= Meditations =

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= Meditations =
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Introduction
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'Meditations' () is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius,
Roman Emperor from 161-180 CE, recording his private notes to himself
and ideas on Stoic philosophy.

Composition
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Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the 'Meditations' in Koine Greek
as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. It is possible
that large portions of the work were written at Sirmium, where he
spent much time planning military campaigns in AD 170-180. A portion
of his work was written while he was positioned at Aquincum on
campaign in Pannonia, because internal notes reveal that the first
book was written when he was campaigning against the Quadi on the
river Granova (modern-day Hron in Slovakia) and the second book was
written at Carnuntum.

It is unlikely that Marcus Aurelius ever intended the writings to be
published. The work has no official title, so "Meditations" is one of
several titles commonly assigned to the collection. These writings
take the form of quotations varying in length from one sentence to
long paragraphs.

Structure and themes
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The 'Meditations' is divided into 12 books that chronicle different
periods of Aurelius' life. The passages in each book are not
necessarily in chronological order, seeing as they were written as
Aurelius' own personal musings. The style of writing that permeates
the text is one that is simplified, straightforward, and perhaps
reflecting Aurelius' Stoic perspective.

A central theme to 'Meditations' is the importance of analyzing one's
judgment of self and others and developing a cosmic perspective: You
have the power to strip away many superfluous troubles located wholly
in your judgment, and to possess a large room for yourself embracing
in thought the whole cosmos, to consider everlasting time, to think of
the rapid change in the parts of each thing, of how short it is from
birth until dissolution, and how the void before birth and that after
dissolution are equally infinite. Aurelius advocates finding one's
place in the universe and sees that everything came from nature, and
so everything shall return to it in due time. Another strong theme is
of maintaining focus and to be without distraction all the while
maintaining strong ethical principles such as "Being a good man."

His Stoic ideas often involve avoiding indulgence in sensory
affections, a skill which will free a man from the pains and pleasures
of the material world. He claims that the only way a man can be harmed
by others is to allow his reaction to overpower him. An internal
orderly and rational nature, or 'logos,' permeates and guides all
existence. Rationality and clear-mindedness allow one to live in
harmony with the 'logos'. This allows one to rise above faulty
perceptions of "good" and "bad"--things out of one's control like fame
and wealth are (unlike things in one's control) irrelevant and neither
good nor bad.

Ancient
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The early history of the 'Meditations' is unknown, and its earliest
clear mention by another writer dates from the early 10th century. The
historian Herodian, writing in the mid-3rd century, makes mention of
Marcus' literary legacy, saying "He was concerned with all aspects of
excellence, and in his love of ancient literature he was second to no
man, Roman or Greek; this is evident from all his sayings and writings
which have come down to us", a passage which may refer to the
'Meditations'. The 'Historia Augustas biography of Avidius Cassius,
thought to have been written in the 4th century, records that before
Marcus set out on the Marcomannic Wars, he was asked to publish his
'Precepts of Philosophy' in case something should befall him, but he
instead "for three days discussed the books of his 'Exhortations' one
after the other". A doubtful mention is made by the orator Themistius
in about 364 C.E. In an address to the emperor Valens, 'On Brotherly
Love', he says: "You do not need the exhortations () of Marcus."
Another possible reference, in the Greek Anthology, is an epigram
dedicated to "the Book of Marcus," which has been attributed to the
7th century Byzantine scholar Theophylact Simocatta.

