The Communings with Himself of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Emperor of Rome, Together with his Speeches and Sayings (Loeb Classical Library)

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY EDITED BY K.

CAPPS, PH.D., LL.D.

T. E.

PAGE,

LITT.D.

W. H. D. HOUSE, Lirr.D.

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS

RECEIVING GERMAN PRISONERS

IN THE FIELD.

PANEL FROM TRIUMPHAL ARCH

THE COMMUNINGS WITH HIMSELF OF

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS EMPEROR OF ROME rOti

ETHER WITH HIS SPEECHES AND SAYINGS

INTO ENGLISH BY Arch oj This is(one yf ticf^v^jpt^t firom^fhe^ Triumphal Marcus, erected on the Capitol in 176 in honour of the double It represent* two fonquetst of Germans and Sarmatians. They are captives brought in by a praetorian guard. begging the Emperor* mercy, which the protective gesture of The face of Marcus V his hind shews is being granted. s avuiQfV e^iav -rb irapdKal irpbs ^Kfivrji bpiav r^v wo\ereiav. ABISTIDES, Paneg.

$fiyfj.a

in Cyz.

427 (Jebb).

1 This epigram is found at the end of the Vatican MS. and also in the Antholoyia Palatina, ii. p. 603 (Jacobs). Possibly by Arethas (see P. Maas in Hermes xlviii. p. 295 ff. ).

PREFACE THE Greek

text of this book

is

often difficult and

many places corrupt beyond cure, but no trouble has been spared to make the translation as accurate in

and idiomatic

as possible.

I

have preferred to

err,

be, on the side of over-faithfulness, because the physiognomy of the book owes so much if

error

to the

it

method and

style in

which

it

is

written.

Its

homeliness, abruptness, and want of literary finish

(though

it

does not lack rhetoric) are part of the we alter this character

character of the work, and

by

rewriting

it

the

into

terse,

staccato style so

much

Another reason

for literalness

in

epigrammatic,

vogue at the present day. is

that

it

makes a

comparison with the Greek, printed beside it, easier for the unlearned. When a work has been translated so often as this one,

it is

difficult to

be

original without deviating further from the text, but I have not borrowed a phrase, scarcely a word, from any of my predecessors. If unconscious

coincidences appear,

it

remains only to say Pereant vii

PREFACE nos nostra dixerint

qui ante

(such

as

have

proved

!

Numerous

invaluable

so

for

references

the due

understanding of the Bible) and good indices have always been greatly wanted in the translations of this work, and I have taken pains to supply the want. For a better understanding of the character of

Marcus

I

have added to the Thoughts translations of and Sayings, with a Note on his attitude

his Speeches

towards the Christians

(in

which

I

am

glad to find

myself in complete agreement with M. Lemercier). A companion volume on the Correspondence with Fronto will contain all his extant Letters. In con clusion

my

best thanks are due to Messrs. Teubner

for permission

to use their text as the basis of the

revised one here printed, to Professors Leopold and

Schenkl

for

advice

and help on

and, last but not least, to translation of this

"

Golden

my

various

Book."

C. R.

GODALMING,

1915.

points,

predecessors in the

HAINES.

CONTENTS PAGE

PREFACE INTRODUCTION

Vii

....

xi

xxi

STOICISM

BOOK

I

BOOK

II

26

BOOK

III

44

BOOK IV

66

2

BOOK V

98

BOOK VI

1.30

BOOK

VII

164

BOOK

VIII

198

BOOK IX

230

BOOK X

260

BOOK xi BOOK XII

292

SPEECHES

346

320

359

SAYINGS

NOTE ON CHRISTIANS INDEX OF MATTERS INDEX OF PROPER NAMES GLOSSARY OF GREEK TERMS

.

.

,

381 3^33

402 .

