'Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to live ... while you have life in you, while you still can, make yourself good.'

The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is one of the best-known and most popular works of ancient philosophy, offering spiritual reflections on how best to understand the universe and one's place within it. In short, highly charged comments, Marcus draws on Stoic philosophy to confront challenges that he felt acutely, but which are also shared by all human beings--facing the constant presence of death, making sense of one's social role, grasping the moral significance of the universe. They bring us closer to the personality of the emperor, who is often disillusioned with his own status and with human activities in general; they are both an historical document and a remarkable spiritual diary.

This translation by Robin Hard brings out the eloquence and universality of Marcus' thoughts. The introduction and notes by Christopher Gill take account of the most recent work on Marcus and place the Meditations firmly in the ancient philosophical context. A newly translated selection of Marcus' correspondence with his tutor Fronto broadens the picture of the emperor as a person and thinker.

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Features

• The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius is one of the best-known and most popular works of ancient philosophy, offering spiritual reflections on how best to understand the universe and one's place within it.
• Eloquent and accurate translation by Robin Hard based on the latest Greek edition.
• Introduction and notes by Christopher Gill take account of the most recent work on interpretation of the Meditations, and places it within its ancient philosophical context.
• Includes a newly translated selection of the correspondence between Marcus and his tutor Fronto illustrating Marcus' life and character.
• Index of themes, to enable readers to track recurrent motifs in the work.

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Contents
Introduction
Note on the Text
Select Bibliography
A Chronology of Marcus Aurelius
Meditations
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Book 10
Book 11
Book 12
Appendix: A Selection from the Correspondence between Marcus Cornelius Fronto and Marcus Aurelius
Explanatory Notes
List of Letters Translated
Index of Themes
Footnotes

Marcus Aurelius

Translated by Robin Hard and Introduction and Notes by Christopher Gill.

Robin Hard has previously collaborated with Christopher Gill on a Wordsworth edition of Marcus Aurelius and an Everyman edition of Epictetus. For Oxford World's Classics he has edited and translated Apollodorus' Library of Greek Mythology.

Christopher Gill has translated Plato's Symposium with an introduction and notes for Penguin Classics and is the author of Personality in Greek Epic, Tragedy and Philosophy: The Self in Dialogue (pbk 1998) and The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought (2008) both OUP.