The Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius - College of Stoic Philosophers

THE THOUGHTS OF
AURELIUS
MARCUS
THE FIRST
BOOK
FROM my grandfather Verus 1 [I learned] good morals
and the government of my temper.
2. From the reputation and remembrance of my
modesty and a manly character.
3. From my mother, 3 piety and beneficence, and
father, 2
abstinence, not only from evil
deeds, but even from evil
thoughts ; and further, simplicity in my way of living,
far removed from the habits of the rich.
4. From my great-grandfather, 4 not to have frequented
public schools, and to have had good teachers at home,
and to know that on such things a man should spend
liberally.
5. From my governor, to be neither of the green nor of
the blue party at the games in the Circus, nor a partizan
either of the Parmularius or the Scutarius at the gladiators
fights from him too I learned endurance of labour, and
;
1
Annius Verus was his grandfather s name. There is no verb in
this section connected with the word from, nor in the following
sections of this book ;
and it is not quite certain what verb should
be supplied. What I have added may express the meaning here,
though there are sections which it will not fit. If he does not mean to
say that he learned all these good things from the several persons
whom he mentions, he means that he observed certain good qualities
in them, or received certain benefits from them, and it is implied that
he was the better for it, or at least might have been ;
for it would
be a mistake to understand Marcus as saying that he possessed all the
virtues which he observed in his kinsmen and teachers.
J
His father s name was Annius Verus.
s
*
His mother was Domitia Calvilla, named also Lucilla.
Perhaps his mother s grandfather, Catilius Severus.
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