joins a number of post-Long translations. Older versions include the important version with commentary of A.S.L. Farquharson (Oxford, 1944, out of print; his translation with new introduction, etc., World's Classics, 1990, and Oxford World's Classics, 1998), and two competitors for the student and general reader markets, respectively, by G.M.A. Grube (originally Library of Liberal Arts, Bobbs-Merrill, 1963) and Maxwell Staniforth (Penguin Classics, 1964), which have been in and out of print (but mostly in) for four decades. Of these, I much prefer Hays -- although the additional material in the World's Classics edition(s) is worth a look.

It also joins the highly-praised contemporary version, "The Emperor's Handbook: A New Translation of The Meditations," translated by David Hicks and C. Scott Hicks (2002; not seen).

It competes as well with a fairly recent (1993) Dover Thrift Edition of the George Long translation, revised (and not for the first time) to modernize his mid-Victorian English and untangle his somewhat convoluted fidelity to (a long-obsolete edition of) the Greek. That Long was not very readable was probably not of much concern to those who used to buy and give (and possibly receive) editions designed to suggest educated tastes; certainly not to the sellers. Long's concern for accuracy should be emulated, but turning relatively clear Greek into opaque English doesn't seem the best way to achieve the goal. (In all fairness, what was plain enough language in mid-Victorian England / Civil War America may now seem obscure for other reasons.)

The novelist Mary Renault thought that Marcus' example refuted Lord Acton's view that "absolute power corrupts absolutely," but the most remarkable lesson of the "Meditations" is that Marcus Aurelius did not believe that he HAD absolute power. He had been chosen and groomed for a role he had been taught to accept as a duty, and regarded it as both an obligation and an imposition. For Marcus was a Stoic -- not in the commonplace sense of someone who repressed his feelings or endured pain without expression, but in the original sense of a follower of philosophy that offered a quasi-religious approach to life. Hays usefully points out (with helpful bibliography) that Marcus was, in the manner of his time, eclectic, but grants that, if asked, he would have identified himself with Stocism.

The movement was founded by Zeno of Citium (or Kition), born on Cyprus (about 336 B.C.E.) in a family said to be part Phoenician, who taught in the Stoa Poikile, or "Painted Walkway," in Athens, from some point after 313 to his death about 261 B.C.E. It was one of the key movements of Hellenistic times, and found a ready reception among upper class Romans as well. Teaching calm in the face of stress, and endorsing acceptance of public obligations, including religion, it is traditionally paired with, and contrasted to, Epicureanism, which taught avoidance of excessive pain and pleasure, withdrawal into private life, and the pointlessness of traditional religion. (Not hedonism, as popularly imagined; nor did it deny the existence of gods, only that they had any interest in anything so trivial and base as human concerns.)

For those who find the "Meditations" intriguing but unsatisfying, works by other Stoics may be more fulfilling; there are some excellent recent volumes translating and interpreting Marcus' older contemporary, Epictetus, a slave who set an example to the rulers of the western world -- but that would be another review.

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly Rewarding
Review: Many people are disappointed with Stoicism, calling it emotionally narrow and unsatisfying. Indeed, it seems ridiculous to us now, when kissing our mother or spouse so say to ourselves "I am only kissing a human being", so if those people die, we will not be attached to them, and therefore feel no loss. This is what Epictetus, the man through whose Discourses Marcus Aurelius learned the principles of Stoicism, advised one to do in his Handbook.

That being said, I feel that there are few works that have ever been more rewarding for me to read. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius are amazing on two levels. The first is that of a philosophical doctrine, the level on which it is usually considered. The Meditations can be seen as sort of a run-on of the Epictetian brand of Stoicism, which is different in many aspects from early Greek Stoicism. If one (for the most part) likes what Epictetus has to say in the Handbook, but doesn't really feel like sitting through the Discourses, Marcus Aurelius is a nice alternative.

The second level is that of a personal struggle. Most people don't admit it, but the reason that Marcus Aurelius stays with the reader more than Epictetus does is because in Marcus Aurelius the reader sees a man with an enormous amount of power in his hands wrestling with himself, trying not only to do his job correctly, but live correctly as well.

The Meditations are very intimate, and could be considered a sort of philosophical diary, but for some reason, they never really get this treatment from readers.

