Meditations (Penguin Classics)

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Summary: Meditations' hopeless view is profoundly unsatisfying.
Review: This second-century book of advice reflects its stoic deistic/atheist tradition. In a word, his goal is to encourage the reader toward good works and inner peace disregarding personal circumstances. He ends up sounding much like Confucius, and much like the "under the sun" part of King Solomon's Ecclesiastes. The arguments he gives for us to be at peace despite the continual thriving of evil around us center around its chaos and our own inability to change anything. Such a view is profoundly unsatisfying, and leaves us in perplexity over the purpose of it all, anchorless and hopeless. Whereas Aurelius says "The world is chaotic, but you're powerless so be a man and do right", Solomon says "The world is chaotic because man is inwardly evil, but take heart because it's all part of God's righteous and sovereign plan and part of that plan is our salvation." Life against God is meaningless, no matter how many nice things you do; life under His loving care is meaningful, because we have a sure hope of redemption and life to come.

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Summary: Philosophy that pulls no punches
Review: My first exposure to Marcus Aurelius was "Silence of the Lambs" (when Hanibal Lector quotes Aurelius to Clarice). I was intrigued. After reading Meditations, I was even more intrigued, and started buying copies for my friends. I have read Nietzche, Plato, Sartre. But this book tells it like it IS. Aurelius did not shy away from discussing topics we find too embarrassing today: from death to sex, perversity to honesty. This small volume is PACKED with life-giving, refreshing wisdom. And the price??? An unbelievable value.

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Summary: simply elegant
Review: I work in Human Services and see how clearly it is not the situations we are in that are the problem but our attitude towards those situations that is the problem. How delighted I was to find this book which puts this idea and others in such clear and elegant language. That these are words from a man who lived in antiquity only seems to highten the delight. If you love someone buy them this book, give it to a new graduate or best of all perhaps give your self the words and the quiet space and time to absorb, think and internalize. The ideas in this book are written in the secret language of life.

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Summary: Great book for all; great translation for many, too.
Review: The excellence of this work is timeless and unquestioned. I find the George Long translation to be the only version with the "right feel." This may well be in part because it was the first version to which I was exposed, but its faintly mustily archaic sentence structures, word choices, and overall tone seem best fitted to the work, and, at least for one friendly with Shakespeare and the King James Bible, offer no bar to its absorption and enjoyment. In this day and age, as in every day and age, so deep and profound an offering of virtue, humility, duty, and honor seems a stranger to our modern world, and can be best heard if it speaks in a voice not quite our own

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Summary: poor translation, Staniforth is much better
Review: Excellent book but the George Long translation is as inscrutable as the King James Bible without having entered into the English language tradition

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Summary: Stoicism at its best!
Review: This book quite ably demonstrates the stoic foundations of both Buddhism and Christianity. To the reader who carefully reads it and follows its principles it offers both clarity of vision and inner peace. Regardless of your religion, it would be difficult for this philosophy to violate any of its precepts. The dominate themes of love, forgiveness, non-judgement, and lack of condemnation found in both Buddhism and Christianity texts are stressed without any pretenses of understanding the after-life.

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Summary: chicken soup for something
Review: This translation was a bit too dumbed down for me. Maybe I'm showing my age but the idea of a Roman emperor speaking like a New Age Guru didn't do it. That being said it is still soothing to read these thoughts.

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Summary: If I could meet just one person in history.......
Review: This is one of my favorite books of all time, and will always hold a place on my bookshelf. Of few things I am quite certain; this is one.

I have read a number of versions of this book, and to date, this is the best translation in my opinion. Gregory Hays does a fantastic job and deserves kudos for this translation. The writings are clear, almost as if Marcus was talking to you. In some translations you have to read the passages several times before the meaning is clear. Marcus had a profound understanding of human behavior, and this is quite evident from his passages. Reading this is a soothing balm for the soul like nothing else I can think of. I have a version I keep on my bookshelf and one I carry around with me because it gets beaten up.

What a remarkable person Marcus must have been, made moreso in my estimation by the fact that he was a ruler. He had everything at his disposal, including wealth, and yet he saw through all of it to what was truly important in life. And the fact that The Meditations was never even written to be turned into a book makes it all the more impressive. Who among us has such insightful random thoughts on such a consistent basis?

When you have a headache, take an aspirin; when you want to understand our place in the universe a little better, pick up The Meditations to read.


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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!!

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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.