Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

“Marcus Aurelius is the one figure of antiquity who still speaks to us today,” writes critically acclaimed author and historian Frank McLynn. The Meditations, Marcus’ guide to how we should live, remains one of the most widely read books from the classical world and always appears in any list of the Hundred Great Books. Now McLynn has written the definitive biography of this Stoic philosopher who ruled the Roman Empire from AD 161 to 180. McLynn begins with a brief overview of second-century Rome, then examines early influences on Marcus’ life, including his teacher Cornelius Fronto, the greatest rhetorician and advocate of his age. And he provides a comprehensive account of Marcus’ political career, both as a deputy under the emperor Antoninus and as Roman emperor himself. The consensus down through the ages has regarded Marcus as the finest ruler in the Antonine golden age. But Marcus’ co-ruler and successor was his own son Commodus, a disastrous emperor who would “pitchpole the Roman Empire into a tailspin from which it never recovered”; McLynn observes how any assessment of Marcus must take into account the fact that he bequeathed his empire to “an inadequate and a monster.” But regardless of his performance as emperor, what has won him immortality is his role as a philosopher king and his authorship of the Meditations. A series of daily personal notes, the Meditations were in fact produced as a kind of meditative technique and never intended for publication. McLynn explores the many influences on these writings, including Heraclitus, Socrates and, most notably, the famous Stoic philosopher Epictetus. While the Mediations do set forth Marcus’ Stoic philosophy, its aphorisms have been appreciated over the centuries by those who have no knowledge of Stoicism, and McLynn describes how the book’s pithy and striking maxims have made Marcus a favorite with devotees of “self-help.” Dozens of his oracular utterances have gained popularity: “Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by Nature to bear.” “It is the act of a madman to pursue impossibilities.” “How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the cause of it.” “Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature's delight.” “To the wise, life is a problem; to the fool a solution.” McLynn sees Marcus Aurelius playing a unique role in the history of thought, holding out the prospect of spirituality for atheists, and arguing for the possibility of happiness without God, joy without heaven, and morality without religion. And ultimately McLynn notes how ironic it is that Marcus, who despised fame and the opinion of posterity, has survived as an influence, an example and an inspiration for two millennia.

Hardcover: 720 pages

Publisher: Da Capo Press Inc ( September 18, 2009 )

Item #: 55-4435

ISBN: 9780306818301

Product Dimensions: 6.0 x 9.0 x 0.0 inches

Product Weight: 33.0 ounces