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“Those who have forgotten . . .”:: idem. frg. B 71.
“They are at odds . . .”:: idem. frg. B 72.
“they find alien . . .”:: idem. frg. B 73.
“Our words and actions . . .”:: idem. frg. B 74.
4.48 Helike, Pompeii, Herculaneum:: Helike was a Greek city destroyed by an
earthquake and tidal wave in 373 B.C. Pompeii and its neighbor city Herculaneum were
destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
4.49a It’s unfortunate:: It has been plausibly suggested that this entry is a quotation
from a lost section of Epictetus’s Discourses.
4.50 Caedicianus, Fabius, Julian, Lepidus:: With the possible exception of
Caedicianus and Lepidus (see the Index of Persons), none of these figures can be
identified.
5.8 “the doctor”:: Literally, “Asclepius.” Patients sleeping in his temple sometimes
had dream visions of the god and received suggestions for treatment from him. But the
name might simply indicate a human physician.
5.10 a pervert:: The Greek word (used also in 6.34) is a contemptuous term
referring to the passive partner in homosexual intercourse; it has no exact English
equivalent (“pervert,” although overly broad, at least has the right tone). Marcus is
probably using it as a generalized term of abuse.
5.12 “so many goods . . .”:: Proverbial: the rich man owns “so many goods he has
no place to shit.” The saying is at least as old as the fourth-century B.C. comic poet
Menander, who quotes it in the surviving fragments of his play The Apparition.
5.29 If the smoke makes me cough:: The metaphor is drawn from Epictetus,
Discourses 1.25.18.
5.31 “wrong and unworthy . . .”:: Homer, Odyssey 4.690.
5.33 “gone from the earth . . .”:: Hesiod, Works and Days 197.
5.36 Not to be overwhelmed:: The remainder of this book is unintelligible in places,
perhaps because the end of the original papyrus roll suffered accidental damage. I have
divided the text into three separate sections, but without great confidence that this is
correct.
Like the old man:: The reference is obscure. A scene from a lost tragedy?
6.13 Crates on Xenocrates:: The meaning of this reference is unknown.
6.30 Take Antoninus as your model:: The sketch that follows seems to be a
preliminary version of the longer portrait at 1.16.
6.34 perverts:: See 5.10 note.
6.42 “those who sleep . . .”:: Heraclitus frg. B 75.
the bad line in the play:: Chrysippus frg. 1181 (= Plutarch, On Stoic Self-Contradictions 13f.).
Chrysippus compared the existence of evil to a deliberately bathetic line in a comedy—bad in itself,
but an essential part of a good play.
7.12 not:: The transmitted text reads “or,” but this can hardly be correct (compare
3.5).
7.15 Like gold or emerald or purple:: Compare Epictetus, Discourses 1.2.17–18:
“You see yourself as one thread in a garment . . . But I want to be the purple thread, the
small, glistening one that enhances the others.”
7.24 “ . . . “ or in the end is put out:: I have omitted a short phrase from which it is
impossible to extract any meaning.
7.31a “. . . all are relative . . .”:: A paraphrase of Democritus frg. B 9, in which
qualities like sweetness or bitterness are said to be “relative” or “conventional” rather
than inherent (what tastes sweet to one person may be bitter to another). Marcus
apparently sees the observation as compatible with the Stoic doctrine that “it’s all in