409

INTRODUCTION not

known how

private

devotional

IT of

is

this small

but priceless book l came to be

memoranda

But the writer that in it preserved for posterity. puts away all desire for after-fame has by means of it attained to imperishable remembrance. As Renan has said, tous, tant que nous sommes, nous portons au coeur le deuil de Marc Aurele comme Internal evidence proves s il etait mort d hier." that the author was Marcus Antoninus, emperor of Rome 7 March 161 to 17 March 180, and notes "

added in one MS between Books I and II and II and III shew that the second Book was composed when the writer was among the Quadi on the Gran, and the third at Carnuntum (Haimburg). The headquarters of Marcus in the war against the barbarians were at Carnuntum 171-173, and we

know

that the so-called

"

"miraculous

victory against But Professor Schenkl has the Quadi was in 174. given good reasons for thinking that the first book was really written last and prefixed as a sort of introduction to the rest of the work. 3 It was 2

probably written as a whole, while the other books The style consist mostly of disconnected jottings. 1

Marcxis

work

as

may be

referring in Bk. III. 14 to this his

own

virofivrj/ndTta. Dio, 71. 8.

2

See

3

For a discussion

Journal of Philology,

of the chronology of the No. 66, 1914.

vol. xxiii.,

work, see

INTRODUCTION throughout is abrupt and concise, and words have occasionally to be supplied to complete the sense. There is here no reasoned treatise on Ethics, no exposition of Stoic Philosophy, such as the sectarum ardua ac perocculta 1 or the ordo praeceptionum, 2 on which Marcus is said to have discoursed before he set out the last time for the war in 178, but we have a man and a ruler taking counsel with himself, noting his own shortcomings, excusing those of others, and whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honourable, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure," exhorting his soul to think on "

these

things.

Never

were

words written more

single-hearted and sincere. They were not merely written, they were lived. Those who accuse Marcus of pharisaism wilfully mistake his character and betray their own. Very noticeable the delicacy of the author s mind and the is restrained energy of his style. He eschews all the windflowers of speech, but the simplicity, straight forwardness, and dignity of his thoughts lend an There imperial nobility to his expression of them. is a certain choiceness and even poetry in his words "which amply condone an occasional roughness and Striking images are not technicality of phrase. infrequent, and such a passage as Book II, 2 is unique in ancient literature. This is not a book of

transparently

confessions, and comparatively few allusions to personal incidents are to be found except in the first book, while an air of complete aloofness and

detachment pervades the whole. pressly disclaims 1

2

xii

all

Spi/ximys

or

The author ex originality

Victor de Caes. xvi. 9. Vulc. Gallicanus Vit. Av. Cass.

iii.

7.

and

INTRODUCTION acuteuess of intellect, and there is a good deal of repetition unavoidable in the nature of the work, for

"

line

upon

are required in

and precept upon moral teaching. "

line"

all

precept"

Of his two great Stoic predecessors Marcus has no affinity with Seneca. He certainly knew all about him and they have many thoughts l in common, but Seneca s rhetorical flamboyance, his bewildering contradictions, the glaring divergence between his profession and his practice have no counterpart in Marcus. Epictetus the Phrygian slave was his true spiritual fathei-, but we do not find in the

Emperor the somewhat

rigid didacticism

and spiritual dogmatism of his predecessor. Marcus is humbler and not so confident. The hardness and arrogance of Stoicism are softened in him by an infusion of Platonism and other philosophies. 2 With the Peripatetics he admits the inequality of faults. His humanity will not cast out compassion as an emotion of the heart. 3 His is no cut and dried Call creed, for he often wavers and is inconsistent. not his teaching ineffectual. He is not trying to teach anyone. He is reasoning with his own soul and championing its cause against the persuasions and impulses of the flesh. How far did he succeed ? nature a good man," says Dio, "his education "By and the moral training he imposed upon himself Marcus never quotes him by name, and though there are plenty of similarities between the two writers in thought, and even in expression, it is not certain that there is a single case of borrowing. Most of the resemblances are based on commonplaces see, however, Sen. Ep. 77 = vi. 2 Ep. 65 = xi. 10 de Prov. 4 = iv. 1 Ep. 36 = v. 18 de Ben. vii. 31 = xi. 18, 9 Ep. 74 = v. 8, 3 Ep. 28 = v. 16. 8 Even Epicurus is mentioned with approval, as he is also * Man. 16, etc. by Seneca. rp. Epict. iii. 24, 43 1

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

;