Medieval
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The first direct mention of the work comes from Arethas of Caesarea
(c. 860-935), a bishop who was a great collector of manuscripts. At
some date before 907 he sent a volume of the 'Meditations' to
Demetrius, , with a letter saying: "I have had for some time an old
copy of the Emperor Marcus' most profitable book, so old indeed that
it is altogether falling to pieces.… This I have had copied and am
able to hand down to posterity in its new dress." Arethas also
mentions the work in marginal notes ('scholia') to books by Lucian and
Dio Chrysostom where he refers to passages in the "Treatise to
Himself" (), and it was this title which the book bore in the
manuscript from which the first printed edition was made in the 16th
century. Arethas' own copy has now vanished, but it is thought to be
the likely ancestor of the surviving manuscripts. The next mention of
the 'Meditations' is in the 'Suda' lexicon published in the late 10th
century. The 'Suda' calls the work "a directing () of his own life by
Marcus the Emperor in twelve books," which is the first mention of a
division of the work into twelve books. The 'Suda' makes use of some
thirty quotations taken from books I, III, IV, V, IX, and XI. Around
1150, John Tzetzes, a grammarian of Constantinople, quotes passages
from Books IV and V attributing them to Marcus. About 200 years later
Nicephorus Callistus (c. 1295-1360) in his 'Ecclesiastical History'
writes that "Marcus Antoninus composed a book for the education of his
son Marcus [i.e. Commodus], full of all worldly () experience and
instruction." The 'Meditations' is thereafter quoted in many Greek
compilations from the 14th to 16th centuries. This, specifically after
the fall of Constantinople in 1453, as it was among the Greek texts
reintroduced by fleeing scholars to European intellectual circles.

The present-day text is based almost entirely upon two manuscripts.
One is the 'Codex Palatinus' (P), also known as the 'Codex Toxitanus'
(T), that was first published in 1558-59 but is now lost. The other
manuscript is the 'Codex Vaticanus 1950' (A) in the Vatican Library,
which passed there from the collection of Stefano Gradi in 1683. This
is a 14th-century manuscript which survives in a very corrupt state,
and about forty-two lines have dropped out by accidental omissions.
Other manuscripts are of little independent value for reconstructing
the text. The main ones are the 'Codex Darmstadtinus 2773' (D) with
112 extracts from books I-IX, and the 'Codex Parisinus 319' (C) with
29 extracts from Books I-IV.

Modern
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The modern history of the 'Meditations' dates from the issue of the
first printed edition ('editio princeps') by Wilhelm Xylander in 1558
or 1559. It was published at the instigation of Conrad Gesner and
printed by his cousin Andreas Gesner at Zürich. The book was bound
with a work by Marinus ('Proclus vel De Felicitate', also a first
edition). To the 'Meditations' was added a Latin translation by
Xylander who also included brief notes. Conrad Gesner stated in his
dedicatory letter that he "received the books of Marcus from the
gifted poet Michael Toxites from the library of Otto Heinrich, Prince
Palatine", i.e. from the collection at Heidelberg University. The
importance of this edition of the 'Meditations' is that the manuscript
from which it was printed is now lost, so that it is one of the two
principal sources of all modern texts.
Gilbert Murray compares the work to Jean-Jacques Rousseau's
'Confessions' and St. Augustine's 'Confessions'. In the Introduction
to his 1964 translation of 'Meditations', the Anglican priest Maxwell
Staniforth discussed the profound impact of Stoicism on Christianity.
Rees (1992) calls the 'Meditations' "unendingly moving and inspiring,"
but does not offer them up as works of original philosophy, though he
does find an element of Marcus' Stoic philosophy in the philosophical
system of Immanuel Kant.

Wen Jiabao, the former Prime Minister of China, has said that he has
read the 'Meditations' a hundred times. He also stated that he was
"very deeply impressed" by the work. It has been described as "a
favorite" of former United States President Bill Clinton.

Editions
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The 'editio princeps' (first print edition) of the original Greek was
published by Conrad Gessner and his cousin Andreas in 1559. Both it
and the accompanying Latin translation were produced by Wilhelm
Xylander. His source was a manuscript from Heidelberg University,
provided by Michael Toxites. By 1568, when Xylander completed his
second edition, he no longer had access to the source and it has been
lost ever since. The first English translation was published in 1634
by Meric Casaubon.

