The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Natural Law Paper)

Meditations Of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, The

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Francis Hutcheson was educated at the University of Glasgow, where he assumed the chair of moral philosophy in This title is available as an ebook for purchase on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. The Best Books of Check out the top books of the year on our page Best Books of Product details Format Paperback pages Dimensions Looking for beautiful books? Visit our Beautiful Books page and find lovely books for kids, photography lovers and more.

Other books in this series. Free Sea David Armitage.

Treatise of the Laws of Nature Richard Cumberland. Vindiciae Gallicae James Mackintosh. Book ratings by Goodreads. The campaign had lasted only three days. There were also threats of war in Britain, and in Raetia and Upper Germany , where the Chatti of the Taunus mountains had recently crossed into Roman territory.

He had spent none of his predecessor's twenty-three-year reign in the provinces, where most previous emperors had spent their early careers. With news of Severianus' defeat, reinforcements were dispatched for the Parthian frontier. Annius Libo, Marcus Aurelius' young first cousin, was made the new governor of Syria. His first consulship had been in , and he lacked military experience. Surviving letters from Marcus Aurelius to Fronto describe a holiday the emperor took in Etruria , at the costal resort town of Alsium , during which he was too anxious to relax.

Fronto sent Marcus Aurelius a selection of reading material, and, to settle his unease over the course of the war, a long and considered letter, full of historical references. There had been reverses in Rome's past, Fronto writes, but, in the end, Romans had always prevailed over their enemies: Over the winter of —, as more bad news arrived—a rebellion was brewing in Syria—it was decided that Verus should direct the Parthian war in person.

It has been suggested that he was stronger and healthier than Marcus Aurelius, and more suited to military activity. Marcus Aurelius would remain in Rome; the city "demanded the presence of an emperor". Verus spent most of the campaign in Antioch, though he wintered at Laodicea and summered at Daphne, a resort just outside Antioch. In the middle of the war, perhaps in autumn or early , Verus made a trip to Ephesus to be married to Marcus Aurelius' daughter Lucilla. Vettulenus Civica Barbarus, the half-brother of Verus' father.

Marcus Aurelius may have planned to accompany them all the way to Smyrna the biographer says he told the senate he would ; this did not happen. The Armenian capital Artaxata was captured in Occupied Armenia was reconstructed on Roman terms. He may not even have been crowned in Armenia; the ceremony may have taken place in Antioch, or even Ephesus. Lucius sat on a throne with his staff while Sohamenus stood before him, saluting the emperor. In , the Parthians intervened in Osroene , a Roman client in upper Mesopotamia centered on Edessa , and installed their own king on its throne.

In , Roman forces moved on Mesopotamia. Edessa was re-occupied, and Mannus, the king deposed by the Parthians, was re-installed. The Parthian army dispersed in the Tigris. Seleucia on the right bank of the Tigris and Ctesiphon on the left. Ctesiphon was taken and its royal palace set to flame. The citizens of Seleucia, still largely Greek the city had been commissioned and settled as a capital of the Seleucid empire , one of Alexander the Great 's successor kingdoms , opened its gates to the invaders.

The city got sacked nonetheless, leaving a black mark on Lucius' reputation. Excuses were sought, or invented: Cassius' army, although suffering from a shortage of supplies and the effects of a plague contracted in Seleucia, made it back to Roman territory safely. Verus took the title 'Medicus', [] and the emperors were again hailed as imperatores , becoming 'imp.

IV' in imperial titulature. Marcus Aurelius took the Parthicus Maximus now, after another tactful delay. Most of the credit for the war's success must be ascribed to subordinate generals, the most prominent of which was C. Cassius was young senator of low birth from the north Syrian town of Cyrrhus.

His father, Heliodorus, had not been a senator, but was nonetheless a man of some standing: Cassius also, with no small sense of self-worth, claimed descent from the Seleucid kings. After their consulships, they were made governors: Cassius, of Syria; Martius Verus, of Cappadocia. At Rome, Marcus Aurelius was occupied with family matters. Matidia, his great-aunt, had died.

Her will was invalid under the lex Falcidia: Matidia had assigned more than three-quarters of her estate to non-relatives; her clients had convinced her to include them in codicils to her will. Matidia had never confirmed the documents, but, as she lay unconscious, her clients had sealed them in with the original, making them valid.

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It was an embarrassing situation. Fronto urged Marcus Aurelius to push the family's case; Marcus Aurelius demurred. He was going to consult his brother, who would make the final call. The returning army carried with them a plague, afterwards known as the Antonine Plague , or the Plague of Galen , which spread through the Roman Empire between and The disease was a pandemic believed to have been either smallpox [] or measles [] but the true cause remains undetermined.

The epidemic may have claimed the life of Lucius Verus, who died in Like nearly all emperors, Marcus Aurelius spent most of his time addressing petitions and hearing disputes—that is, on matters of law. Professional jurists called him "an emperor most skilled in the law" [] and "a most prudent and conscientiously just emperor". A possible contact with Han China occurred in when a Roman traveller visited the Han court , claiming to be an ambassador representing a certain Andun Chinese: During the early s, Fronto's son-in-law Victorinus was stationed as a legate in Germany.

He was there with his wife and children another child had stayed with Fronto and his wife in Rome. A frontier post had been destroyed, and it looked like all the peoples of central and northern Europe were in turmoil. There was corruption among the officers: Victorinus had to ask for the resignation of a legionary legate who was taking bribes. Lower Pannonia was under the obscure Tiberius Haterius Saturnius. Lower Moesia was filled by Pontius Laelianus' son. The Dacias were still divided in three, governed by a praetorian senator and two procurators.

