He was married to the daughter of the emperor, a woman named Faustina, and the two were blessed with eleven children. His honesty and diligence were notable from his youth, as was his adherence to the Stoic philosophy. At the death of Antoninus Pius, he was encouraged to assume the position of sole ruler by many ministers, but instead he insisted on sharing the honor with Lucius Verus, another adopted son of Pius.
The ruled together, for eight years, until the death of Verus, but during this time Verus deferred on most matters to Aurelius. Aurelius then ruled alone for twenty-two additional years. The reign of Aurelius was plagued by many problems, including floods and famine, pestilence, a tribal rebellion in Germany, and a military uprising in Asia. There were domestic problems, including a large percentage of out-of-wedlock and abandoned children, a general decline of morals, and a troublesome religious sect known as Christianity that opposed the moral authority of the emperor.
There were even rumors of marital problems within the immediate family of Aurelius. But through all of these troubles, Aurelius maintained a stoic calm, magnanimity towards his rivals, and a tireless work ethic.
Although he did preside over the persecution of Christians, in his own life he exemplified many of Christianity's most cherished virtues. Marriage produced 11 children. Pestilence spreads through empire.
It is important to realize the gravity of that position and the magnitude of power that Marcus possessed. He held one of—if not the most—powerful positions in the world at the time. If he chose to, nothing would be off limits. He could indulge and succumb to temptations, there was nobody that could restrain him from any of his wishes. There is a reason the adage that power in absolute absolutely corrupts has been repeated throughout history—it unfortunately tends to be true.
And yet, as the essayist Matthew Arnold remarked, Marcus proved himself worthy of the position he was in. And it was not only him who offered that verdict. The guidance of wisdom and virtue. Just think of the diary that he left behind, which is now known as his Meditations which we discuss below: the private thoughts of the most powerful man in the world, admonishing himself on how to be more virtuous, more just, more immune to temptation, wiser.
And for Marcus, Stoicism provided a framework for dealing with the stresses of daily life as a leader of one of the most powerful empires in human history. It is not surprising that he wrote his Meditations in the last decade of his life, while on campaigning against foreign invaders.
Passed down from his mentors and teachers, Marcus embraced the studies of Stoicism which we see in him thanking his teacher Rusticus for introducing him to Stoicism and Epictetus inside Meditations. Another influence on Marcus came from Heraclitus, whose concepts we can see throughout Meditations and who had a strong influence on Stoic thought.
Given the literary world at the time, Marcus was mostly likely not exposed to Seneca, another one of the three most prominent Stoics. It is important to remind ourselves that we are lucky to have access to these.
And if you want more on the topic, Marcus inspired The Obstacle is the Way , which you can get a free chapter of if you sign up for the Daily Stoic newsletter. We need to catch ourselves when we do so. We need instead to focus on the things that are always within us: our capacity and potential for virtuous action. As Marcus wrote to himself,. And yet you still settle for less. As discussed earlier, Marcus most likely wrote the notes to himself which are now Meditations on the battlefield, during the last decade of his life.
One exercise that we can borrow from him is to draw strength from people in our lives or simply role models that inspire us. As he wrote,. Marcus knew the temptations that exist for all of us to let our imagination run wild envisioning all the ways things can go wrong. Of course, such an exercise can be useful in preparing us for the future and making us ready for adversity, but Marcus well understood that it can become a crippling fear that will paralyze us from any useful action.
Today we are left with his journal, his Meditations. The work is a landmark of Stoic philosophy that has guided both powerful and common men and women for thousands of years. While Meditations was never intended for publication, it remains in print to this day and is perhaps as popular as ever. The journal shows that the most powerful man on the planet was going through the same problems that we deal with today — the same problems we will be grappling with tomorrow.
Through reading Meditations, we are left wanting to become a better person. He shows his vulnerability to us as he counsels himself through his darkness. Mostly, Marcus reminds himself over and over to detach his emotions from the difficulties of the world, to maintain his composure during tough times, and to treat all fates as equal — prosperity and poverty, success and failure, life and death. We know this philosophy as Stoicism, practiced by not just Marcus but also Seneca , Epictetus , Diogenes , and so many others.
When Marcus Aurelius died and his successor took his place, the Roman world began a decline that it would never recover from. His extraordinary wisdom is among the most valuable we can study.
Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm? Objective judgment, now at this very moment. Unselfish action, now at this very moment. Willing acceptance—now at this very moment—of all external events. Yes, you can, if you do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life, and stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you, stop being hypocritical, self-centered, irritable.
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