A Biography
0415171253
Anthony Birley
Notes
[Antoninus] was very rich. He was of a calm and benevolent nature. He was calculated and a good speaker. He was thrifty and a conscientious landlord. All these properties he possessed in their proper proportion and without ostentation.
There is this difference between the two sorts of son: a son that one has begotten turns out to be whatever sort of man heavens pleases; an adopted son is one that a man takes to himself as the result of deliberate choice. A son that is born may be mentally defective or a cripple. One that is chosen will certainly be of sound body and mind. For this reason I formally selected Lucius [Ceionius Commodus] from all others – a person such as I could never have expected any son of mine to have become. But since heaven has taken him from me, I have found as emperor for you in his place the man I now give to you, one who is noble, mild, tractable, and prudent, who is not young enough to do anything rash or old enough to be neglectful, one who has been brought up according to the laws and who has exercised authority in accordance with our ancestral customs, so that he is ignorant of any matters which concern the exercise of imperial power but can deal with them all well. I am speaking of Aurelius Antoninus here. I know that he is not the least inclined to be involved in affairs and is far from desiring such power, but still I do not think that he will deliberately disregard either me or you, but will accept the rule even against his will.
Cassius Doro
“Foolish woman, now that we have gained an empire we have lost even what we had before.” [Antonius] realized that for a man in his position, as a private citizen undoubtedly one of the wealthier men in the empire, the additional possession of imperial funds was far outweighed by the financial outgoings his new status demanded – for a star, largesse to the people of Rome to celebrate the occasion, and public entertainment.
In all the arts, I think, complete inexperience and ignorance are better than half-experience and half-knowledge. For a man who realizes that he knows nothing of some art will attempt less, and consequently is less likely to come to grief – in fact, diffidence prevents rashness. But when someone ostentatiously pretends to have mastered something of which he has merely a superficial knowledge, he makes mistakes of all kinds because of his false confidence.
Marcus Aurelius
[Marcus Aurelius] was delighted to have a master who was not afraid to criticize him and treated him as a normal person.
Arrian on Epictetus’ teachings – “Some things are under our control, others are not. The things under our control are: our mental concepts, choice, desire, aversion, in a word everything we do The things not under our control are: our body, property, reputation, public office, in a word everything that is not our own doing. And the things under our control are by nature free, unhindered, unimpeded. The things not under our control are weak, in servitude, subject to hindrance, not our own.” Once this has been recognized the way is clear. “Do not seek to have everything happen as you desire, but desire that things happen as they actually do happen, and then you will be well off.” Whoever wants to be free, should not wish for anything or avoid anything that is under the control of others. Otherwise he has to be a slave.
Marcus must have realized that new taxation would be extremely unpopular and not very productive. A gesture like the palace auction had more than a practical benefit – it demonstrated that the emperor was willing to make sacrifices. As a Stoic, Marcus cannot have found it any great hardship to get rid of some of the trappings of power. (Faustina may have resented losing some of her jewels and dresses.)
So temporarily and firmly did he rule that even when engaged in so many and so great wars, he never did anything unworthy by way of flattery or as the result of fear.
…as a Stoic, who by his training and by the necessity of his position believed profoundly in the duty of the individual towards the state, he cannot have viewed kindly the activities of people (Christians) who professed complete lack of concern with worldly life.
Philosophy of life expressed in Meditations is not orthodox Stoicism. It is the individual attitude to life of a man who has studied and thought for a long time about problems of conduct and the different teachings of the philosophical schools, and has made his own selection, strongly influenced by his own experiences.
The manner in which sentiments were written in his letters is off-putting. Way too much flowery language and deferential to each other. I see it here and through to the founding fathers, who idolized Greek and Roman characters.
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