The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

30 LIFE OF THE EMPEROR
scholar Saumaise (Salmasius), with whom Gataker corre
sponded and received help from him for his edition of
Antoninus. The Greek text has also been edited by J. M.
Schultz, Leipzig, 1802, 8vo; and by the learned Greek
Adamantinus Corals, Paris, 1816, 8vo. The text of
Schultz was republished by Tauchnitz, 1821.
There are English, German, French, Italian, and Spanish
translations of M. Antoninus, and there may be others. I
have not seen all the English translations. There is one
by Jeremy Collier, 1702, 8vo, a most coarse and vulgar
copy of the original. The latest French translation by
Alexis Pierron in the collection of Charpentier
is better
than Dacier s, which has been honoured with an Italian
version (Udine, 1772). There is an Italian version (1675)
which I have not seen. It is
by a cardinal. A man
illustrious in the church, the Cardinal Francis Barberini
the elder, nephew of Pope Urban VIII, occupied the last
years of his life in translating into his native language the
thoughts of the Roman emperor, in order to diffuse among
the faithful the fertilizing and vivifying seeds. He
dedicated this translation to his soul, to make it,
as he says in his energetic style, redder than his purple
at the sight of the virtues of this Gentile (Pierron,
Preface).
I have made this translation at intervals after having
used the book for many years. It is made from the Greek,
but I have not always followed one text : I have occasion
ally compared other versions. I made this translation
for my own use, because I found that it was worth the
labour. It may be useful to others also and at last I have
determined to print it, though the original is both very
difficult to understand and still more difficult to translate,
it is not possible that I have always avoided error. But
I believe that I have not often missed the meaning, and
those \vlio will take the trouble to compare the translation
with the original should not hastily conclude that I am