Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180, and he spent much of that time on campaign along the Danube, fighting the Germanic tribes. In the evenings, in his tent, he kept a private notebook. It wasn't written for readers. It was written to himself, in Greek: reminders to be patient with difficult people, to do his duty without complaint, to remember how short life is and how little fame matters, and to meet whatever happens as part of the order of nature. These notes survived him and became the Meditations, one of the most widely read works of philosophy ever written.
The book is the fullest record we have of Stoicism as a way of life rather than a theory. The emperor doesn't argue or lecture. He tells himself what he already knows he should do, again and again, and that honesty is why readers have gone back to him for nearly two thousand years.
This edition follows Meric Casaubon's translation of 1634, the first published in English. Casaubon wrote in the rich, sometimes knotted prose of his century, and his version has a force that later, smoother translations lack. It also includes the Everyman edition's introduction, a selection of letters between Marcus and his tutor Fronto, and the editor's notes and glossary.
Two versions are offered here. The first reproduces Casaubon's text as printed. The second puts the same translation into modern English, paragraph for paragraph, for readers who want Marcus without the "thee" and "thou." Nothing has been summarized or left out.
The free sample is 4% of the book.