Selbstgespräche

Marcus Aurelius (121–180) was adopted as heir by the emperor Antoninus Pius and ruled Rome from 161 until his death. He had been trained in Stoic philosophy since his youth, and he tried to live by it through a reign full of trouble: a devastating plague, floods and long wars on the Danube frontier.

He never wrote for the public. His private notes, the Meditations, were kept by those around him and survived by chance, and today they are among the most widely read books of antiquity. His son Commodus, who succeeded him, could hardly have been more different.