Some popular English translations include:
* Francis Hutcheson, and James Moore (1742). 'The Meditations of the
Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus'. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2008.
Originally printed by Foulis Press.
* Richard Graves (1792). 'Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius
Antoninus, a new translation from the Greek original, with a Life,
Notes, &c., by R. Graves', 1792; new edition, Halifax, 1826.
* George Long (1862). 'The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius'; reprinted
many times, including in Vol. 2 of the Harvard Classics.
* Chrystal, George W. (1902). 'The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus: A New Rendering Based on the Foulis Translation of
1742', (Edinburgh: O. Schulze and Co.; London: S. C. Brown and Co.,
1902).
* C. R. Haines (1916). 'Marcus Aurelius'. Loeb Classical Library.
* A. S. L. Farquharson (1944). 'Marcus Aurelius Meditations'.
Everyman's Library reprint edition (1992) . Oxford World's Classics
revised edition (1998)
* Classics Club (1945). 'Meditations. Marcus Aurelius and his times'.
Walter J. Black, Inc. New York.
* Maxwell Staniforth (1969). 'Meditations'. Penguin.
* Gregory Hays (2002). 'Meditations'. Random House. (181 pages)
* C. Scot Hicks, David V. Hicks (2002). 'The Emperor's Handbook: A New
Translation of the Meditations'. Simon & Schuster.
* Martin Hammond (2006). 'Meditations'. Penguin Classics.
* Jacob Needleman, and John P. Piazza (2008) 'The Essential Marcus
Aurelius'. J. P. Tarcher. (111 pages)
* Robin Hard, and Christopher Gill (2011). 'Meditations with selected
correspondence'. Oxford University Press
* Robin Waterfield (2021). 'Meditations: The Annotated Edition'. Basic
Books.

See also
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* John Bourchier, 2nd Baron Berners
* 'Memento mori'

Further reading
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* Annas, Julia. 2004. "Marcus Aurelius: Ethics and Its Background."
'Rhizai: A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science' 2:103-119.
* Berryman, Sylvia Ann. 2010. 'The Puppet and the Sage: Images of the
Self in Marcus Aurelius' 'Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy' 38:
187-209.
* Dickson, Keith. 2009. "Oneself as Others: Aurelius and
Autobiography." 'Arethusa' 42.1: 99-125.
* Gill, Christopher. 2012. "Marcus and Previous Stoic Literature." In
'A Companion to Marcus Aurelius.' Edited by Marcel van Ackeren,
382-395. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
* Hadot, Pierre. 2001. 'The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus
Aurelius.' Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
* Kraye, Jill. 2012. "Marcus Aurelius and Neostoicism in Early Modern
Philosophy." In 'A Companion to Marcus Aurelius.' Edited by Marcel van
Ackeren, 515-531. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
* Rees, D. A. 2000. "Joseph Bryennius and Marcus Aurelius’
Meditations." 'Classical Quarterly' 52.2: 584-596.
* Robertson, D. 2019. [https://books.google.com/books?id=xGBbDwAAQBAJ
'How to Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus
Aurelius']. New York: St. Martin's Press.
* Rutherford, R. B. 1989. 'The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius: A
Study.' Oxford: Oxford University Press.
* Stephens, William O. 2012.
[https://books.google.com/books?id=qxT-TeS-JOIC 'Marcus Aurelius: A
Guide for the Perplexed']. London and New York: Bloomsbury
(Continuum).
* Wolf, Edita. 2016. "Others as Matter of Indifference in Marcus
Aurelius’ Meditations." 'Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Graecolatina
Pragensia' 2:13-23.

Translations
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* translated by George Long, at 'Wikisource'
*
* [https://www.stoictherapy.com/elibrary-meditations-long The Thoughts
of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, by George Long], 1862, at
the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
* [https://www.stoictherapy.com/elibrary-meditations-rendall 'Marcus
Aurelius Antoninus to Himself: an English translation with
introductory study on stoicism and the last of the Stoics', by G.H.
Rendall], 1898, at the Stoic Therapy eLibrary
* [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2680 'The Meditations' by Marcus
Aurelius] at 'Project Gutenberg', [http://www.gutenberg.org/
gutenberg.org]
*
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=3uQIAAAAQAAJ 'Meditations of the
Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus', a new translation from the Greek
original, with a Life, Notes, &c., by R. Graves], 1792, at 'Google
Books'
*
[https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Marcus%20Aurelius%22
Multiple editions of the 'Meditations'] at the 'Internet Archive'

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Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditations