Marcus Aurelius - Meditations (tr.Martin Hammond) (Penguin Classics)

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS was born in AD 121, in the reign of the emperor Hadrian. At first he was called Marcus Annius Verus, but his well-born father died young and he was adopted, first by his grandfather, who had him educated by a number of excellent tutors, and then, when he was sixteen, by Aurelius Antoninus, his uncle by marriage, who had been adopted as Hadrians heir, and had no surviving sons of his own. Aurelius Antoninus changed Marcus name to his own and betrothed him to his daughter, Faustina. She bore fourteen children, but none of the sons survived Marcus except the worthless Commodus, who eventually succeeded Marcus as emperor.

On the death of Antoninus in 161, Marcus made Lucius Verus, another adopted son of his uncle, his colleague in government. There were thus two emperors ruling jointly for the first time in Roman history. The Empire then entered a period troubled by natural disasters, famine, plague and floods, and by invasions of barbarians. In 168, one year before the death of Verus left him in sole command, Marcus went to join his legions on the Danube. Apart from a brief visit to Asia to crush the revolt of Avidius Cassius, whose followers he treated with clemency, Marcus stayed in the Danube region and consoled his somewhat melancholy life there by writing a series of reflections which he called simply To Himself. These are now known as his Meditations, and they reveal a mind of great humanity and natural humility, formed in the Stoic tradition, which has long been admired in the Christian world. He died, of an infectious disease, perhaps, in camp on 17 March AD 180.

MARTIN HAMMOND was born in 1944 and educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford. He graduated in Literae Humaniores in 1966, and since leaving Oxford has taught in England and in Greece. He was Head of Classics at Eton College for six years from 1974, and subsequently Master in College. In 1984 he was appointed Headmaster of City of London School, and thereafter was Headmaster of Tonbridge School for fifteen years from 1990. He is married, with two children. He has also translated The Iliad (Penguin, 1987) and The Odyssey (2000), and is now working on a translation of Thucydides.

DISKIN CLAY is Professor of Classical Studies at Duke University. His BA degree is from Reed College, in Portland, Oregon (1960), and his PhD from the University of Washington in Seattle (1967). He has taught at Reed College, Haverford College, The Johns Hopkins University, The City University of New York, and in France, Greece and Italy. His main publications have been in the field of ancient Greek philosophy. His Lucretius and Epicurus appeared in 1983; Paradosis and Survival: Three Chapters in the History of Epicurean Philosophy in 1998; Four Island Utopias (with Andrea Purvis) in 1999; and Platonic Questions: Dialogues with the Silent Philosopher in 2000. His study of Archilochos Heros: The Cult of Poets in the Greek States appeared in 2004. He is now working on two studies of Dante and his influence: Dantes Parnassus: The Pagan Poetry of the Commedia and The Art of Hell.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Translated with Notes by MARTIN HAMMOND
With an Introduction by DISKIN CLAY

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First published in Penguin Classics, 2006
1

Translation and notes copyright Martin Hammond, 2006
Introduction copyright Diskin Clay, 2006
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EISBN: 9781101487518