The Meditations were never meant to be read. Marcus Aurelius wrote them in Greek, during military campaigns on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, as private philosophical notes addressed to himself. There is no evidence he intended them for publication. There is no evidence anyone outside his immediate circle read them during his lifetime. They survived by accident — a single medieval manuscript that might easily have been lost — and were first published in 1558, nearly fourteen centuries after they were written.
That accidental survival is worth dwelling on. The most widely read Stoic text in the world exists because one manuscript was copied carefully enough, and moved carefully enough through the centuries, to reach a printer in Zurich in the sixteenth century. Had that manuscript been lost — as so many ancient texts were — the Meditations would be known only through brief references in other authors, the way most of Chrysippus's seven hundred works are known today.
Instead we have the thing itself: twelve books of private philosophical notes, unrevised and unpolished, written by the most powerful man in the world as a record of his daily effort to be better than his first impulses allowed.
What the Meditations Are
The Meditations are not a philosophical treatise. They make no sustained argument. They do not advance a position or respond to opponents. They are, as nearly as we can determine, exactly what they appear to be: notes Marcus wrote to himself, drawing on Stoic philosophy — primarily Epictetus, whom he quotes frequently — to examine his own behavior, remind himself of principles he already knew but needed to keep in front of him, and hold himself to a standard he was aware he did not always meet.
The Greek title, Ta eis heauton, means roughly "to himself." The title Meditations is not Marcus's and does not appear in the ancient sources. It was applied by later editors and has stuck, though it implies a contemplative quality that the text does not always have. Many of the entries are more like arguments — Marcus pressing himself on a point, noting where he fell short, or reminding himself of something he has clearly had to remind himself of before.
This quality — the repetition, the self-correction, the sense of a person working through the same problems over and over — is what makes the Meditations unusual in philosophical literature. Most philosophical texts present the author's considered positions. The Meditations present the gap between position and performance. Marcus knew what Stoicism required. He also knew how often he failed to meet that requirement, and he kept writing to himself about it anyway.
How the Meditations Are Organized
The text is divided into twelve books. Book 1 is distinct from the rest: it is a list of acknowledgments in which Marcus records what he learned from each of the people who shaped his character — his grandfather, his father, his mother, his teachers, his philosophical mentors, and the emperor Antoninus Pius, who adopted him. It is the most personally revealing section of the text and one of the most moving documents in ancient literature.
Books 2 through 12 are the practice journal. The entries vary in length from a single sentence to several paragraphs. They are not organized thematically or chronologically in any systematic way. Several entries in Books 2 and 3 include location notes — "written at Carnuntum," "written among the Quadi on the Gran" — suggesting they were composed at specific moments during specific campaigns, but this geographic organization is not consistent throughout.
The recurring themes across Books 2 through 12 are consistent with Epictetan Stoicism: the dichotomy of control, the present moment, the impermanence of all things, the social nature of human beings, the irrelevance of reputation, the proper response to anger and irritation, the practice of the view from above, and the preparation for death. Marcus returns to all of these repeatedly, often in entries that are clearly variations on the same thought he has recorded before.
How to Read the Meditations
The Meditations reward slow, non-sequential reading more than most books. Reading straight through from Book 1 to Book 12 is a legitimate approach, but it can produce a sense of repetition that the text's actual use does not produce. Marcus was not writing for readers moving linearly through a narrative. He was writing reminders to himself, and the repetition is a feature rather than a flaw — the same ideas needed to be restated because they needed to be practiced, not just understood.
A more productive approach for first-time readers is to begin with Book 1 and then move through the remaining books slowly, pausing on entries that resonate and returning to them over time. The Meditations are better read as a daily practice text than as a book to be finished. Many readers report that the same passage means different things at different points in their lives — that the text changes as the reader's experience of the ideas changes.
For readers new to Stoicism, it is worth reading the Meditations alongside at least a basic introduction to Epictetus, since Marcus's notes assume familiarity with Epictetan ideas that Marcus himself did not need to explain because he was writing for himself. The Enchiridion, which is short enough to read in an afternoon, provides the philosophical context that makes many of Marcus's entries more fully legible.
