Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν)

The Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν, ta eis heauton — "to himself") is the personal philosophical journal kept by the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) during his later years, much of it written during the Marcomannic Wars on the Danubian frontier. The work was not composed for publication; it is a series of self-addressed reminders, organized in twelve books, working out the practical Stoic discipline its author was attempting to inhabit.

The text returns repeatedly to the theme of death — not as a problem to be solved but as a structural feature of existence to be remembered. Marcus's meletē thanátou — meditation on death — is woven into the broader Stoic project of acting well in the present moment, freed from inflated estimations of what survives and what does not.

Notes

The Meditations are widely read in modernity in many translations of varying register — from Meric Casaubon's 1634 rendering and George Long's stately Victorian translation (1862) through to recent translations attempting closer fidelity to the journal's actual cadence. The architecture engages two passages: IV.17 in original Greek with both the Casaubon and Long translations rendered side by side, and II.17 in original Greek with Long's translation. Other translations exist and are widely read but are not currently rendered.