Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (our favorite translation here) is full of names. Not just in his Debts and Lessons at the beginning, where he names Verus and Sextus and Antoninus Pius, but also throughout the book, where he mentions Simplicius and Heraclitus and Epictetus and Helvidius Priscus.
These names, all put together, make for a veritable “who’s who of who’s that,” to quote the Taylor Swift song. The names aren’t utterly unfamiliar—perhaps a few stand out—but the vast majority have been lost to time. That’s because two thousand years have passed. That’s because the Roman Empire is no more. That’s because people move on pretty quickly.
Which was both Marcus’s intended point and the process of history proving him right. “Words once common in use now sound archaic,” he writes, “and the names of the famous dead as well…Everything fades so quickly, turns into legend and soon oblivion covers it. And those are the ones who shone. The rest—‘unknown, unasked for,’ a minute after death.” Marcus Aurelius mentions his predecessors, he mentions kings and conquerors, he mentions powerful people, important people. Yet even by 160 AD, many were already going the way of Ozymandias, half buried by the desert and the decades, their immortal reputation increasingly worse for the wear.
“What is ‘eternal’ fame?” Marcus asks, “Emptiness.”
It doesn’t even last. So what should we prize instead? We should just focus on doing good. Telling the truth. Trying our best. Accepting what happens. And with humility, prepare to be forgotten, as everyone who came before us eventually was, as Marcus Aurelius himself is to ninety nine percent of the world.
P.S. Meditations is the definitive text on self-discipline, personal ethics, humility, self-actualization and strength. Despite it being written around two thousand years ago, it remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. Marcus’s private and profound inner monologue is shockingly modern, yet totally lost to time to the vast majority of people! It’s lost in the endless titles in dusty old libraries.
But it doesn’t have to be for you! We wrapped our favorite translation (by Gregory Hayes) in a genuine leather cover, and included a custom gold-foiled slip box for safe storage, so that your copy will stand the test of time and allow you to pass on its wisdom from one generation to the next.
The Gregory Hayes translation is our favorite because of how much easier it is to read and comprehend by the modern english speaker, but if you want to make sure you squeeze all the practical philosophy out of the book, we’ve got you covered with How To Read Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations (A Daily Stoic Guide). It’s designed to give you context, fill in the blanks, and illustrate how to apply the same “spiritual exercises” Marcus used to improve your own life.
Buy both today for $20 in savings!
