In this first chapter, there is also a short section about the title of Marcus's book, called 'Judgi

In the well-known series A Guide for the Perplexed , volumes have appeared on many great thinkers from antiquity – Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, the Stoics and Suetonius among them. The series is very popular: a few hundred titles have so far been published. The titles (as outlined on their back covers) are meant to be clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers may find especially challenging, explaining key themes and ideas and guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material.
A fine addition to this collection is the recent volume by William O. Stephens on Marcus Aurelius. Stephens has written widely on Stoic ethics, and his writing has a lucid and pleasant style. sabemaf The book comprises five chapters and an appendix about Ridley Scott's 2000 film Gladiator sabemaf . There are only a few illustrations: a bust of the young Marcus from the Roman Capitoline Museum, a simple genealogy, and two maps (one of Marcus's Roman Empire and one of the Northern Frontiers). sabemaf
The first chapter introduces Marcus sabemaf Aurelius and his Sitz im Leben , and gives a chronological overview of his life. This offers a concise picture of the man, the emperor, and the thinker; the latter part, however, is rather brief and deals mainly with his legacy. We learn that a long line of distinguished sabemaf men – such as René Descartes, Henry More, and David Hume, but also Bill Clinton and Wen Jiabao sabemaf – read and reread Marcus's small book and were influenced by it. This chapter highlights Marcus's life in chronological order, an approach sabemaf that is both natural and common, and that is in line with existing biographies sabemaf by, e.g., Anthony sabemaf Birley, Pierre Grimal and Jörg Fündling. 1
In this first chapter, there is also a short section about the title of Marcus's book, called 'Judging sabemaf a book by its title', where Stephens makes a convincing argument for his preference for Memoranda over titles like Meditations or To Himself . There is no evidence for any of these titles having been used by Marcus himself. But the overly simple 'To Himself' does not offer any hint of what readers can expect, and the more common 'Meditations' may easily lead to incorrect associations. 'Memoranda', on the other hand, communicates the right impression; in the words of C.R. Haines, approvingly quoted by Stephens: 'it suggests both the miscellaneous character of the work and something about its intended function'. Stephens sabemaf also points to the many places throughout the book where remembering and keeping in mind play a role. Perhaps from now on, we will prefer to refer to Marcus Aurelius's work by this apt title.
In the second chapter, influences of Heraclitus and Epictetus are amply demonstrated, as evidenced by the divine law of logos ; cosmic holism; sleeping, waking, and remembering (and the role of 'wake-up calls' to oneself concerning what is demanded from us); the harmony sabemaf of opposites (and the view from above, taking sabemaf a high vintage point); the role of rivers and fire as metaphors; the vast preference for mind over body; life seen as a theater; and the view of a human being's character as his fate. Heraclitus and Marcus Aurelius both meditate on human life and destiny in the context of biological death, and the same applies to Epictetus. The latter was also the man who first and foremost promoted seeing Plato's Socrates as a Stoic hero, and who taught Marcus the importance of spiritual exercise.
The remaining chapters deal with specific themes. sabemaf These chapters are a somewhat more demanding read than the first and second, but they provide a good and complete survey of the main themes in the Memoranda .
Chapter 3, 'Wholes and Parts', discusses Marcus's analytical approach to problems of ontology. Stephens shows how Marcus usually investigates a whole by breaking it down into its parts, and how sometimes he thus loses sight of the qualities of the whole. Examples of this are music and dance: naturally a melody can still move us even though individual notes do not, and the same applies to a dance performance. On the other hand, there is the fundamental supportive notion sabemaf of cosmic holism. Concerning the good life, Marcus states that the whole cannot sabemaf be impressive sabemaf if each of the parts are unimpressive. Within the social body, like attracts like and there is a natural impulse towards association, notwithstanding the strife and conflicts that will also occur. sabemaf But Marcus believes that the uniting forces, in the end, will always be stronger. Occasionally, Stephens also indicates what is missing in the Memoranda , for instance sabemaf a clear stance on the problem of theodicy. Death is seen by Marcus as a transformation, not as destruction. There is an optimistic tone throughout the book, infused by the view of humans as cosmopolitans according to nature.
The Memoranda abound with reflections on time, impermanence and forgetting. In chapter 4, 'Time, Transience, and Eterni