The peace could not hold long; Lower Pannonia did not even have a legion. Starting in the s, Germanic tribes and other nomadic people launched raids along the northern border , particularly into Gaul and across the Danube. This new impetus westwards was probably due to attacks from tribes further east. A first invasion of the Chatti in the province of Germania Superior was repulsed in After a long struggle, Marcus Aurelius managed to push back the invaders.

Numerous members of Germanic tribes settled in frontier regions like Dacia , Pannonia , Germany and Italy itself. This was not a new thing, but this time the numbers of settlers required the creation of two new frontier provinces on the left shore of the Danube, Sarmatia and Marcomannia , including today's Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.

The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

Some Germanic tribes who settled in Ravenna revolted and managed to seize possession of the city. For this reason, Marcus Aurelius decided not only against bringing more barbarians into Italy, but even banished those who had previously been brought there. Marcus Aurelius died on 17 March , in the city of Vindobona modern Vienna , his son and successor Commodus accompanying him. He was immediately deified and his ashes were returned to Rome , and rested in Hadrian 's mausoleum modern Castel Sant'Angelo until the Visigoth sack of the city in His campaigns against Germans and Sarmatians were also commemorated by a column and a temple built in Rome.

Marcus Aurelius was able to secure the succession for Commodus, whom he had named Caesar in and made co-emperor in , though the choice may have been unknowingly unfortunate. This decision, which put an end to the fortunate series of "adoptive emperors", was highly criticized by later historians since Commodus was a political and military outsider, as well as an extreme egotist with neurotic problems.

At the end of his history of Marcus Aurelius' reign, Cassius Dio wrote an encomium to the emperor, and described the transition to Commodus, to Dio's own times, with sorrow. But for my part, I admire him all the more for this very reason, that amid unusual and extraordinary difficulties he both survived himself and preserved the empire. Just one thing prevented him from being completely happy, namely, that after rearing and educating his person in the best possible way he was vastly disappointed in him. This matter must be our next topic; for our history now descends from a kingdom of gold to one of iron and rust, as affairs did for the Romans of that day.

It is possible that Marcus Aurelius chose Commodus simply in the absence of other candidates, or as a result of the fear of succession issues and the possibility of civil war. But whether or not Marcus Aurelius ought to have known this to be so, the rejections of his son's claims in favour of someone else would almost certainly involved one of the civil wars which were to proliferate so disastrous around future successions. While on campaign between and , Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations in Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. The original title of this work, if it had one, is unknown.

He had a logical mind and his notes were representative of Stoic philosophy and spirituality. Meditations is still revered as a literary monument to a government of service and duty. Modern figures such as Wen Jiabao and Bill Clinton are admirers of the book. It is not known how far Marcus Aurelius' writings were circulated after his death.

There are stray references in the ancient literature to the popularity of his precepts, and Julian the Apostate was well aware of Marcus Aurelius' reputation as a philosopher, though he does not specifically mention the Meditations. It was first published in in Zurich by Wilhelm Xylander ne Holzmann , from a manuscript reportedly lost shortly afterwards.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Marcus Annius Verus Antoninus Pius adoptive. Early life of Marcus Aurelius. Roman—Parthian War of — Marcus Aurelius receiving the submission of the vanquished, with raised vexillum standards. Marcus Aurelius celebrating his triumph over Rome's enemies in AD, riding in a quadriga chariot.

The consulate was a twin magistracy, and earlier emperors had often had a subordinate lieutenant with many imperial offices under Pius, the lieutenant had been Marcus. Many emperors had planned a joint succession in the past— Augustus planned to leave Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar as joint emperors on his death; Tiberius wished to have Gaius Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus do so as well; Claudius left the empire to Nero and Britannicus , imagining that they would accept equal rank—but all of these arrangements had ended in failure, either through premature death Gaius and Lucius Caesar or judicial murder Gemellus by Caligula and Britannicus by Nero.

The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

A date in autumn or spring is probable, and, given the normal seasonal distribution of Tiber flooding, the most probable date is in spring Platorius Nepos, son or grandson of the builder of Hadrian's Wall , whose name he shares. He probably had not been particularly incompetent. A more likely candidate for that incompetence is Nepos' likely predecessor, M. A military man and consul for , Priscus probably looked on the office as little more than "paid leave".

Neither Sidonius nor the Historia Augusta Birley's source are particularly reliable on second-century history. Most of the details are fabricated by the biographer himself, relying on nothing better than his own imagination. The thesis of single authorship was first proposed in H. On the HA Verus , see Barnes, 65— Birley, Marcus Aurelius , Birley takes the phrase horror imperii from HA Pert. David Magie, cited in Birley, Marcus Aurelius , , n.

Reign of Marcus Aurelius

Cambridge University Press, , Birley, Marcus Aurelius , ; "Hadrian to the Antonines", Eck, Die Satthalter der germ. Provinzen , 65ff. Aldrete, Floods of the Tiber in ancient Rome Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, , 30— Nepos , Archived 29 April at the Wayback Machine. Priscus ; Birley, Marcus Aurelius , Haines; Birley, Marcus Aurelius , Penguin, , — Magie; Birley, Marcus Aurelius , — On Lucius' voyage, see: Lucian, Imagines , Pro Imaginibus , passim.

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