Meditations By Marcus Aurelius

Meditations is one of Marcus Aurelius’ few pieces of work. The book preserves information pertaining to the author, genre, intended audience and provenance of the text. The author, Marcus Aurelius, was born in born 121 CE into distinguished Roman family. His father died when he was young; consequently, he was adopted by his grandfather who was a relative of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Hadrian adored Marcus, and when he chose his heir, Antoninus Pius, he requested that Antoninus adopt Marcus and Lucius Verus as sons. During his childhood Marcus was educated by famous teachers, and he showed skill in philosophy. He gained power as Antoninus' successor and became emperor in 161 CE. He ruled with his brother, Lucis Versus, until Lucis died in 169. At that time he became the sole ruler of Rome until 175 CE when Avidius Cassius took control, and Marcus died in the spring of 180 CE. Near the time of his death, Marcus wrote Meditations. The composition took place during a campaign in central Europe between 171 and 175 CE. Meditations was never intended for publication because it was a private notebook. Marcus Aurelius had no other intended audience other than himself; therefore, there is no clear structure and no recognized genre of ancient writing. The notebook was originally written in Greek, and the purpose of writing it was to advise himself how best to live, and
Meditations is a collection of Marcus’ comments to himself, and these reflections preserved information related to the author and the origin of the text, and they also reflected events in the time