Who Was Marcus Aurelius?
With history looming over us during a period of unrest and decline across the globe, we’re constantly confronted with the question of how to best live our lives. Marcus Aurelius had an answer, but first, you might ask: Who was Marcus Aurelius? And how is he relevant to us?
As head of the Roman empire from the year 161 to 180 of the common era, Marcus Aurelius was a thoughtful and strategic emperor. Hailed as a benevolent ruler, he defended the empire with all his might. His success can arguably be attributed to the virtuous qualities he brought to his leadership and the ethically informed actions that he undertook to secure the empire.
Through careful examination of his innermost thoughts, the emperor was able to make wise choices in his political career. He further encouraged others to live an examined life. At a young age, Aurelius was influenced by Epictetus, a Greek Stoic who advocated making philosophy a way of life. Inspired by this, Aurelius later wrote his Meditations in the form of reflections on how to live his life meaningfully. In addition to drawing from the Discourses of Epictetus, he was inspired by Greek Stoicism as a whole. As such, his reflections in turn reflect principles pertaining to Stoic ethics.
So who was Marcus Aurelius? A philosopher-king whose insights and advice apply equally today as they did nearly 2,000 years ago. We’ll tell you why.
The Emperor's Advice
Originally left untitled, what became known as the Meditations started as a series of journal entries with the Greek heading Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν or Ta eis heauton, "things to one's self."
Addressing himself, Marcus Aurelius begins Book 2 of his Meditations with a reflection on challenging people. No doubt drawing from personal experience, he acknowledges that difficult encounters are avoidable and that one must come to accept their inevitability. Yet to grow hostile and hateful toward people who irk us does no good whatsoever. Such reactivity only obstructs our ability to cooperate, “for we have come into being to work together.”
Such is the emperor's advice, an emperor who had the privilege to say so. Surely his life conditions were far better than that of the average person at his time or even these days. To approach challenging people with such Stoic repose is not always possible for those of us who live under far more stressful circumstances than this king of kings.
Or is it?
The path of equanimity is accessible to all, although easier for some. Certainly, we have to acknowledge the emperor's fortune relative to his subjects. The life of Marcus Aurelius was no underdog success story. He was born into privilege, the son of a government father and heiress mother. He reigned during an era of relative peace and stability in the Roman Empire, which experienced far worse while he was not in charge. He was basically set for life.
Marcus Aurelius was no doubt better equipped, materially, to meet with challenges on account of his position as emperor. For comparison, imagine being a peasant under the Roman empire trying to cope with the inability to even feed oneself or one's family. This is no ancient myth. The same situation affects countless millions today. Yet regardless of class background and material resources, the emperor's advice on meeting with challenging people still applies.
The emperor's relatively luxurious life was not without its times of stress. Aurelius, however, developed a method to deal with the madness. His reflections may help us, too, realize that ultimately, each of us has the capacity to reorient our reactions to what happens to us. We may not be able to control the outer conditions, but we can control how we internally process them, enabling us to overcome hardship. It may be wise, after all, to heed the emperor's advice.
Working Together as One Body
Of course, as with nearly all statements of such magnitude and proportion, this is far easier said than done. If such advice were given to someone faced with crisis, the order would be rather tall. With the amount of distrust that circulates today, it remains seemingly impossible to look past someone who appears to insult or threaten us. To restrain oneself from reacting at all, in such a case, is quite the feat.
At the initial stages in the cultivation of non-reactivity, however, the emphasis is not on becoming a lifeless shell of a person. Indeed, Stoicism does not advocate this at all. Rather, one must become attuned to the interconnection that underlies it all.
“I, then, can neither be harmed by these people, nor become angry with one who is akin to me, nor can I hate him.” —Meditations 2.1 (translated by Christopher Gill)
Here we find the emperor reflecting on common humanity. When one is in a difficult situation, the first impulse is to react by fanning the flames of ill-will, or even acting out through hostility, largely as a means of defending oneself. Imagine someone attacking you verbally, insulting you to your face. Sadly, many of us don't need to imagine this, having instead experienced it directly. You start to feel the fire boiling inside the body. This negative feedback fuels a cycle of resentment towards the other. Such fire literally destroys us from the inside out.
Seeing the harm in this cycle, Marcus Aurelius reflected that others were like him, with similar habits of mind, similar fears and dreams. With this reflection guiding his actions, he refrained from the impulse to hate, instead cultivating equanimity. An equanimous mind is free from the burden of hatred. Such freedom relieves one of the fear of harm. In place of such fear, trust may grow.
“For we have come into being to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, or the two rows of teeth in our upper and lower jaws.” —Meditations 2.1 (translated by Christopher Gill)
Like a single body comprised of various parts, as individuals we belong to a greater whole. Indeed, this passage highlights the principle of unity in plurality. Without cooperation between the intersecting parts, the whole cannot function. If, for instance, we cannot collectively mobilize in the face of the climate crisis, instead seeing ourselves as separate from the environment and separate from each other, then we are responsible for our own undoing. The next passage further highlights the difference between working together as one body, which accords with nature, and working against one another, which goes against collective interests.
“To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature; and to be angry with another person and turn away from him is surely to work against him.” —Meditations 2.1 (translated by Christopher Gill)
Here, Aurelius draws attention to the importance of working together as one body by emphasizing social harmony. In fact, those who compete against each other push against the natural course, like the left foot kicking the right, or right fist punching the left. How could parts of the same whole treat each other in this way? It would surely be for their ultimate demise. While others throughout history have obviously disagreed, advocating competition and individualism, the emperor here makes a bold claim, one very few politicians of his time or of late would dare to make.
Fruits of Cooperation
A relatively stable empire was one obvious example of the fruits of cooperation for Aurelius, who refused to act on impulse. Rather than enter into wars needlessly or insult his opponents in order to bandage a bruised ego, the emperor returned again and again to the power of cooperation. Only when we can see past the urges of competition may we unshackle ourselves from the prison of the ego.
Perhaps the fruits of cooperation are available to us all. Indeed, there may be some universal truth in what Marcus Aurelius advises in terms of cooperation. Perhaps the emperor's advice is not merely for the privileged elite who are already well-off and whose “challenges” are but tiny drops in the sea relative to those less fortunate. Aurelius himself encountered a small dose of misfortune first-hand in the form of competition from rivals that plagued his career. Perhaps his Meditations helped him reinvigorate his commitment to cooperation, and could similarly serve anyone else willing to try them on for size.
Stay tuned for more reflections from the contemplative traditions. We intend to provide complementary discussions on these issues from multiple angles, like the many parts that comprise one body of knowledge. May we all find unity in plurality.
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