I would recommend this not only to students of philosophy, but to students of Roman history and political science as well. How many times in history do we have a written account of what it takes to be a good emperor? Most of all, however, I would recommend this to anyone struggling to find inner peace, not that I'm suggesting that it should be taken in a dogmatic manner, but at the very least, a troubled mind will find a companion in Marcus Aurelius.

As for the translation, I have not seen another that even comes close. This book is worth every cent of the price and much much more.


Rating:
Summary: A BOOK FROM A RARE, SELDOM "WISE" EMPEROR
Review: Marcus Aurelius, the emperor-philosopher, ruled the immense Roman Empire from 161 untill 180. He is the last representative of the Stoa. In this book, also known by the name "Diaries of M.A.", written between 170 and 180 in his army camp, he reflects about his ideals and his doubts. In his meditations one can (constantly) very well distinguish the ideas of a living human being, a man ... ruled by the universe of the divine providence, where all men live as fellow citizens of the gods. With far more warmth than one may expect from a stoic, Marcus Aurelius emphasizes the social "duties" and the feelings of solidarity that originate of them.

Another ever-recurring motive is the personal liberty, freedom of the individual. This is quite normal because ALL DEPENDS on our judgments (in the sense of 'impression') of the circumstances. Very often WE SUFFER FAR MORE OF OUR JUDGMENT of something or of a situation that we consider "terrible", THAN OF THE SUBJECT ITSELF !! For example a poor constitution (of the body) and other adversities cannot/could NOT HAVE influence our own inner compass...
Top of the shelf literature, STRONGLY RECOMMENDED to ALL OF YOU!!

Rating:
Summary: Way, way before its time
Review: Meditations is the kind of book you can just open up to any page and learn from, a still-relevant lesson about how to set priorities in what Socrates called the examined life. It is also a fascinating tour of the mind of Marcus Aurelius, the military leader, emperor, educator, philanthropist, and philosopher who remains one of history's most noble protagonists, and whose writings reveal the loneliness of his soul without being bitter.

This is a must-have book for the nightstand of anyone living a contemplative life, a profound precursor to modern self-help books written by a Renaissance man who lived centuries before the Renaissance.

There is no plot to summarize here, no accurate generalizations to be made. One gets the idea that these are thoughts the author jotted down, sometimes between appointments and sometimes after months of contemplation. Often they are obvious, sometimes they are obscure. They can seem rooted in history, and at times based on today's current events. They can be funny, surprising, or sad. But they are almost always worthwhile.

A final note: I have two editions of this book, and while I think both this one and the Hicks' translation are very good, I prefer this by a small degree.

Rating:
Summary: 4* Read this one and avoid any inferior translations
Review: There's some confusion over the editorial & reviews. This edition is translated by Staniforth, and that is the one to read. Some postings suggest they are describing the Hays translation, which this is not.

I picked up the Hays translation of this work, and phrases like 'junk' and 'if you keep putting things off' leapt out of the text. Consternation - did the Greek original actually have words like that? It was a 'modern translation - modern as in 'dumbing down'.

So I went looking for this Staniforth translation, only 40 years old, but more faithful to the original, as in 'think of your many years of procrastination' rather than 'if you keep putting things off'. I'm sorry, but if you can't handle good English, and need the 'dumber' versions, then you're probably too dumb to appreciate the finer points of the work in the first place. Both versions were the same price, so that didn't influence my decision.

Then you can sit back and invest your time in enjoying the thoughts & the musings of this interesting man, who although Roman, was able to make his records in Greek.

Rating:
Summary: Two for the price of one
Review: This book is really two pamphlets in one. Each is well worth reading in its own right. Together, they are a real treat.

In the introduction, the author provides a high level but highly instructive overview of the life and times of Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome from A.D. 161 until his death in 180. From the brief biography of Marcus through the discussion of the philosophical traditions that informed the Emperor and, ultimately, the Meditations, to the summary of recurring themes, the Introduction is very worthwhile reading. The author conveniently includes some suggestions for further reading to allow any who are interested to plunge well below the surface that is only lightly touched here.

The heart of the book, the Meditations themselves, is a superb and enduring testament to the community of humankind. Written nearly 2000 years ago, the Meditations, which Marcus never expected to be read by anyone other than himself and, perhaps, his son, reveal how consistently and deeply themes like death, integrity, ethics, and tolerance affect all people at all times. Perhaps the most notable reaction to reading this very accessible translation is that here, speaking across 20 centuries, is the basis for a successful career as a 21st Century "self-help guru".