INTRODUCTION made him a one who had

As was natural to beautified his soul with every virtuous

far better one. 1

"

"

2 The quality he was innocent of all wrong-doing." wonderful revelation here given of the aa-K-qvis of the spiritual athlete in the contests of life is full of inspiration still even for the modern world. It has been and is a source of solace and strength to thousands, and has helped to mould the characters of more than one leader of men, such as Frederick the Great/ Maximilian of Bavaria, Captain John saviour of Virginia, and that noble Smith, the Christian soldier, General Gordon. It was but the other day, on the fiftieth anniversary of Italian Unity, that the King of Italy, speaking 4 on the Capitol,

as the sacred and propitiatory referred to Marcus image of that cult of moral and civil law which our Fatherland wishes to follow," a reference received "

with particular applause by those who heard it. Whoever rescued the MS of the "Thoughts" on the death of their author in 180, whether it was that noble Roman, Pompeianus, the son-in-law of Marcus, or the high-minded Victorinus, his lifelong friend, we seem to hear an echo of its teaching in the dying words of Cornificia, his possibly last surviving daughter, when put to death by Caracalla in 215 O wretched little soul of mine, imprisoned "

:

an unworthy body, go

in

known

forth,

be

free!"

5

It

was

Chryseros the freedman and nomenclator of Marcus who wrote a history of Rome to the death of his patron, 6 and to the Emperor

doubtless

1

Dio

s

Who, however,

71. 35,

to

2

6.

Aristides

ad Reg.

in the field of morality its lessons.

have profited by 4 March, 19ll. 8 Theoph. ad Autol.

B iii.

106 (Jebb).

cannot be said to

See Dio, Fragm. Dindorf

27.

v. 214.

INTRODUCTION for the latter in his youth, soon after the death, wrote an epic poem on Pius and He also married Fabia Orestilla, the Marcus. latter s granddaughter through Fadilla (probably) and Claudius Severus. As their eldest son Gordian II. had sixty children, the blood of Marcus was soon

Gordian

I.,

Emperor

s

widely diffused.

The

first direct mention of the work is about 350 the Orations of the pagan philosopher Themistius, who speaks of the TrapayyeAyAara (precepts) of Marcus. Then for 550 years we lose sight of the book entirely, until, about 900, the compiler of the dictionary, which goes by the name of Suidas, reveals the existence of a MS of it by making some thirty quotations, taken from books I, III, IV, V, IX, and XI. 1 He calls the book (crvyypafffia,

vii.

Ep. 19 7

6

irj/eujuara.

;

iv.

ii.

3,

xi. 1.

40;

7

;

of iicr6pwrti

Justin, Apol.

cp. St. x. 1.

Matt.

was Herai.

20

xix. 28.

;

ii. 7.

STOICISM Other physical theories were borrowed from Heraand Marcus constantly alludes to these, such as the downward and upward round of the elements l as they emanate from the primary Fire, air passing into fire, fire into earth, earth into water and so back 2 again, and the famous doctrine that all things are in clitus,

"

"

flux. 3

Man

consists of Body, Soul, Intelligence, or Flesh,

But the two ways, as an exhalation from blood, 5 and as 77 voepd,

4 Pneuma, and the Ruling Reason. in can looked be upon (soul)

TTi/ev/mnov, f/

Xoymr]

latter, a

i/ "

Reason. It is the from the Divine, which Marcus often speaks of

the ruling

i-e-

vx??,

morsel"

i/o>x*/

or

"

efflux"

constitutes the real man. rational nature 7 of a

this

e

man

as his

daemon, or

8 genius enthroned within him, and makes the whole

problem of

As

itself.

life

depend upon how

that

all

is

rational

is

Reason treats are formed

this

we

akin,

for fellowship with others and, the universe being one, what affects a part of it affects the whole. Reason is as a Law to all rational creatures, and so we are all In this cosmopolitanism citizens of a World-state. 9

Stoics approached the Christian view, ethics being divorced from national politics and made of universal application. It was no cloistered virtue the Stoics preached, showing how a man can save his own soul, but a practical positive goodness 10 though denied that the claims of avrap/ceta it cannot be

the

;

1 &v