Which Translation to Use
The choice of translation significantly affects the experience of reading the Meditations. The differences between major translations are not trivial — they reflect different judgments about how close to stay to Marcus's Greek, how to handle his often compressed and allusive prose, and what register of contemporary English best captures the tone of the original.
Gregory Hays (Modern Library, 2002) is the translation most frequently recommended to contemporary readers, and for good reason. Hays renders Marcus's Greek into clean, contemporary English prose that is accurate without being archaic and readable without sacrificing precision. His introduction is the best short account of Marcus's life and the nature of the Meditations available in English. This is the translation to read first.
Robin Hard (Oxford University Press, 2011) is the scholarly standard. Hard's translation is more literal than Hays's and includes extensive notes and commentary that are invaluable for readers who want to understand specific passages in their philosophical context. Less immediately readable than Hays but more useful as a study text.
Martin Hammond (Penguin Classics, 2006) is another strong modern translation, slightly more literal than Hays and with useful notes. A good alternative if Hays is unavailable.
George Long (1862) is in the public domain and available free through Project Gutenberg and Perseus Digital Library. Long's Victorian English can feel archaic in places, but his translation is accurate and has been read by more people than any other English version. Theodore Roosevelt read it. It remains useful, particularly for readers who want free access to the full text.
A.S.L. Farquharson (Oxford University Press, 1944) is the standard scholarly translation of the twentieth century and is available through Perseus Digital Library. More technical than Hays, less user-friendly than Hard's modern edition, but authoritative.
For most readers, the recommendation is straightforward: start with Hays, keep Hard nearby for passages that reward deeper examination.
Key Passages for New Readers
The Meditations contain hundreds of memorable passages. These are among the most frequently cited and most practically useful for readers encountering the text for the first time.
On the dichotomy of control and the present moment:
"Confine yourself to the present."
— Book 8, trans. Gregory Hays
On the social nature of human beings:
"We are made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of the upper and lower teeth."
— Book 2, trans. Gregory Hays
On the view from above:
"Look at things from above — the countless herds of animals, all the ceremonies and wars, marriages and divorces, births and deaths, the noise of busy courtrooms, desert places, various foreign nations, holidays, memorial days, market days. All swept away in one current."
— Book 9, trans. Gregory Hays
On impermanence and the passing of great figures:
"Alexander the Great and his mule driver both died and the same thing happened to both."
— Book 6, trans. Gregory Hays
On the response to difficulty:
"The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way."
— Book 5, trans. Gregory Hays
On anger and other people's behavior:
"How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it."
— Book 11, trans. George Long
The Meditations in Context
The Meditations were written between approximately 170 and 180 AD, during the Marcomannic Wars — a series of campaigns against Germanic tribes along the Danube that occupied the last decade of Marcus's reign. He was governing the empire from military quarters, dealing simultaneously with military threats, plague, economic stress, and the ordinary complexity of running a state with fifty to sixty million people.
The philosophical context is Epictetan Stoicism. Marcus cites Epictetus more than any other philosopher in the Meditations, and the Discourses are the primary source he draws on. He also cites the earlier Stoics — Chrysippus, Zeno — and engages occasionally with Epicurean and Platonic ideas, but the organizing framework is consistently Epictetan.
The political context is important for understanding what Marcus was doing with the text. He was not writing philosophy for the philosophical tradition. He was writing reminders to himself about how to behave in the specific conditions of his specific life — as emperor, as military commander, as the person responsible for the welfare of the empire. The practical orientation of the Meditations reflects the practical demands of the situation in which they were written.
Further Reading
- Hadot, Pierre. The Inner Citadel: The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. Trans. Michael Chase. Harvard University Press, 1998. The definitive philosophical study of the Meditations.
- McLynn, Frank. Marcus Aurelius: A Life. Da Capo Press, 2009. The most comprehensive modern biography, essential context for reading the Meditations.
- Birley, Anthony. Marcus Aurelius: A Biography. Revised edition. Routledge, 1987. The standard scholarly biography.
- Robertson, Donald. How to Think Like a Roman Emperor. St. Martin's Press, 2019. A psychotherapist's account of the Meditations and their modern applications.