Marcus Aurelius Antoninus to Himself - College of Stoic Philosophers

2 MARCUS ANTONINUS BOOK
wait upon myself ;
to scout slander.
to mind my own business and
From Diognetus, nobility of aim :
disbelief in
sorcerers and wizards and their spells, in tales of
exorcism and such like : distaste for quail-fighting
and other such excitements : tolerance in argu-
ment : familiarisation with philosophy, and attend-
ance first on Bacchius, then on Tandasis and
Marcianus ; my
boyish essays and my aspirations
after the plank bed and skin, with the other
requirements of Greek training.
From Rusticus, I first conceived the need
of moral correction and amendment :
renounced
sophistic ambitions and essays on philosophy, dis-
courses provocative to virtue, or fancy portraitures
of the Sage or the philanthropist
: learned to
eschew rhetoric and poetry and fine language :
not to wear full dress about the house, or other
affectations of the kind : in my letters to keep to
the simplicity of his own, from Sinuessa, to my
mother : to be encouraging and conciliatory to-
wards any one who was offended or out of temper,
at the first offer of advances upon their side. He
taught me to read accurately, and not to be
satisfied with vague general apprehension ; and