Meditations (tr.Martin Hammond) (Penguin Classics) by Marcus Aurelius

Author:Marcus Aurelius [Aurelius, Marcus]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2010-10-21T22:00:00+00:00

Notes

The twelve Books of the Meditations contain between them 488 ‘chapters’ – the conventional term for the discrete sections, which vary in length from three words (in the Greek text) to two or three pages. Some of the longer chapters are divided into sub-sections, marked in the text of the translation by marginal numbers in italics.

In these notes all initial references and cross-references are by Book and chapter (e.g. 1.3) or Book, chapter, and sub-section (e.g. 1.17.3).

All dates are ad unless otherwise indicated.

The notes do not pretend to offer a full commentary. Their purpose is rather to aid the general reader’s understanding of Marcus and the Meditations by explaining the various historical, literary, and philosophical references, and by giving the reader the means of tracking Marcus’ thought through what is inevitably a ‘bitty’ work, neither written in deliberate sequence nor requiring a consecutive reading. Many topics or themes recur several times throughout the Meditations, and the frequency of occurrence may well reflect the importance which Marcus attributed to them. There is therefore much internal cross-referencing in the notes, which I hope, together with the Indices, will enable the reader to place individual chapters or sections in a wider context, as relevant.

I have been relatively sparing in the provision of references to other ancient authors, which only the superhuman look up. Much of Marcus’ philosophical thought has direct parallels in other writers on or within the Stoic tradition, especially Cicero (in particular his Academica, On Duties, On Ends, On the Nature of the Gods, Tusculan Disputations), Seneca (in particular his Moral Epistles and On Anger), and Epictetus (Discourses and Handbook [Encheiridion]). Readers wishing to explore Roman Stoicism further in primary sources are recommended to read these authors and cited works: translations of all are available in volumes of the Loeb Classical Library, and a selection of Seneca’s Epistles is published in the Penguin Classics series (Seneca: Letters from a Stoic).

Several modern works of scholarship are referred to in the notes by author’s name (or joint initials) only. These are:

Birley:

A. R. Birley, Marcus Aurelius: A Biography, revised edition (London, 1987).

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