Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius (Rome, 121 - Vindobona or Sirmium, 180) was Roman emperor from 161 until his death and one of the most representative figures of Stoic philosophy. He belonged to the last generation of the rulers later called the Five Good Emperors, in a century when the Empire enjoyed a long stretch of relative stability. He is remembered today as much for his reign as for the private reflections that survive as his Meditations.

His family came from Italian settlers established in Baetica, in the Spanish province of Hispania. His father, the praetor Marcus Annius Verus, died when Marcus was about three, and the boy was raised by his mother, Domitia Calvilla, and his paternal grandfather. Hadrian took an early interest in him, and after the death of his adoptive son Aelius Caesar in 138, he arranged for Antoninus Pius to adopt both Marcus and Lucius Verus as heirs. As a prince, Marcus studied Greek and Latin with tutors such as Herodes Atticus and Marcus Cornelius Fronto. His letters with Fronto show a diligent and thoughtful young man, increasingly drawn to philosophy and especially to the Discourses of Epictetus. He married Antoninus's daughter Faustina in 145 and took on a growing role in public life, holding the consulship and receiving greater powers while remaining in the shadow of Antoninus.

When Antoninus died in 161, Marcus accepted the throne on condition that Verus rule alongside him, and the two shared power until Verus's death. Marcus's reign was dominated by war: against a revitalised Parthian Empire in the East, against the Marcomanni, Quadi and Iazyges along the Danube and in Germany, and against a revolt in the eastern provinces led by Avidius Cassius, which was crushed. The Antonine Plague, which broke out around 165 or 166, killed perhaps five to ten million people and devastated the population. Verus probably died of the epidemic in 169, and Marcus then governed alone, though from 177 he shared power with his son Commodus, who succeeded him. He also reduced the silver content of the denarius. Persecution of Christians seems to have increased during his reign, although he is unlikely to have driven it, and Christian writers such as Justin Martyr and Tertullian praised him.

His ideas are best understood through Stoicism, which held that virtue is the only true good and that reason should guide conduct. Marcus stressed the difference between what depends on us and what does not, and the need to accept calmly the natural order of which we are a part. His Meditations, written in Greek during the campaigns of the 170s, are personal notes by a man who demanded moral discipline of himself amid war and illness, rather than a systematic treatise. For this reason they are often read as a model of responsible rule.

His influence has been lasting. For centuries he has been seen in the West as the symbol of the golden age of the Roman Empire, and writers, philosophers and rulers far removed from his time have read his Meditations. They remain one of the most direct sources for understanding ancient Stoic thought.